“Conscious” and “Meaningful” music

I understand that art should have meaning, but I find that people tend to put meaning above sound in music. People will tend to rank albums that are “meaningful and impactful” above albums that sound way better and have more replay value.

I feel like music should focus on sound before meaning. Not totally neglect it, but you should find away to make music sound as good as you can first and then add meaning. I mean it’s what separates music from every other art form. Every art form has meaning, and if you want meaning in the lyrics, then poetry would be better. You should be able to portray emotions through delivery, motifs, melodies, and progressions, not rely completely on just lyrics.

It’s like the “modern art” that isn’t impressive at all, but is symbolic. It should be so straight forward what the art is trying to convey, and on top of that, it should be impressive.

I’m gonna call out 2 albums, To Pimp A Butterfly, and Alligator Bites Never Heal.

These 2 albums are praised for their “meaning and symbolism” but first aren’t even that impressive, as they don’t do anything new, nor does Doechii or Kendrick have a sonically pleasing rap voice. Second the production is nothing new either.

If you want to look at something that I consider the best album of aot, I would say The Weeknd’s trilogy, as it features groundbreaking production and engineering, emotional and insanely impressive vocals, and on top of that, adds a message to his songs. He didn’t just skip straight to the “message” and opted for the music to sound good first, which is how I think music should be made, not like poetry.