History Main / WordSaladLyrics

What will you be/If you can't find you\\

* Songs that appears in many WebAnimation/{{animutations}} also qualify, as like the gag dub example, animutations also make heavy use of mishearing the lyrics of a foreign song and trying to match what is going on with images on screen, resulting in very surreal animations and lyrics.

* Every song [[GagDub subtitled]] by Buffalax or in the style of him ends up like this, given that the subtitles are just what the foreign singing sounds like, rather than a straight translation. Still, there's no doubt that lines like "Who put the goat in there? The yellow goat I ate!" and "In your yard, I am the Ferengi man, very odd and chunky!" qualify.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'': In contrast to "Sonic Boom" in the North American soundtrack, which is a clear BraggingThemeTune about how awesome Sonic is, most of the lyrics to the two Japanese tunes "Sonic-You Can Do Anything" and "Cosmic Eternity" make ''no sense whatsoever'', with the latter sounding more like an abstract, high energy workout tune than a motivational hero song.[[note]]However, looking at the lyrics from a different angle, the lyrics ''are'' motivational- [[BreakingTheFourthWall to the player]]. It's about being confident of your abilities and believing in yourself - a recurring theme of the decorative text on the boxart of the Japanese Sonic The Hedgehog games.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'': In contrast to "Sonic Boom" in the North American soundtrack, which is a clear BraggingThemeTune about how awesome Sonic is, most of the lyrics to the two Japanese tunes "Sonic-You Can Do Anything" and "Cosmic Eternity" make ''no sense whatsoever'', with the latter sounding more like an abstract, high energy workout tune than a motivational hero song.[[note]]However, looking at the lyrics from a different angle, the lyrics ''are'' motivational- [[BreakingTheFourthWall to the player]]. It's about being confident in your abilities and believing in yourself - a recurring theme of the decorative text on the Japanese Sonic The Hedgehog games' boxart.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'': In contrast to "Sonic Boom" in the North American soundtrack, which is a clear BraggingThemeTune about how awesome Sonic is, most of the lyrics to the two Japanese tunes "Sonic-You Can Do Anything" and "Cosmic Eternity" make ''no sense whatsoever'', with the latter sounding more like an abstract, high energy workout tune than a motivational hero song.[[note]]However, looking at the lyrics from a different angle, the lyrics ''are'' motivational- [[BreakingTheFourthWall to the player]]. It's about being confident in yourself and believing in yourself - a recurring theme of the decorative text on the Japanese Sonic The Hedgehog games' boxart.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'': In contrast to "Sonic Boom" in the North American soundtrack, which is a clear BraggingThemeTune about how awesome Sonic is, most of the lyrics to the two Japanese tunes "Sonic-You Can Do Anything" and "Cosmic Eternity" make ''no sense whatsoever'', with the latter sounding more like an abstract, high energy workout tune than a motivational hero song.

* Half of Fluke's ''Risotto'' album is instrumental, but the half that's lyrical is definitely this. For instance the first two lines of the appropriately named "Absurd" are "King kong in Cannes / On a date with Spiderman"

* On the other side of the Pacific, the composer J.A. Seazer has produced the thickest metaphorical songs for ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. All lines typically devolve into one of two categories: word salad invoking a barrage of relevant imagery, or obtuse commentary. Then again, only in Japanese is it possible to eloquently sing:
-->I am a imaginary living body come to its end (Watashi hatenaru kuusou seimeitai)
** Looking at the translations, JASEAZER is a RefugeInAudacity. He can get away with writing a song that basically names off all of the components of an ornamental crest (I Am All the Mysteries in Creation) or a song that lists geological eras (Palezoic in My Body) and ''have them work''.
** It should come as no surprise that two-thirds of the duel songs weren't written specifically for the show.

* Most of Music/{{Beck}}'s songs qualify as this, but he actually has stories behind almost all of them. A prime example is "Loser":

* Music/{{Pink}}'s "Feel Good Time". It's pretty unusual for her, but more much more typical of Music/{{Beck}}, who co-wrote the song [[note]] (It was originally going to be a collaboration between Beck and the song's producer William Orbit, then someone got a hold of the demo and wanted to use it in ''Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle''; Beck didn't want to be associated with the movie himself, but didn't mind letting someone else sing the song)[[/note]].

[[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Duck]]

* The vast majority of Music/TheFall's oeuvre is this.
* On the self-titled debut by That Petrol Emotion -- when they were still post-punk -- a wildly-varied (but great!) profusion of styles were attempted: unified, primarily, by loud guitars and killer hooks. More of a head-scratcher, "Cheapskate" knelt before the altar of Music/TheFall:

''What's good is to get these goats for our computer industry!''

''You can borrow my [=CDs=], but not one every day! You could try my Kwanzaa [=CDs=]; but they're not yours, and you don't have to take any of them.''\\

Kiss him once and kiss them all and send me cards on Halloween''
[chorus]\\

* Tanita Tikaram typically pens word salad lyrics.

** Some choice lines from Kitchen person
--->''I eat Viennas\\

I cross my Ts with black\\

--->''Ripping ropes from Belgian wharfs\\

** Actually, the "message beep" part makes perfect sense if you notice that right before the chorus, there's a noticeable bleep, and the song changes pace from the dark, somewhat monotone sound to a blissful chorus, that gives a sensation of being filled with bright sunlight. The whole song relies more heavily on the music rather than the lyrics. Damon Albarn himself gives this for a reason why he doesn't put lyrics in the booklets for his albums: "If you didn't get it from the sound, then you've already missed the point".

* Go have a listen to Music/DefLeppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me".
--> You got the peaches, I got the cream.\\
Sweet to taste, saccharine.\\
'Cause I'm hot, say what, sticky sweet\\
From my head, my head, to my feet.
** This is not word salad, it's about IntercourseWithYou.

* Most of Music/{{Queen}}'s songs, such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Another One Bites The Dust" (although the latter does have the underlying thread of street gangs).

** Dylan's style was parodied in ''Film/WalkHardTheDeweyCoxStory''; during his 'Dylan' phase (where he is blatantly ripping off Bob Dylan in every facet of his life), Dewey performs a song called 'Royal Jelly', the lyrics of which two of his band members find completely incomprehensible ("Mailboxes drip like lampposts in the twisted birth canal of the Coliseum..."). The third immediately snarls that they're idiots, and that "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible this song is very deep]]." Another one, 'Farmer Glickstein', embraces this trope to such a degree that even the singer ends up admitting in the song that he's got no idea what he's singing about.

* Music/TheyMightBeGiants songs in general. They [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory seem to mean something]], but [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible good luck figuring out what.]].

** Of course, Don Van Vliet, in both his music and painting, is a living incarnation of TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.

* [[Music/IronAndWine Iron & Wine]]'s lyrics occasionally border on the [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible incomprehensible.]] This verse from "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" is a pretty standard example:

* All of the English songs on the ''Manga/SoulEater'' OSTs, as well as the French one. "Step Up" in particular comes to mind.

* "[[https://youtu.be/v2giCw8JrRY And Then To CODA]]", the main theme of ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'', has nothing to do with the game's plot or setting, aside from a few token mentions of the sky and winds.

* ‘’In the Air Tonight’’ was long rumored to be Music/PhilCollins given an autobiographical description of witnessing a murder, but Collins says it’s an example of this trope.

-->Deaf chords, deaf hens
-->Sling set can't meet the demands
--> Dumb whores, best friends
-->Infinity guitars, your heart
--> Ah-ah-ah

--->She had runaway eyes and marshmallow kittens
--->My heart heard a dreamlike ten-thousand mittens
--->Woah-oh-oh, a tear in her hand
--->She spread deja vu all across the land
--->She spins round and round with a frog in her ear
--->Whispering fountains, and rocks she couldn't hear...

-->Martha planned to make a movie, movie made in stereo
-->Then she went to California, winded up on radio
-->Round about the Navy ballroom, get the man in gabardine
-->Kiss him once and kiss them all and send me cards on Halloween
-->*chorus*
-->Monday up to Saturday, you kick yourself from 9 to 5
--> Sunday's always wonderful, you wander on the TV line
--> Love is not a silly notion, love is not a monorail
--> Love is like the way you love a candle in a hurricane

--> I eat Viennas
--> Drunk Parade
--> my drunk parade
--> I got my ears off a jackass
--> I cross my Ts with black
** Message Oblique Speech
--> Hypothermic ice cubes are melting down
--> With prisoners from BSA and the Royal Crown
--> A fertilising agent for the parasitic fool
--> Well, he drinks double hernias
--> Spits up wooden stools

--> Ripping ropes from Belgian wharfs
--> Breathless Beauxillous griffin once removed seemed dwarfed
--> They’re simple in that they happen to be there

--->Watch out you might get what you're after\\

Burning down the house\\

--->Gadji beri bimba glandridi\\

E glassala tuffm I zimbra

* Reed & Caroline's "Oh My Dog": A [[MemeticMutation memetic video]] of a cat's strange yowling sounds was interpreted into nonsensical English phrases, which the duo then used as song lyrics for a trippy synth pop song:

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDB5eFskLBg "Look at This"]] from the ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' episode "Oops" consists of promises that the song is leading up to a point that never comes, random gibberish, and open {{lampshading}} of the fact that Fizzarolli is improvising it as a distraction and is running out of things to say.

* "Summer Girls" by LFO opens with the lyrics "New Kids On The Block got a lotta hits, Chinese food makes me sick" and just gets weirder from there. Although, it really falls more under NonSequitur Lyrics[=/=]LyricalShoehorn (rhyming "hornet" with "sonnet," for example. Rich Cronin, the song's late writer, [[http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/07/07/rich_cronins_comeback/?page=2 admitted that it]] was a silly demo for his friends that unexpectedly got big and had he known, he would have worded the lyrics differently.

* Parodied by comedian Kyle Gordon with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-OgkNgxm3k "Planet of the Bass"]] (aka "Every European Dance Song in TheNineties") a [[https://www.indy100.com/tiktok/planet-bass-kyle-gordon-song spoof]] of [=Y2K=]-era {{Europop}} in which he and Chrissi Poland (credited as DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica[[note]]The latter is [[LoopingLines played in the video]] by [[https://gizmodo.com/planet-of-the-bass-song-tiktok-biljana-electronica-1850714675 a revolving door of influencers]] (Audrey Trullinger, Mara Olney, and Sabrina Brier), in a parody of how many Eurodance songs regularly swapped out their female vocalists and treated them as interchangeable[[/note]]) sing nonsense lyrics that sound [[BlindIdiotTranslation poorly machine-translated]] from Slovakian into English over an uptempo electronic beat. Music/{{Aqua}}, one of the bands whose music was being parodied, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny voiced their approval]] by way of a ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'' meme.