A music statement that became a rant

 had a customer tell me once that rock music was body music, hypnotic in rhythm and not much about substance. While I don't agree completely with the statement it made me think about how much we actually listen to lyrics in a song. A lot of times I think we look at music in parts, we get lost in the beat and don't really listen to what these people are singing about. I often get told the music I listen to has no merit, no value, that it's just noise and no substance. Listening to what is considered "popular" music on the radio and such, I really challenge some of those naysayers to listen to the lyrics and try to tell me the that again. I've been listening to a lot of punk and lately I laugh at how dismissive people are of a genre about thinking for yourself, not bowing down to government or even peer pressure, of being what you want to be in spite of societal pressure. Bands like NoFx, Bad Religion, Authority Zero, The Offspring, etc. Instead I am told that this is crap and that current music with lyrics about dancing in a club, having sex with total strangers or being a whore, partying every weekend from people like Ke$ha, Katy Perry, and Kanye West has more substance. I say, you can dislike my music but you cannot dismiss it, listen to those lyrics and realize they sing about real and relevant things. Bands like TooL, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, etc are actually singing about something real instead of arrogant, self-centered bullshit. I too have my guilty pleasure music and freely admit there are bands that lyrically are ridiculous but have catchy riffs or whatever. But I recognize that fact and don't try to say I am somehow better than you because of my tastes. Go back and listen to all those classic songs, see how much actual substance is in the music we consider to be some of the all time greatest songs. I bet you would be surprised and perhaps listening to lyrics in music might change your mind about music you dismiss as "childish".