Most and least sophisticated lyrics by UK's best selling bands

Forostar

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
I wonder if Maiden did not sell enough, or perhaps they didn't end in the top nor at the bottom.

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Depeche Mode have the most sophisticated lyrics out of any of the UK’s best selling bands .

The 80s electronic band came top after the Mirror’s data unit analysed their lyrics and calculated how many years fans would need to spend in education to understand them.

The average Depeche Mode song required 10.3 years in education - the equivalent to a 15-year-old.

This was higher than legendary UK music acts such as The Beatles, David Bowie and Queen.

(more in article)

Most:
Band // Years of Education Required to Understand Average Song // Letters Per Word
Depeche Mode // 10.3 // 3.8
Elton John // 9.3 // 3.7
Dire Straits // 9.2 // 3.7
Pet Shop Boys // 9.1 // 3.7
David Bowie // 8.7 // 3.7
Rod Stewart // 8.7 // 3.7
Robbie Williams // 8.6 // 3.6
Ub40 // 8.5 // 3.7
Queen // 8.5 // 3.7
Def Leppard // 8.5 // 3.6

Least:
Band // Average Readability Score // Letters Per Word
Led Zeppelin // 4.4 // 3.5
The Who // 5.3 // 3.8
Smiths // 5.5 // 3.6
Beatles // 5.7 // 3.5
Jethro Tull // 6.1 // 4
Joy Division // 6.5 // 3.9
Fleetwood Mac // 6.5 // 3.6
The XX // 6.7 // 3.5
Paul McCartney (solo) // 6.7 // 3.6
Coldplay // 6.9 // 3.6
 
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More great bands on the least sophisticated list. ;)

Then again...
One of Depeche Mode’s most sophisticated songs was Macro, the opening lines to which are: “Overflowing senses, heightened awareness, I hear my blood flow, I feel its caress.

“Whispering cosmos talking right to me, unlimited, endless, God breathing through me.”
Click to expand...

That is terribly sophisticated, indeed.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
I'm no Depeche Mode fan but the fragment you quoted was interesting. Some clever rhymes, and an interesting structure. What song is that?
Click to expand...

It's stated in the quote, it's from 'Macro'.

Martin Gore is a pretty good lyricist, sophisticated or not. Lyrics have always been a strong suit for Depeche Mode.
 
I'm not saying it's a bad lyric as such, just that a large vocabulary doesn't make a song sophisticated. Take someone like Neil Peart; he likes to use a lot of words but much of his stuff is simplistic and fairly ridiculous, even though it may seem very complex at first glance. The sentiment behind that Depeche Mode song doesn't strike me as much deeper than, say, "I Can't Explain".

(I understand that this list is meant as a bit of a joke, but even so.)
 
It's more than a large vocab. He's structuring his lines with internal rhymes. Like I've been talking about in the post your own lyrics thread, that lyric sings when you read it on the page. It's musical of its own accord. The large vocab helps, but there's much more skill here than just using a thesaurus and rhyming dictionary.
 
Well, this reinforces what I've been saying since the first time I heard Depeche Mode in university. "That is the most pretentious crap I've ever heard."
 
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