Words? Music? Both? Neither? What Do You Listen For?

Words? Music? Both? Neither? What Do You Listen For?

Words? Music? Both? Neither? What Do You Listen For?

Posted by on 2024-06-03

I recently saw something on Facebook that caused me to do some serious thinking – not on the subject of music, but that, as I hope you'll agree, is still perfectly applicable to our music listening. It's just one simple sentence: "I never said she stole my money" – but, as the person who posted it pointed out, it can have seven entirely different meanings, depending on which one of the seven words making it up you choose to put the emphasis on:

For example, "I never said she stole my money" means something different from "I never said she stole my money", which means something different from "I never said she stole my money", which means something different from "I never said she stole my money", and so on, through the entire sentence, with each new emphasis creating a whole new meaning.