Clichés Abound in Pop Music

In the past I have argued that popular music is to culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries what poetry was to culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Pop-song refrains become a part of our common cultural vocabulary. As much as I love popular music, I am growing tired of lyrics plagued with clichés. For example, a quick listen to the new Weezer album, Make Believe (which is better than average lyric-wise), revealed the following:

"You are taller than a mountain, deeper than the sea."

"One more dream vanished up in smoke."

"I tried my best; I gave my all; sometimes my best wasn't good enough for you."

"You make things all right when I'm feeling blue."

". . . the one thing that brings light to all my darkness."

"There is no other one who can take your place."

"I have always hurt the one that I love."

More on this topic to come . . .