Song grammar
By stuckonu
@stuckonu (726)
Philippines
January 18, 2012 6:50pm CST
There was a time when songs are like poetry with music - grammatically correct and sometimes with rhyming ends. However, musicians seem to no longer make those kind of music. I am not a linguist nor a perfectionist but basic English grammar are taught in gradeschools, even in a third world country like mine. So, it's quite a shock to hear people who uses English as their native language singing songs that defies the law of basic English grammar. :)
The most common mistake is the double negative sentence structure (or whatever that was called, again I'm not a linguist). For example, most songs have lyrics like "I don't (blah blah) no more" which is incorrect because that would mean the opposite. So, if a song said "I just don't love you no more," that would simply mean "I love you" (because the person is saying that he/she stops not loving the other person) or if the lyrics said "I don't wanna hear about him no more," it means that he/she wanted to hear about him. Do you get my point? The lyrics should be "I just don't love you anymore" or "I don't wanna hear about him anymore" and so forth.
What grammatically incorrect song can you recall?
1 person likes this
8 responses
@maezee (41985)
• United States
19 Jan 12
Anything that's rap is generally not grammatically correct. It doesn't bother me that much - I dont' really expect music to be any other way, really. I mean... Sometimes it's more catchy for it to not make grammatical sense. The only thing that bugs me is when people, in real life (out of songs) kind of dumb themselves down to say things the wrong way (IE: "I ain't funna pay for that!! etc). LOL. That really bugs me, when you know people KNOW what they're saying makes them sound really really undereducated.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
19 Jan 12
Hi maezee: Actually rap songs are the best example of this practice. For me this could be really annoying when a singer is always doing this. I would say in the best case that he/ she is not a good songwriter when he/ she needs to write this way to make the lyrics look catchy.
ALVARO
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
19 Jan 12
Do you consider there to be a period in music when this was not the case? Popular music lyricists have long played around with grammar for effect and song structure..rock 'n roll and blues among others wouldn't be the same without this ...I have the Rolling Stones' "(I can't get no) Satisfaction in mind as an example...
@alicia812 (646)
• Australia
19 Jan 12
Hi stuckonu. I absolutely understand your point.
Reading your post though made me laugh because
you stated every point exactly the way I want to
say them. This post speaks my mind. I am not a
music minded person, but whenever I notice songs
with such lyrics I get so annoyed. My English is
not perfect, but I would always remember the rule
of redundancy when it comes to English grammar.
Here in Australia, I notice a lot of people committing
the same mistakes: 'I don't like it no more'; or 'I don't
have nothing to say'; or 'more better' (instead of much
better)...not only in songs but in conversations as well.
I can't recall specific titles of songs with grammatically
incorrect lyrics, as I am not really music-minded.
But I have noticed lots of them before.
@stuckonu (726)
• Philippines
19 Jan 12
I work in a call center that caters to Australian customers and I can attest that Australian English is ...uhm...weird, to say the least! :) Not just the grammatically incorrect statements but there are words and phrases that I only encounter speaking with an Australian. Woop woop! :)
@luckygrey67 (765)
• Indonesia
19 Jan 12
Yeah,I'm music minded but the grammar mistake is not bother me as long as I enjoy the music. I think almost all the music, rock, rap, pop alternative, they don't care about grammar. Even here, Indonesia musics also never notice the grammar lyrics.
@cearn25 (3452)
• Philippines
19 Jan 12
It is really funny reading your discussion about the grammar in the songs. Because of that I remember the things I have learned in my English 3 and English 20 classes. I just come to realize the grammatical error which have been committed from the songs like you mentioned. And yeah, I think there are still many songs that are having grammar problem. Maybe the composers doesn't mind the mistake.
@thewonderboy (7501)
• India
21 Jan 12
Hi stuckonu, I am a good listener of music. I love musics a lot. Some of my favorite music really cools my heart. I don't think that the music should have followed all the rules and grammatically correct. Anyway, I enjoy the song if it has good tone and a good meaning 
. 
. 
@beamer88 (4259)
• Philippines
19 Jan 12
I've noticed that in a lot of song. I can't recall though the titles of these, but they're a lot. Sometimes I wonder if they're passing colloquialism on for bad grammar. I guess they prefer the melodious sound of grammatically incorrect lines than monotonous correct ones.
@starsailover (7829)
• Mexico
19 Jan 12
Hi stuckonu: Oh my God I completely agree with you on this point. What a big problem and the worst is that people like them. I remember a song who conjugates the verb to be: I are 
and the singer was a native English speaker. It's just ridiculous. But this same is happening with my language. Now we see more and more songs using offensive language but also not using correctly the basic grammar one should know.
ALVARO
and the singer was a native English speaker. It's just ridiculous. But this same is happening with my language. Now we see more and more songs using offensive language but also not using correctly the basic grammar one should know.
ALVARO