Can you enjoy listening to songs without paying attention to the lyrics?

Hip hop. Awesome beat but most of the time I tune out the lyrics

Yes, it’s the only way I can enjoy hip hop. Jinx @Mbass

The lyrics are almost always a monument to narcissism. Stupid. But the beats are often quite awesome.

No. If the lyrics are so humdrum as to be easily overlooked, I find a new song.

If I want music without words, I specifically listen to that.

No. I can’t tune out the words, if there are any, and if I don’t like them then I generally don’t like the song at all.

Once you know the song There She Goes by the La’s is about heroin, it is harder to enjoy it.
Turning Japanese by the Vapors is about jerking off.
The A Team by Ed Sheeran is about a homeless drug-addicted girl working as a prostitute.

Sometimes, it is better to just tune out the meaning. Sometimes, that is the point.

I just saw a revival of Cole Porter’s musical, “Kiss Me, Kate.” The original played on Broadway in 1948 and the movie (which i did see) was released several years later.

I remembered 90% of the lyrics and found myself (along with much of the audience) singing along softly.

Song list; meaningless without the lyrics

Another Openin’, Another Show –
Why Can’t You Behave? -
Wunderbar –
So In Love –
We Open In Venice -
Tom, Dick or Harry -
I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua -
I Hate Men -
Were Thine That Special Face –
We Sing of Love -
Kiss Me, Kate –
Too Darn Hot –
Where Is the Life That Late I Led? -
Always True To You In My Fashion -
Bianca –
Brush Up Your Shakespeare -

@filmfann Omigod. I’ve always thought about myself wearing Japanese sandals, slurping hot noodles and wielding a katana every time I listen to Turning Japanese. But, you are right, it has subliminally affected me as it turns out. It all makes sense now. 30 goddarn years! Lol.

I sure can. Perhaps that’s one reason why my taste in music highly varies; I don’t always care about the lyrics, whether I understand them or not, it’s often the music that counts. I can listen to stuff from Britney Spears to VNV Nation, if it has a good beat, I’m there. Not saying lyrics never matter or can’t inspire me, but music has always been primary for me. Hell I listen to a lot of music that’s in languages I don’t speak or understand, so…

Nope. I’m cursed with hearing the words and being irritated by them.

Lyrics? You mean songs use words that don’t have nonsense syllables?

Seriously, lyrics are irrelevant to me since I can never understand them. Well, almost never. The singer has to be sing very very clearly and enunciate like a Shakesperean actor for me to understand. Songs are usually fairly boring to me. Sometimes they have interesting chords and non-repetitive music, and then they might be interesting. But generally I can’t understand lyrics and when I do, I find them very annoying.

Many of my favorites are instrumentals, but many others are great only because of the lyrics. Try ignoring the words with Bob Dylan.

Always. Most lyrics from newer music are incomprehensible anyway.

@wundayatta Ditto for me.

@jerv Bob Dylan is one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century.

Very rarely can I tune out the lyrics. I love the song, “We Used to Vacation” by Cold War Kids because of the lyrics. wonderful song musically and lyically… check it out

Heck, I have been known to bolt out songs louder than the radio and not pay attention to the lyrics. One of the most fun songs to sing that I didn’t pay attention to for years was, “Mama’s Got a Squeeze Box Daddy Never Sleeps at Night!” I think I was screaming it out in the car when my kids were teenagers. they were the ones who told me to listen to the lyrics. Then I was embarrassed.

No, never ever. For me, lyrics are just as important as the music. It’s the balance between those two things that makes a song amazing. If a song has amazing lyrics with a special mood that fits the mood of the music/melody perfectly, then that is an awesome song. Of the lyrics goes as far a poetry, it’s magnificent. If course there’s party songs and stuff like that, but that’s another deal.

There are some songs that I listen to because they have a good beat, and there are songs that I listen to because the lyrics are good and resonate with me. And every once and a while, there is a magical moment where the 2 things come together.

Yes, for sure. For me, it’s mostly about the melody and harmony, and then the beat and lyrics. It certainly depends on the song or piece of music.