I'm the type of guy for whom lyrics are a really important part of a song. Song lyrics are a great source for inspiration and quotation, but finding the song a lyric came from is sometimes a pain...
You know what would make it a lot easier? An iTunes plugin that added lyrics to the list of things matched in an iTunes search.
For example, let's say I search for "down" with this plugin installed. iTunes might return:
- All the tunes from Sondre Lerche's album "Faces Down."
- Liz Phair's song, "Stratford-on-Guy," because of the lyric, "As the ground raced beneath them thirty thousand feet down."
- Frank Zappa's song, "Bobby Brown Goes Down," because of the title.
- All the songs by System of a Down (if I listened to that crap*) because of the band's name.
Seems pretty simple, huh? ...and think of the fun you could have if you extended this idea to Smart Playlists?
You could create a playlist that only included songs with the lyrics "big" and "butt." This playlist would, of course, include Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and Nelly's "Hot in Herre." ...just think of the possibilities!
LazyWeb, can you help?
* What blog entry concerning music would be complete without dissing one of those horrible nu-metal bands?
Comments (11)
1. jjg had this to say on March 13, 2003:
Lyric search sounds great, but I pity the poor Sigur Ros fan.
2. Brad Lauster had this to say on March 13, 2003:
When I wrote to Nadav about his category problem, he mentioned this entry in his reply and gave me permission to post it here. He says:
"btw, itunes needs more than just lyrics... think about how cool smart playlists would be if the files were tagged for things like:
- beats per minute
- rhythm (e.g. salsa, rock, blues, and preferably more granularity)
- instrumentation
- song structure
- etc..
Then you'd have a smart playlist."To which I replied:
Exactly! I would love a time signature tag! A playlist with only songs in 5/4 - that would be superb!
(Extra points to anyone who can name a song in 5/4 time.)
3. Jerry had this to say on March 14, 2003:
Dude,
Isn't your theme song: Ace of Bass's classic "I saw the Sign" in 5/4 time?
4. Brad Lauster had this to say on March 14, 2003:
Ha! Thanks Jer. My life would be a lot less exciting without ex-college-roommates like you! By the way, it's Ace of Base not Ace of Bass. ;-)
5. Brad Lauster had this to say on March 16, 2003:
Jesse - that's too funny!
It reminds me of an interview I saw with Seal several years ago. He said he never puts lyrics in his album-liner-notes because when he was a kid he had a favorite song that he thought was about one thing until he read the lyrics and learned the song was about something completely different. He said it ruined the song for him.
6. Steven had this to say on March 18, 2003:
I can't think of a 5/4 song, but Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" is in 7/4. Really. But it works.
7. Chad had this to say on March 29, 2003:
Paul Desmond's "Take Five" is in 5/4 time, and I'm pretty sure there are a couple of Soungarden songs in 5/4.
8. Brad Lauster had this to say on March 31, 2003:
Nice one, Chad! "Take Five" was the track I was thinking of, though I had Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" album in mind.
Paul Desmond was the sax player in the Dave Brubeck Quartet on that album. Same difference, I guess.
9. Jake McArthur had this to say on April 15, 2003:
I like the ideas here.
Mars: The Bringer of War by Gustav Holst is in 5/4. The Mission:Impossible theme is also in 5/4.
10. Brad had this to say on March 14, 2007:
Not sure if you've already found a solution since it's been 4 years but.. Just in case...
http://aureliosoft.wordpress.com/itunes-search-in-lyrics/
It's only for Macs and I haven't even tried it myself but I just thought I'd leave it here to make it easier for someone who can use it to find it on Google the same way I found this page...
11. Andreas - News of the future had this to say on October 2, 2007:
Concerning the subject of smart playlist depending on beats per minute:
There is such a plugin: http://www.potionfactory.com/tangerine/
I haven't tried it though...
the itunes-search-in-lyrics-applescript seems only to work, if the lyrics are saved as metadata inside the mp3-file...
Check out my blog-entry:
http://www.newsofthefuture.net/index.php?/archives/18-October-21,-2008-iTunes-lyrics-search.html
Seems like we had the same idea... :-)