Saturday, June 05, 2010

I Love It When Songs Use Bad Grammar

I do, I love it when songs use bad grammar. I love when a wordsmith can take a word or a phrase and apply it to something that it doesn't quite fit to, but in the context it just seems to work. I also don't mind it when you desperately need a phrase that might just be a little bit of bad grammar in order to complete a rhyme or a wordplay or a thought. Go ahead and use it.
What I don't like at all is when the lyrical geniuses and word magicians of the pop worlds use bad grammar unintentionally, or when changing it into good grammar would not have made the slightest difference to the cadence, rhyme or thought, and yet they still deviate. For that there is no point and no excuse. Here are some bad examples I would like to highlight:

Lady Gaga -- You and me could write a bad romance. (Or maybe it would be a good romance, just with a lot of bad grammar.)
Snow Patrol -- If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me..? (Kudos for having gotten it right one out of three times.)
Julie Greeneyes -- In comparison to what You do, my every hope and dreams come true. (Would saying, "my every hope and dream comes true," have made that much worse a comparison to what You do?)
Joan Osborne -- What if God was one of us. (If He were, He might too have been appalled at the grammar in His song.)
Jason Mraz -- May I suggest you get the best for nothing less than you and I. (This from the guy who wrote an entire ode to You and I, both, and managed to get it right in that one. Hint: remove all extra filling and you will find an egregious suggestion to obtain the best for a certain "I".)
Sam Fuller -- This is the start when only come from I. (If that sentence even made sense, I would then begin to seriously criticize the grammar.)
Everclear -- I will buy you a new car, perfect, shiny and new. (The grammar is fine, I'm just still not clear on if the car will be new.)
Bryan Adams -- But that’d change if she ever found out about you and I. (Back of the class, you, with Mraz, Gaga, and Fuller.)


Positive Highlight Surprise GOOD Example of the Night:
Ke$ha! -- I don't care who you are, in this bar it only matters who I ...is. (Haha, classic. That, I love.)


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4 Comments:

At 8:08 pm, Blogger Masaya Rider said...

ha! I always wrote songs with the rule of thumb that there is no rule of thumb.

 
At 8:37 pm, Blogger Sam Fuller said...

HAHAHA! I would have never guessed u'd put me up as on a list of your "lyrical geniuses"...and especially that you'd be referencing a song my brother wrote as mine. :D I just mixed the thing. Just you wait til u see a song I actually WROTE BY MYSELF!!! OMG! U'D BE APPALLED!

Kudos, kiddo, for the excellent post.

 
At 2:44 pm, Anonymous Nina said...

Oh but you cannot forget Timbaland's "The way I are"
-classic!

 
At 2:54 pm, Blogger Amaranthine said...

yes, there are many examples of metrosexuals trying 2 sound ghetto, ke$ha was just my personal favorite

 

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