The lyrics of a song define everything about it. Sometimes, the musical score and the tunes playing in the background can dominate the lyrics. Therefore, the listeners tend to pay less attention to the lyrics. How a particular song is worded can make or mar the meaning of what it means to its target audience. Today, we have censor boards and authorities who rate movies and let the hoi polloi know what category of movies are fine for kids, families and adults to watch.
This demarcation becomes very tough and cumbersome when we take the lyrics of a song into account. Songs take almost no effort to make and they just need a person’s good voice and a rhythm to be set to music. However, sound judgment is the prerogative of the person who writes the lyrics and the singer who breathes life into the song. If we could vote and get a few well-known names in the music industry who are already established to form an official council for judging the lyrics of all these songs, that would be an excellent idea.
The panel must include musicians, singers and directors who are open to all kinds of music and any kind of language used, but at the same time can be trusted to exercise some degree of control when it comes to the lyrics of the songs given to them for their approval or their rejection, as the case may be. They need not necessarily be from the upper echelon of the society. They need to be rational individuals who like music and understand where they need to draw the line when it comes to the songs being heard by children, adolescents, etc.
To sum it up, we must allow some degree of freedom and be a little lenient to promote creativity and talent among the masses and for the masses. Who can be the best judge should be left to the people to choose from their icons. References M. William Krasilovsky, Sidney Shemel, John M. Gross, Jonathan Feinstein (1997): This business of music: the definitive guide to the music industry