Often, music is one of those topics that comes up during a couple's courtship. Someone's familiarity with, or exposure to, secular music and media probably speaks to his/her hashkafos and/or religiosity, but that's a different discussion. (I feel like it's individual and means something different to everyone. Context and all that.)
Recently someone was relating their personal take on secular music and media, and they were saying that why do you want to expose yourself to things that are foreign to your way of living, being, doing –– what you can have or can want. I don't think I have to give examples here, just pay attention to about every song that plays next time you're anywhere.
It's not even a frum thing; it's about setting yourself up for success. You can definitely limit your exposure to only "kosher" things, and that's one way about it. There are other concerns too even within "kosher" ideas and "kosher" lyrics. I'm not going to touch that here though.
As a writer (and romantic) I appreciate good lyrics, ones that are lyrical and poetic, and lyrics that speak to me. Truthfully, I'll often notice how I can relate most song lyrics to something in my life or what I'm thinking or going through anyway, but still, more complex diction seems to speak to me more.
I'm not super musical, but repeating words and repetitive melodies (when there are actual melodies that is) grate on my nerves, and therefore I'm not the biggest fan of Jewish music. There are probably a few tens of good Jewish songs that I can think of off-hand, and when I listen to the same songs over and over, I get sick of them fairly quickly.
I never really felt okay listening to secular music, and more recently I've been pretty successful at this ban. I've been playing random Jewish music playlists on Spotify, and coincidentally leading up to Rosh Hashana I noticed how so many songs are about "Hashem Melech" (and not just the popular Gad Elbaz song).
Jewish music, if you can get past its frequent mediocrity in terms of arrangement, can be beautiful. If you really think about it, Jewish music often takes words of Nach, which are infinitely more gorgeous than today's pop singers' lyrics...if you're really listening.
Shira is a tefillah; song has special power.
I'm starting to notice how Jewish music speaks to me. If I let it.
What lyrics speak to you?
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