What's more important to you in a song: the lyrics or the music?
Asked by
Mariah (
25883
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November 15th, 2011
Obviously it’s best when both are well done. But is one more important to you than another? Are you somebody who prefers great lyrics over great melodies/instrumentation, or vice versa?
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26 Answers
(@ANef_is_Enuf asked a similar question last month.)
The music. I don’t even listen to the lyrics most of the time – that is, I hear the voice as an instrument, but do not listen to the actual words*.
They are equally important. They each have their own effect on the musicality.
You can have an amazing set of lyrics that can get lost if the music is badly meshed.
You can have amazing music that lyrics are not a part of.
I first listen. Then I listen and read the lyrics. Finally read the lyrics as they stand alone.
@tom_g Oh no! I even did a search. :( Sorrry.
Lyrics give me meaning to the song, and can make it precious, but it doesn’t work without a decent tune.
I’ll give you an example: Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. In its first release in 1962, it was a pure pop fast song. In 1975 he re-recorded it as a ballad, which was much more sentimental. Same lyrics, but the second version was much more meaningful.
The lyrics and the music should compliment each other. I have heard songs where the music was so much better than the singer or the words.
Its kind of like karoke. The background music is great…...the singer and lyrics are not so great!
I’ve always been a “words” person. I think that’s why, as much as I love the idea of Jazz, and the cool romanticism of it, I have a hard time getting into it. Unless I can get involved and sing along, it takes linger to capture my soul.
Some instrumental music that I have been exposed to a lot has made it to that special place, but only after it has grown on me.
@Mariah
“I even did a search.”
I tried a search just using “lyrics”. I didn’t see Anef’s question on either of the first two pages. There were 3,029 results, so I don’t think I would have found it either.
It would be nice if the search results were displayed in reversible-chronological order.
The music is more important to me, in general. But this is always hard for me to explain. When it comes to songs in English, I don’t care too much about the lyrics unless they are outright annoying or stupid. But for the most part, I don’t care. I’m a classical music fan originally and ultimately, so naturally the music is more important to me than the lyrics since most classical music has no lyrics.
Now, when it comes to music in a foreign language, then the lyrics become more important. Not because I care about the meaning, but because I care about the sound. When I listen to foreign music, I listen to hear the sound of the language itself, not the tune or the meaning of the lyrics.
I can’t understand the words, so they are actually an annoyance to me. Obviously is the music for me. And since song music is generally pretty boring, I like more changeable forms of music like jazz or improvisation or classical music.
I love good lyrics, but I’ll never get to them if the the music doesn’t get to me first. Plus, being music first I enjoy a lot of music in other languages. Actually, even when you don’t really know what someone is singing you can still get a lot from how they sing.
Depends on what I’m listening to, but in general it’s more about the tone/pitch of the vocals and how they fit in as another instrument, than the actual lyrics. Then again that’s may have a something to do with the type of music I’ve been listening to recently (lots of metal, particularly death metal). With other types, for example with pop, crap lyrics can easily kill an otherwise good track.
@tom_g woah, thanks. I thought I was having deja vu! I forgot I asked, but it seemed so familiar.
The lyrics are extremely important to me, then the vocals, then the music.
I feel pretty much the same as @fundevogel. I’m mainly music oriented.
I’m increasingly appreciating lyrics, though. For example, I love They Might Be Giants primarily for their clever lyrics (I’m not actually all that crazy about the sound of much of their music). And lately I’m really into Amanda Palmer, who has excellent lyrics, but I love the sound of her music as well. But I’m finding I’m really appreciative of her song “Ampersand,” even though I don’t find the music as great as some of the other songs, because I love the lyrics so much. But in the end the music is what makes music music and not poetry, which is a great artform in its own way but I have a different sort of appreciation for that.
Both are important but for me, lyrics have the edge. If a song has daft lyrics, or if I can’t make out the words at all, I won’t like it. My favourite songs are ones I can sing along to.
Both! If either one of them are poor I can’t enjoy the song.
Lyrics, I think some of the tidiest truisms are set out in songs.
I tend to emphasize lyrics.
Naturally both are very important, but I tend to pay more attention to the lyrics in a song, especially if it is a slow song. If it’s dance music, well, I can’t even understand half the stuff they say in there.
The music is more important to me, unless the lyrics are very good, which is rare.
Music first, but easily disposed if the lyrics are rubbish.
Music!
I don’t care if the lyrics are just “SHIT FUCK PISS”, as long it’s got dat bass and makes me want to headbang, it’s awwww right.
@DominicX That was the best song I have ever heard in my life! It’s like a Wagner piece but with more “fucking” and “shitting”. Goddamn, now I want to smash snapple bottles and yell out “FUCK SHIT” while enchanting a prayer to the elder cosmic deities.
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