Poll: Do you enjoy instrumental music?
- Thread starter Jonluw
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I have always said, "if music had no lyrics, then I would listen to literally anything." However, insturmental is on the same level as lyrical to me.
Yeah, instrumental music can be brilliant. Some of my favourite songs are instrumental or mostly instrumental.
I just love great music. Whether it has lyrics or not doesn't matter to me. I certainly wouldn't say I enjoy either type more or less than the other. If it's good, I'll listen to it.
Well I have a strong preference towards classical music. I also have a strong dislike of electric guitar solos. 80's music is just unbearable to me because of how the synth+electric guitar combined to make that horrible noise back then. I don't know if classical is instrumental in your book but in mine it is so i'm going to say yes.
I do, and often more than music with vocals. If the vocals are good, that's fine, but bad vocals are a really good way to ruin a song for me. It doesn't even have to be bad singing or stupid lyrics. Sometimes I just don't like the singer's voice or style. There's so many times I've listened to a song and thought "this would be a great if it didn't have the vocals".
I do like some music that has vocals, but I'm really picky about what the singing should sound like.
I do like some music that has vocals, but I'm really picky about what the singing should sound like.
I prefer music with vocals without lyrics, and then instrumental music. Don't particularly like music with lyrics. Vocal music provides the beauty of the human voice, without the subtitles. I prefer to be immersed in the theme that the music gives me rather than it tell it to me. To those who know of her, it should be fairly unsurprising that I fangirl over Yuki Kajiura.
Hm. Nope. Instrumental classical music is instrumental but "classical music" includes:Jonluw said:
Opera
Oratorio
Masses
Requiems
Troubadour song
Lieder
Chant
Choral Music
etc.
There is a *huge* amount of classical music with vocals.
Now, you are using the phrase "classical music" to mean "art music of the classical period, 1750-1820...that is also the time when some of the most popular works were opera rather than symphonies.
Also this idea that instrumental music has a higher "technical or musical level" is completely subjective and is based on covert and casual values that are not universal. West African Singing/Drumming tends to be much more advanced in terms of rhythm. Modern popular music tends to be much more advanced in terms of timbre. Music with lyrics clearly have a higher level of lyrical skill and vocal skill than music without it. Jazz (including jazz vocalists) tends to be much more advanced in terms of improvisation. There are many different musical parameters. Instrumental classical music values some over others, but that doesn't mean those parameters are the most important to making good music. Nor is the value "more complex" actually better than "more simple."
As a start, I'd recommend reading the article, "Covert and Casual Values in Recent Writings About Music" by Janet Levy, in the Journal of Musicology, Vol 5, No 1 (Winter 1987), pg 3-27. It is available on JSTOR if you are attending a university that subscribes to JSTOR, if you don't, you could probably just drop by the music library of your local major university.
To answer your question, I like both instrumental and vocal music. I prefer vocal music slightly over instrumental music (the voice is one of my favorite instruments for expressivity), but I like them both.
Definitely.
Vocals usually either make or break a song for me, and by "make" I of course mean "make it decent enough to listen to without impaling myself on a well-sharpened pencil".
Vocals usually either make or break a song for me, and by "make" I of course mean "make it decent enough to listen to without impaling myself on a well-sharpened pencil".
I find that I love music with lyrics, but I also love instrumentals aswell.
I do find that I prefer the instrumentals more than the music I have that has lyrics, but that's not because I dislike lyrics or rather don't like music with lyrics as much but that the instrumentals I have and listen to regularly are so freaking awesome.
I unfortunately don't have too many instrumentals, since the ones I do have are just the occasional song by various bands I have the albums for, though I would probably listen to more if I knew of more bands that did more instrumental based albums.
I do find that I prefer the instrumentals more than the music I have that has lyrics, but that's not because I dislike lyrics or rather don't like music with lyrics as much but that the instrumentals I have and listen to regularly are so freaking awesome.
I unfortunately don't have too many instrumentals, since the ones I do have are just the occasional song by various bands I have the albums for, though I would probably listen to more if I knew of more bands that did more instrumental based albums.
My favourite two genres are hip-hop and classical piano (Romantic), so I guess you could say that I like both, one being focussed almost solely on lyrics, the other on the instrument.
Although it's noteworthy that I do also like hip-hop instrumentals. So I guess I swing slightly towards the instrumental end of the spectrum.
Although it's noteworthy that I do also like hip-hop instrumentals. So I guess I swing slightly towards the instrumental end of the spectrum.
Yeah, mostly videogame soundtracks though to be honest. Just lately I've been listening to Gyakuten Meets Orchestra (Ace Attorney!) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I knew someone was going to call me out on that.trooper6 said:
What I meant was "Most of the great classics from the baroque and out that we still listen to to this day are instrumental".
If you go out and buy an album like "classical favourites" or something, pretty much the only pieces with lyrics will be Händel's messiah, Carmina burana, Pomp and circumstance and certain versions of In the hall of the mountain king.
I'm not really counting opera in that statement. I've always seen opera as its own genre that I just don't feel like touching on too much.
I see I didn't express myself very clearly there either.
What I meant was that in instrumental music, the only thing that is presented to the listener is the music. No lyrics. As a consequence, the melody and harmony or groove or otherwise just plain musical aspects of a piece are normally afforded more attention and more carefully crafted. i.e. I don't like the kind of music that only exists as a background to the writer/composer's poetry.
Do note that I still call music instrumental if the voice is used for something other than performing lyrics.
Would you really say that the music in this piece
is as interesting and engaging as this music?
[sub]Note that I'm using a song with lyrics here. I'm not saying music with lyrics is bad. I just think instrumental music is generally more engaging, musically, because it's made to engage only by means of music, not with the help of lyrics.[/sub]
Erm, is this referring to things like the "Halo" intro as instrumental despite quasi-Gregorian chanting? Because I can't think of any other non-lyrical vocals.Jonluw said:
Note: I totally get behind music like the "Halo" intro as instrumental.
