Poll: Do you pay more attention to the music or the lyrics?

[BOOM headshot65]

Always the lyrics.

If I don't like the lyrics to a song, I won't bother listening to it. However, I can deal with a bit of 'weird'[footnote]By weird, I mean unusual for my tastes.[/footnote] music if the lyrics are really good.

That's probably why most of my song library is pretty depressing. I'm a sucker for melancholy lyrics. Luckily I have just enough happy songs to keep it in balance.

This here. I will listen to just about anything thats only insturmental, but the lyrics I will have to like, although there are some that I will still like even if I dont agree with the lyrics. Although, my library is a little different. Instead of downer lyrics, mine are all

Spoiler: America is Great, The Country is Better than the City, The South is Great, Damn Right Republican Proud, and War is Sometimes nessessary *warning: I went a bit crazy with the songs*

Spoiler: Although, there are some exceptions

Pro-Drug legalization song

Anti-War song (obviously)

Anti-patriotism song *which confuses many people*

 

[hiverious]

I tend to prefer music to lyrics. Given I listen to death metal frequently, I can't really parse the lyrics anyway! I just really like the way songs sound and I do often listen to instrumentals. Good lyrics are a nice bonus.

Having said that, if the vocals are pushed forward and easily intelligible, bad lyrics can really kill a song for me.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

If the lyrics are too simple or in another language, I pay attention to the music.

If the lyrics are the main draw or are so unintelligible to a point it sounds extremely goofy, I pay attention to the lyrics.

An example of the latter would be a song I heard recently on the radio because the censored chorus is so tremendously bad, I'm not sure it makes a full sentence.

Spoiler

This is the song but on the radio in my area they don't just remove the f word. I think if I hear it correctly they repeat "Fu" to fill the gap and it sounds silly as hell.

 

[purplecactus]

Heh, seems I'm in the minority when I say I pay more attention to the lyrics. Yeah, the music itself is important, but if the lyrics are terrible then I just can't listen to the song in general. My mind will stick on the words, and it will either completely ruin my enjoyment of it (in the case of terrible lyrics) or enhance it (in the case of decent ones).

 

[Alcaste]

Since I can't say both, I will say that I prefer the musical quality over the lyrical contents. That said, good lyrics make a good song fantastic and bad lyrics make an average song terrible.

 

[Yal]

Lyrics, definitely lyrics. Every so often an instrumental or foreign language piece will turn my head, but for the most part I want a good strong singer and a backing that doesn't get ideas above its station.

But then, I've never really felt like I "got" music at the level most people seem to. If it all disappeared tomorrow I'd make do.

 

[mysecondlife]

Lyrics. A lot of the times, I like the song for its messages.


Record label tells her that she needs to write a "hit" love song. She writes a hit song that says "No I'm not gonna write you a love song"

I like this song for its messages little more than music (I like the music as well).

edit: But what I listen for more than lyrics are structures. If the song sounds lazy and repetitive, its something I'm going to hate.

 

[Zombie Sodomy]

Lyrics. To me music without good lyrics is like a video game without a good story. "Ok, this is interesting but why should I bother?" I need something to keep me interested. In addition, I mostly listen to music for the emotional appeal, and music just doesn't convey much to me without words to go along.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The music. Though lyrics are sometimes important, I only see them as important in genres like rap where they are basically the whole point. I consider vocals to be more of an instrument in their own. I've found them most effective at boosting the songs' impact, like this jewel of a musical piece, which is indescribably superior to original just through the addition of vocals.

No matter how hard I try, I always tear up when she hits that falsetto at the end.

 

[thejackyl]

Lyrics are usually what I stick around for music for, however, if I stand stand the actual music I probably won't like the song as a whole. So I would say the music bit is a tad more important.

My mind usually picks up on the lyrics first though, provided the music itself hasn't turned me off.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Generally I like music for the music itself, but often when I come across a song I like I'm forced to spend the rest of it trying to decipher a single lyric so I can Google it when I get to a computer. Unfortunately the lyricists aren't always creative enough for that to be viable.

 

[thesilentman]

Depends on the song in particular. I don't give a rat's ass about the lyrics if it's something like The Count of Tuscany, but something like The Wall loses its impact without it. The music in The Wall is still top notch, but the lyrics elevate it to something genuine, which is something that I don't find that easily in most of today's music.

 

[deathzero021]

Majority of the time, i don't even notice the lyrics. Even after listening to the same songs over and over again i can't recall the lyrics, i just don't pay much attention to them.

This might be caused by the music i listen to. I listen to instrumental music, symphonic music, music with languages i cannot understand and music with harsh screamed vocals. So i just developed a habit of not paying any attention to the lyrics. I really don't care about the lyrics in MOST songs, i think it's just distracting on a pointless trend in popular music.

However there are exceptions for me. When listening to music with more clean vocals or music that is more lyrically focused, i pay more attention to them. Such as punk bands like Bad Religion or NOFX, i know the lyrics to a lot of their songs. It seems the simpler the music is, the easier it is to focus on the lyrics, which is probably why pop music is so simple. (it's all based on the singer and what crap they're saying)

I also practice vocals and i enjoy screamed vocals the most, however the lyrics aren't all that important to me, it's more of the sound of the harsh singing that's interesting when it comes to metal and hardcore punk.