Music is, as with all art, poetic. What does make it poetic though?

The music, lyrics, or both? Well, obviously both as they often compliment each other and the music often acts as the emotional amplifier for the lyrics. Metal and punk is often loud and angry sounding because many songs are about something that makes them angry. “Tornado of Souls” by Megadeth is a song about about frontman Dave Mustaine’s feelings following his divorce. The song is sweeping and ever changing, mimicking the unpredictable and brutal nature of storms. Of course, you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t listen to the lyrics.

OutKast’s soul pop song, “Hey Ya!,” address that idea directly by creating an upbeat song clashing against lyrics about loveless relationships and whether to stay together or not. The singing is upbeat as well in an experiment to see who in the audience is really paying attention and who just wants to dance. The song shines a light on the problem with modern pop music in general. Pop has become meticulously designed to be enjoyable to the largest demographic possible in the least amount of time. There is nothing about these heavily manufactured songs to make them stand the test of time. Most modern pop music is definitely not poetic. That can betrue for any genre though, but pop reigns supreme at being mindless music.

The most poetic genre in my eyes has to be metal. Not only does this genre really dig down into someone’s soul and unabashedly looks at the truly ugly side of it (like Korn), but its roots are directly connected to classical music. Beethoven and Metallica share a lot more music theory than you’d think. Just check out Metallica’s album S&M to see how well a metal band and an orchestra can blend together.