Quote:
Originally Posted by william z
...I doubt if very many people actually read song lyrics, they listen to the words as they are sung and the music.
Or are you saying that music is literature?
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I am assuming that you are asking if I think music can be literature rather than music is literature. In which case yes, lyrics can be literature if they meet the tests of being writing of artistic merit. To not accept that raises many contradictions such as where writing of artistic merit is later set to music then one would have to believe that setting to music kills literature.
Just one example is
The Lords Prayer which is a prayer in the Bible, a book that is widely agreed as being of much literary merit. The Prayer appears in the Bible as writing of artistic merit, however the intention is that it is to be spoken; and over time there have been many times where it has been sung (and it may have been an original intention that it was acceptable to sing it as well as speak it, no one knows now).
One may then question at what point does the Prayer lose its place in literature. Is that lost even when read to oneself as words in the Bible because it was written with the intention of it being spoken, or is that lost when it is spoken, or is it lost when it is sung? To my mind (and for the sake of clarity I am only using this as a well known example, I am not religious) it remains through all three of these renditions as very fine literature, whether that be in the King James version, or a respected modern version such as the ESV.
Of course, the same can be asked of the many other works of literary merit that have been written, then later spoken (as works are) and then later sung (as some are). At what point do they lose their merit? Are works that are written without the thought of them later being spoken or being sung somehow inoculated against losing their literary merit?
Regarding your comment expressing your doubts
if very many people actually read song lyrics, then in the case of Dylan's lyrics I think you are due for a surprise as they are very widely read and discussed. Have a browse around the internet. Due to his popularity over a long period of time I would not be surprised if more people have read his lyrics than the numbers who have read the words of most other (perhaps any) previous Nobel Literature Laureates.
In the end your have your view and I don't think it will change. From my own point of view I have no difficulty accepting fine lyrics as being part of our literary heritage. So I will leave it at that.