History MediaNotes / MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness

# Gets a bit heavier; angst is still light, and the song is more sad than angsty and may address injustice and inequality throughout the world. Cursing is usually still mild, although a lot more common. Violence can be alluded to or mentioned, but this level leaves out the details; [[IntercourseWithYou direct mentions of sex]], unless [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar cleverly hidden]], usually get a song at least this high on the list. References to soft drugs, such as tobacco, MDMA, amphetamines, marijuana and alcohol usually begin at this level.

# Gets a bit heavier; angst is still light, and the song is more sad than angsty. Cursing is usually still mild, although a lot more common. Violence can be alluded to or mentioned, but this level leaves out the details; [[IntercourseWithYou direct mentions of sex]], unless [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar cleverly hidden]], usually get a song at least this high on the list. References to soft drugs, such as tobacco, MDMA, amphetamines, marijuana and alcohol usually begin at this level.

Just as people provide Website/YouTube links for examples of the aforementioned sister sliding scale, for this one people ought to provide examples of lyrics from the songs in question which illustrate the tone of the lyrics.

* Music/MelanieMartinez's album ''Music/CryBaby'' is usually in the 7-9 area, depending on the song and how it affects you. It has numerous references to alcohol abuse, lots of swearing, and just generally high levels of depressing. A few songs, most notably "Training Wheels", are exceptions to this ("Training Wheels" is a 3 or a 4 thematically but has quite a bit of language).

# Is really ugly stuff. This is the level where the lyrics often carry UnfortunateImplications for listeners. Hate messages are made very explicit at this point. Angst approaches psychotic levels, and abuse of hard drugs is outright glorified. Language can be filthy; violence gets very detailed and/or gets specific on the pleasure of hurting others or oneself. Might include straight-played romantic depiction of self-harm or suicide. Sex at this point is purely rape, with themes like necrophilia or pedophilia even appearing in this level (mainly from pornogrind and hentaigrind - the latter being {{Hentai}} with significant metal infusion).

# Is really ugly stuff. This is the level where the lyrics often carry UnfortunateImplications for listeners. Hate messages are made very explicit at this point. Angst approaches psychotic levels, and abuse of hard drugs is outright glorified. Language can be filthy; violence gets very detailed and/or gets specific on the pleasure of hurting others or oneself. Might include straight-played romantic depiction of self-harm or suicide. Sex at this point is purely rape, with themes like necrophilia or pedophilia even appearing in this level.

SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness is a sorting algorithm of, well, musical hardness; however, due to LyricalDissonance, mere musical sound is not always enough to determine the actual hardness of a song.

* "Hocus Pocus" by Dutch prog rock band Focus. The same song is at Level 6 on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleofRockandMetalHardness as it's a fairly heavy song.

** Music/NewOrder fits here as well, in contrast to their uptempo sound, which hovers around a [[LyricalDissonance 3, and in some cases, a 4]] in the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness. "Blue Monday" is a great example, as in spite of its status as a classic dance track, the lyrics are indeed quite cryptic and bleak:

* Hard-Fi's "Cash Machine" resides around this level, as it talks about frontman Richard Archer's broke life before hitting it big with his band. What prevents it from scoring higher is because the lyrics, despite being surely TearJerker, don't cross into straight-up {{Wangst}} territory. Oh, and [[LyricalDissonance the song scores a 3]] in the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness. This is the chorus:

* "Runaway Train" by Music/SoulAsylum: a rock ballad that's a two on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness, but is depressing enough in tone to warrant at least a six on this one. The music video is an 8 on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness.

* Music/FosterThePeople's "Pumped Up Kicks" ranks around here, being a UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}-inspired song about kids shooting other kids, although [[LyricalDissonance it's an easy 1 or 2 on the]] [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness musical hardness scale]]. While the violence itself isn't graphically described, the narrator's also implied to be mentally ill, [[AbusiveParents parentally abused]], [[ParentalNeglect entirely neglected]], or some combination thereof.

* Music/AliceInChains often gets up here on sheer hopelessness. Take the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKzMAJ-sL8Y Am I Inside]]. It's a clear 1 on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness , and yet the lyrics are so self-hating and dark that it pushes the song to a borderline 9. Most songs on ''Dirt'' and ''Alice In Chains'' are at this level.

* [[http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858635461/ Agitated Screams of Maggots]] by Music/DirEnGrey, especially so with the [[MemeticMutation everlasting]] '''I'LL RAPE YOUR DAUGHTER!!!! ON YOUR GRAVE!!!!'''.[[note]]The song itself is a very hard 10 on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness; its "unplugged" version, though, despite hundred-percent ''acoustic'' instrumentation, is a '''''VERY HARD 11.'''''[[/note]]

* The early material of Australian {{deathcore}} band Music/ThyArtIsMurder mostly resides at this level, as the lyrics seem to be from the point of view of rapacious, homicidal, woman-hating psychopaths. Songs include "Whore to a Chainsaw" (serial murder), "I'll Show You God" (murder-rape) and "Infinite Death" (serial murder-rape)("Lock up your daughters! Lock up your sluts!"). They rival Anal Cunt in lyrical horribleness, but the lyricist of these earlier songs was actually a legitimately unhinged and possibly sociopathic individual. And to think they're one of deathcore's biggest {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s… [[note]] And to even think that they also go up to 11 on the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness…[[/note]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoGhayQP7o Birdfucker]], secretly created by Music/LemonDemon under the pseudonym of "Grapes and Sunshine". Despite being on the complete opposite end of the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness, it could definitely belong here. To quote:

* Brazilian band [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit%C3%A3s Titãs]] just went straight to the source and made a spoken lyric out of a handful of selected passages of ''Juliette'' by the Creator/MarquisDeSade. Here's [[https://www.vagalume.com.br/titas/dissertacao-do-papa-sobre-o-crime-seguida-de-orgia.html the Portuguese lyrics]]. Go ahead, [[SchmuckBait translate it into your native language]]. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU4W5vtzbgY resulting song]] -- title translates to ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice Pope's Dissertation On Crime Followed By An Orgy]]'' -- rates quite highly in [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness the other scale]] too -- and they aren't even a metal act.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFKUnfwBPTU I Can't Decide]] (Music/ScissorSisters) [[note]][[LyricalDissonance A 2 on the]] SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness.[[/note]]

* The entire album ''Slut Pop'' by Music/KimPetras definitely fits here, due to the [[ClusterFBomb constant profanity]] alongside with the mention (both directly and indirectly) of adultery, group sex, and ParentalIncest.

* The entire album ''Slut Pop'' by Music/KimPetras definitely fits here, due to the [[ClusterFBomb constant profanity]] alongside with the mention (both directly and indirectly) of adultery, group sex, and ParentalIncest, as the lyrics of the titular song say;
-->Steal your man kind of shit, fuck your dad kind of shit\\
Take your bitch kind of shit, slap my ass kind of shit\\
Suck your dick kind of shit, fuck your bitch kind of shit\\
[[ProductPlacement OnlyFans]] kind of shit, don't need hands kind of shit

To figure it all out on your own\\

* Music/{{TXT}}'s "LO$ER=LO♡ER" makes for a light 7.

The name has a certain [[JustForPun punny quality]] to it. After all, this is Mohs' '''Scale''' of Lyrical Hardness. [[DontExplainTheJoke Get it? Because of the musical scale?]]

Whole squad full of fucking killers, I'm a killer too\\

** Music/SmashMouth is this level, except for some of their songs on their debut album ''Fush Yu Mang'' ("Flo" and "Walking on the Sun" which are both at a 5, the latter being a surprisingly political song for a band best known for making songs for ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''.)

* Almost the entire ''oevure'' of Music/DirEnGrey. They have a few songs that ping lower (e.g. their instrumentals at 0, ''Ain't Afraid To Die'' ''could'' be a 7 if the protagonist is just dying naturally as opposed to a suicide) but for the most part they are here or 11.

* Music/SteelyDan's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sil76t2X_DE Do It Again]]. The lyrics are in the video's description. [[note]] This is a classic example of LyricalDissonance at work. Because this song registers so high on this scale, it stands to reason that this song is at Level 3 on SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness when it otherwise would have been at Level 1. [[/note]]

* "The End" by Music/TheDoors - more so the second half, starting from the spoken word [[OedipusComplex oedipal section]], though the song as a whole is filled with macabre and dark imagery.

* Music/FosterThePeople's "Pumped Up Kicks" ranks around here, being a UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}-inspired song about kids shooting other kids, although [[LyricalDissonance it's an easy 2 or 3 on the]] [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness musical hardness scale]]. While the violence itself isn't graphically described, the narrator's also implied to be mentally ill, [[AbusiveParents parentally abused]], [[ParentalNeglect entirely neglected]], or some combination thereof.

# Is almost sure to be StealthParody or lyrical MindScrew. At this point, the lyrics do everything they ever can to make the listener feel shocked, offended and disgusted, to the point where it's impossible to take seriously and is blatantly created for the purposes of satire. Songs at this level have extreme crazy angst, consist of nothing but foul obscenities, highly detailed {{gorn}}, glorified murder or rape and/or "suicide is the best thing ever"

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoGhayQP7o Birdfucker]], secretly created by Music/LemonDemon. Despite being on the complete opposite end of the SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness, it could definitely belong here. To quote:

* "In an Excruciating Way Infested With Vermin and Violated by Executioners Who Practise Incendiarism and Desanctifying the Pious" by funeral doom band Wormphlegm. If the title didn't tip you off, the lyrics certainly will, being one long string of [[http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/wormphlegm/inanexcruciatingwayinfestedwithverminandviolatedbyexecutionerswhopractiseincendiarism.html extremely sadistic and graphic depictions of torture and hateful language]]