A tribute to “boring” songs’ socioeconomic realism, ranging from The Kinks to The Streets
Most chart performers are happy enough to write songs about their opulent lifestyles, loves, or breakups. Consider Prada by Cassö, RAYE, and D-Block Europe, which is now in the top 10. The title suggests that it talks on high-end automobiles, hotels, and clothing brands. Conversely, other musicians content themselves with rather less glitzy fare—songs about the commonplace, with lyrics about the commonplace and trivial.
Literary and social realism have long been important instruments for describing people’s daily lives, and they have been a mainstay of popular music for many years. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, which they released in 1968, was maybe the first record to deliberately focus on the commonplace, everyday parts of life as experienced by the typical British citizen.
It was as far removed as one could get from the psychedelic introspection that was prevalent in the highest-selling bands of the era (headed, naturally, by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band of The Beatles). With songs like strawberry jam, draught beer, custard pies, and Desperate Dan, composer Ray Davies of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society relished in describing the little pleasures in life. These songs offered listeners a glimpse into a world that they could identify with and understand.
The Streets to The Smiths
A trend was launched by The Kinks. The Smiths decided to go for a name as unglamorous and plain as possible in the 1980s, hoping to project an image of themselves as the opposite of the Spandau Ballets and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Darks of the music industry. “It was the most ordinary name and I thought it was time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces,” lead vocalist Morrissey said in an interview.
Morrissey’s songs depicted a world of high-rise estates, highway service stations, and leased rooms, which contrasted sharply with the gloss and glamour the New Romantic bands were singing about. Morrissey was writing about ordinary, everyday situations.
The Streets’ 2002 debut album Original Pirate Material was released into a UK music market dominated by corny lyrics like “I’m flying high ’cause your love’s made me see” and “Baby I would climb the Andes solely to count the freckles on your body,” but The Smiths offered a counterpoint to the pomposity of early 1980s music. Mike Skinner, the band’s lead vocalist, preferred “to write good lyrics about contemporary British life.”
His lyrics about journey cards for the London Underground, Playstations, Carling cans, Smirnoff Ice bottles, smoke-filled jeans, McDonald’s, and KFC captured the real lives that many of us led.
Songs with commonplace lyrics gained even more significance in 2020 when COVID swept the globe and we were confined to our homes, staring out of our windows at a world that was forbidden.
We couldn’t go to bars, so did we really want to hear Ed Sheeran brag about finding love there or Dua Lipa blabber about how she was dancing the night away while we couldn’t go to clubs? Many of us truly wanted lyrics that expressed support for our predicament and accurately depicted the lifestyles we were leading—minus the glitz, glamour, and gloss.
lyrics to songs from 2021, such as “Who’s That, What’s That?” by Niko BAccepted a
Paul McCartney, the master of love songs, agreed, thinking in the song When Winter Comes (2021) that he needs to “dig a drain by the carrot patch” and “fix the fence.” Not a trace of “patron,” “drinking by the pool,” or “margarita rounds” (sorry, Drake).
The banal’s future
The common lyric remains relevant even after The Kinks, who stood out as champions of the common man, left the scene sixty years ago. After a ten-year break, Mike Skinner is returning to the music scene as The Streets, and Leeds’ Yard Act, the latest challengers to the banal kingdom, will soon release their second album, Where’s My Utopia.
The way the band has captured contemporary British living in their songs has won them recognition. Featuring words such as “We’re gonna
Undoubtedly, love, breakup, and extravagant songs will always be the most popular on the charts, but somewhere there appears to always be space for something a little more commonplace.
