{"id":41333,"date":"2015-06-01T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:00:00","slug":"watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been singing a popular song only to discover that you&#39;re belting out the wrong lyrics? Misunderstanding lyrics is a common mistake that can take on a life of its own as seen with the single by Taylor Swift, &quot;Blank Space.&quot; A misunderstood line from the song has taken on a life of its own. Some Swift fans think the song&#39;s line &quot;got a long list of ex-lovers&quot; is actually &quot;all the lonely Starbucks lovers&quot; including, apparently, her mom.<\/p>\n\n<p>Well, now there&#39;s a scientific explanation for our goofed-up lyrics. It&#39;s called mondegreens. Dr. Mark Liberman, professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains the phenomenon: when you hear a song &quot;you&#39;re getting an input signal that is muddled with background music, rhythms, and syllabification, explains making it hard for your brain to interpret everything at once.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>It&#39;s harmless when it comes to song lyrics, but it may be harmful for our life in Christ. Getting input signals from the Bible or the Holy Spirit that are &quot;muddled with background&quot; noise can be dangerous.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3485,3487,3488,3552,4273,4483,4506,4546,5046,5208],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,394,395,396],"class_list":["post-41333","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bible","tax_ctp_tags-bible-reading","tax_ctp_tags-bible-study","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-interpretation","tax_ctp_tags-misunderstanding","tax_ctp_tags-music","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-understanding"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever been singing a popular song only to discover that you&#039;re belting out the wrong lyrics? Misunderstanding lyrics is a common mistake that can take on a life of its own as seen with the single by Taylor Swift, &quot;Blank Space.&quot; A misunderstood line from the song has taken on a life of Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/\",\"name\":\"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-01T18:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-01T18:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/watch-out-for-that-muddled-background-noise\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Watch Out for That Muddled Background Noise - CT Pastors","og_description":"Have you ever been singing a popular song only to discover that you&#39;re belting out the wrong lyrics? 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