Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Is music the exception?

Song lyrics can be a notorious breeding ground of poor grammar. Take for instance Every Little Thing She Does is Magic by the Police from the album Synchronicity


Sting sings:


"Every little thing she does is magic, everything she do just turns me on"


Such a glaring error is like listening to nails on a chalkboard or worse, the sound of someone eating a banana in a quiet room. 


But are the grammatical errors that pop up in music the same as ones that pop up in  written word? 


Even AC/DC has blatant disregard for grammar in the song Let There be Rock from Back in Black:


"Let there be drums, and there was drums"  


With that said, is it ok for musicians to use their artistic license to butcher the English language? Contributers on the site www.amiright.com don't seem to think so. 


Bands from Aerosmith to Black Sabbath, from Nancy Sinatra to Cypress Hill have errors in their lyrics but who am I to argue with millions of album sales. 









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