In my post about Fixing My Taste In Music, I talked about my tendency towards very busy and chaotic music which distracts enough of my emotional brain to keep me from feeling whatever I would be (in my teens this meant the general anxiety and self-hatred of being alive). Perhaps just as integral to my tastes though is the inclusion of cryptic, or even totally indecipherable lyrics.
Being as my personal experiences relate to so few other people, it might not be too weird that I struggle to connect with the messages and personality present in a lot of music writing; or maybe, especially growing up, I was actively avoiding trying to relate to songs about emotions I didn't immediately understand. The first band I connected with lyrically was Linkin Park, whose lyrics tend toward enough generality that they didn't force me to relate to scenarios I'd never encountered--only the baseline emotional states of bi-polar anxiety and emotional dissociation. My mom was also a huge System of a Down fan, and while some of their songs are about obvious things, most of them are very far from straightforward and seem to be more focused on cool-sounding poetic phrases then trying to communicate a specific meaning; and the band itself was very adamant that their lyrics were open to interpretation and would not be explained.
Getting into The Mars Volta, Tool, and Coheed and Cambria in my teens and reading into the cryptic lyrics with others online was what introduced me to the concept of art analysis, and drew my into those bands records on a whole other level beyond just loving and enjoying the music itself. Skipping ahead like seven years, the rapper who finally got me into that genre in a big way was Kendrick Lamar, whose lyrics in Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe are as cryptic and weird as anything from a prog band, and the album it's from is among the greatest concept records ever.
Over time I have come to appreciate that even clearer lyrics can have deeper meanings, and they aren't so difficult to connect with anymore. Really, it shouldn't be necessary at all for a song to be vague for you to be able to read into it, as that is simply what fans of a thing do, and I'm sure many fans have puzzled over Avril Lavigne lyrics the way I have over Aesop Rock lyrics; but I also have to thanks those cryptic artists for, intentionally or not, creating something naturally engrossing.
When I consider the appeal specifically of rap music to most of it's audience, I see it as one part distraction from whatever ails you in life, and one part instructional on how to deal with it. When we dig into lyrics, it is out of a hunger for something, and we need the nutrients the lyrics provide--just make sure you watch your diet.
Rise Against is my fav band & I think of their songs as love songs even tho it's actually about politics;; my musical diet consists of japanese pop songs that give me Magical Girl Energy =w=