In the early '00s, an evening radio talk show host was perplexed. He quoted song lyrics and asked callers to name the titles and artists of various '70s and '80s pop hits. It puzzled him that listeners were only guessing about one out of every three songs correctly.
"Apparently, there's a lot of passive listening going on," he mused.
The songs he quoted were well-known ones by artists such as Elton John and Kenny Loggins. I recognized a lyric from "What I Am" by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which was as close as the host came to an offbeat choice.
While many people listen to music more for the feel of songs than their lyrics, I'll bet the audience's batting average would have been higher if they'd heard the song clips. Hearing, "Susie went and left us for some foreign guy," spoken out of context instead of sung wouldn't make a lot of listeners immediately think, "Oh, that's from 'Crocodile Rock.'"
With song lyrics, context is key.
