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I'm talking about things like the Pogues "Fairy Tale of New York", an upbeat song with bitter lyrics like

Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last

Is there a technical term or collective name for songs where the emotion indicated by the music is at odds with the emotion indicated by the lyrics?

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This might be better over on english.stackexchange.com Flagged for migration – Dr Mayhem♦ Nov 18 '11 at 14:21
I think this is on-topic but you would probably do well to ask it on English. If you do, just let me know and we'll close this version. – Matthew Read♦ Nov 18 '11 at 15:33
Although it is English language, this is very specific to musical terms, and it is likely to be more experts on this here on Music than on English. – awe Nov 24 '11 at 12:30

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

There may be a term specific to the realm of music that I'm not aware of. Barring that, the first term that comes to mind is incongruous. It refers to a lack of consistency or harmony.

You could use the same word to describe a man wearing sweat pants to a black tie affair, or the sight of chicken fingers on a fancy French menu.

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Les doigts de poulet! – Ben Williams Nov 23 '11 at 8:50
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I think ironic would be appropriate; perhaps qualified "musically ironic"?

In standard music terminology, perhaps "scherzando" (It. in a jesting manner)?

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