I’m notoriously bad at memorizing lyrics so it’s mind boggling to me.
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My voice sucks, but I couldn’t remember every word of any song I’ve ever enjoyed as long as I’ve heard it two or three times or more
Some people are wired in such a way that it’s easy for them to memorize lyrics – like, I would estimate I still remember most of the lyrics to every song I’ve ever written and a whole lot I haven’t. That said, it isn’t unheard of for artists with very long careers and/or incredibly dense and prolific output to use well-concealed teleprompters on stage to jog their memories.
They don’t necessarily have all of them memorized simultaneously. You only need to know all the lyrics for the 15-20 songs you’re performing on your current tour. I’ve seen plenty of artists talking about having re-learn older songs in advance on concerts. I honestly expect that a good chunk of artists that have more than like 4 albums don’t have all of their songs memorized
It’s not that difficult. When I was young I could hear a hip hop song twice and immediately memorize 90% of the lyrics.
If your entire genre is lyrics-heavy, you just get used to it.
However, it does get more difficult with age, which is why middle-aged rappers sometimes have to google to remember what they said 10 years ago.
But some people are better at it than others, and we are all usually more impressed by skills we don’t have.
For example it’s mind-boggling to me how dancers can remember their choreography. I can’t dance to save my life.
Its not hard to memorize through repetition. Haven’t you ever memorized the lyrics to a band’s album or their whole discography just by listening to them?
Practice, practice, practice. Both with the song and with singing in general. And also, singers make mistakes live.
In addition to the comments others have made regarding chunking and how combining words and music together strengthens recall for both, part of it is just the way their brain works.
I have memorized exactly 0 poems, and don’t have a photographic or otherwise remarkable memory, but I have unintentionally memorized the words to literally hundreds and possibly thousands of songs. I don’t do it on purpose, it just happens. I would assume lots of musicians/singers who spend their whole lives playing, singing, and listening to music probably have similar or greater depth of recall for music and lyrics, especially their own.
I’ve got over 3000 songs downloaded on my phone and I’d bet the house I can sing at least 25 percent of them without a lyric sheet and make no mistakes, the rest I could likely sing with a handful of mistakes
I’ve always been told, and known that I have an incredible memory for lyrics, which is funny because I have a horrible memory for literally everything else, but I can memorize most songs within a few listens and I very rarely forget them once learned
Answer is, some people are just better at some things than others, and the singers that aren’t good at it just spend a lot of time memorizing it, it is their job after all
On top of this if the artist actually helped write the song or wrote it themselves they’re already very, very familiar with it so they likely memorized it as they wrote it to some extent
Just because you are notoriously bad at remembering them doesn’t mean that the rest of us are. I remember the lyrics for a whole lot of songs from a whole lot of different bands despite not being in a band and having no particular reason to do so. As far as I am aware of, most singers would just learn the songs by rote memorisation via just singing the songs over and over again during band practice and I would imagine that it would be even easier if you were the one to write the lyrics in the first place.
Also, it doesn’t really matter if you get the lyrics correct during a live concert if you are not lip-syncing – miming the wrong words during a lip-synced performance will only just annoy people who can lip read lol. Fans won’t really care as long as you get the chorus correct as incorrect verses can just add to the “live experience”.
To add to what other people have already said, musical people are also just good at remembering stuff like that.
It’s the same as asking a meteorologist to define the different strengths of hurricanes or tornadoes, they probably know the wind speed thresholds off the top of their heads. Or asking a historian what year something happened – within their particular specialty. I wouldn’t expect Eminem to know the lyrics to every Hall & Oates song…
When you repeat something over and over again for years, it just sticks. Sometimes I find myself driving and listening to We Didn’t Start The Fire and singing along… I know all the words and I can sing along without even thinking about them. I get halfway through the song and realize I’ve been singing the whole time without registering any of the lyrics. I’m the same with Eminem’s Hailie’s Song. I just… know the words.
I was at an Ed Sheeran show a long while ago and he forgot the lyrics to The A Team, the song that literally made him famous… he just… blanked. It happens. It not even a particularly fast or lyrically intense song.
What I need an ELI5 for is how they don’t pass out during the verses… If I’m genuinely trying to “sing” along I find myself gasping by the time I get to a chorus.
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