In recent months, as my new girlfriend Stacey has gotten to know me and my hearing loss better, I've become more aware of how many old songs I have no idea what most of the lyrics are. In many cases, I know only a few words and phrases. The way my hearing has been since birth is that the human voice sounds muddy to me. I wear hearing aids, but for the most part, they only amplify sound. They don't correct sound the way glasses correct vision. Most popular music from the late 1960s through now is recorded and mixed in a way that the music drowns out the vocals for me, or the vocals have audio processing done in such a way that I can't understand most of it. In order for me to know what is being sung in most cases, I need to read the lyrics. I do pick up key phrases and chorus parts that are repeated.
So, one might wonder, if I can't understand what's being sung, how do I enjoy what I'm hearing? There are two parts to the answer. The first is that a lot of recorded music from the 50's and early 60's emphasizes the vocals over the music. This is one reason I enjoy music from that time period so much. I can actually understand what's being sung.
The other way I enjoy music is by listening to the instruments themselves and how the voice fits in with them. The voices can be singing anything; English, other languages, scat, doo wop, backup oohs and ahs; it all sounds the same to me. When it's sung well with good harmony, the voices are just another instrument to my ears and I am in melodic heaven. I am just as happy listening to instrumental music as I am music with vocals.
What makes a song stand out to me above others are catchy riffs, hooks and rhythms. Pop music producers were notorious for coming up with these in the 50's and 60's for commercial and marketing purposes, but it's another reason why I love the music of that era so much. The guitar licks of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" are probably one of the best known hooks of all time. Mix that with a solid beat, and I have a catchy rhythm that makes me want to dance. I know Mick is singing something about how he "can't get no satisfaction," but to this date, I still don't know what the rest of the words are to that song because I've never looked them up. Yep, it's true. Welcome to my life as a hard of hearing person. But I'll get up and dance to it any time because of the rhythmic beat and catchy riffs.
A good rhythm will make me want to dance. That's another factor in what makes me like a song. Some examples of songs with catchy rhythms that I like to dance to are "At the Hop," "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground," "Heart of Glass," "Shut Up and Dance," and "Loverboy." I can certainly follow the bah, bah, bah, bah vocal harmony buildup of "At the Hop," but don't ask me what the lyrics of the other songs are because I have no idea.
I am equally as happy going to an Oktoberfest, which always has danceable music. The fact that much of the words are sung in Germany are no more foreign to me as most songs that I can't understand in English.
One reason I really appreciate Stacey is that she goes out of her way to find out if I'm hearing things. When we go to concerts, she will ask me if I can understand the lyrics. Usually the answer is no. But I remind her that this is how it has been all my life and I am used to it. I do get benefit at Christian concerts that she likes to go to because they display the lyrics on a large screen. Got to get the message out, I guess, lol.
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