How Important Are Lyrics ?

[Marlowe]

I have been noticing, recently, how the lyrics are usually the last thing I think about, and how little I care for what they mean.

How important, for you, are lyrics to the music you listen to? Do good lyrics make the song better and/or do shit lyrics make the song worse?
Do you even care what the **** their singing about so long as you dig the vocals and music? Or is finding an interpenetration and meaning in a song imperative?
Is the world lacking in instrumentals?

 

[flight23]

i like hip hop, so yeah pretty important, probably the main thing

 

[bunsen burner]

Minimal. Many over rate lyrics. It's the music that makes lyrics come alive.

You can listen to the best lyrics ever but if they are attached to a George Michael song then they probably aren't going to work for you. Put those lyrics onto something that moves you and all of a sudden they come to life.

 

[bunsen burner]

i like hip hop, so yeah pretty important, probably the main thing

Says a lot about the quality of hip hop.

 

[He_Beast]

phoenetically, texturally - as important as anything else

literally - good lyrics are good, but they are good lyrics, they don't really contribute to how I feel about the music (though how the **** do I know what's making me feel what way, subconsciously?)

 

[bunsen burner]

literally - good lyrics are good, but they are good lyrics, they don't really contribute to how I feel about the music (though how the **** do I know what's making me feel what way, subconsciously?)

common sense. You're instincy is correct - the music makes you feel that way, whilst the lyrics are just a layer over the top that can enhance the experience.

Take AC/DC's Back in Black. Universally regarded as one of the best albums of all time. All killer, no filler. Just a good hard rocking album. But the lyrics - poor. Just a bunch a dumb chauvenistic words. Doesn't nothing for me. The music does though.

For me, same goes with RATM. Not into their silly socialist lefty crap, but the music rocks.

 

[AtomicBlonde]

For me, very important.

I love reading and have worked as a writer since I was still at school because I love words and language and the marriage between great words and great music is like nothing else. The trick is there are far less great lyrically driven songs out there than there are great musically driven songs so you have to dig a little deeper to find them but when you do, it makes the world.

 

[Macca19]

Minimal for me.

 

[He_Beast]

common sense. You're instincy is correct - the music makes you feel that way, whilst the lyrics are just a layer over the top that can enhance the experience.

Take AC/DC's Back in Black. Universally regarded as one of the best albums of all time. All killer, no filler. Just a good hard rocking album. But the lyrics - poor. Just a bunch a dumb chauvenistic words. Doesn't nothing for me. The music does though.

For me, same goes with RATM. Not into their silly socialist lefty crap, but the music rocks.

I think it's similar to movie scores. You can have a great score, but it won't make the movie great - it's an addition, a complimentary piece of art. And you can listen to it on it's own (or read lyrics).

 

[Tex_21]

Totally depends on the style IMO. I like metal, where the lyrics are usually shithouse (few exceptions, but in general). However, I also like country music, which can have great lyrics (and shithouse as well - see Alan Jackson's "Where were you", or anything by Taylor Swift) that really add to the song.

 

[bombermick]

You can have good music with shit lyrics, but great lyrics lift songs to another plane. "Nothingman" by PJ and "Lateralus" by Tool are two examples of that.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

For someone like Bob Dylan, very important. For someone like Dick Dale, not important at all.

 

[j0rdy1]

As im a big hip hop/rap fan lyrics are very important, not only what they are talking about but the flow. But if a song as a banging beat then I don't mind shitty lyrics, songs like these.

 

[muttweed]

Depends.

Shit music/vocals = better ****ing have good lyrics.
Good music/vocals = don't care.

Nirvana is a perfect mix of good music-good vocals-legendary lyrics

 

[raven echo]

Nirvana is a perfect mix of good music-good vocals-legendary lyrics

Totally agree with you but it's funny how little emphasis Kurt put into lyrics. It was music first for him, lyrics a distant second.

 

[muttweed]

Totally agree with you but it's funny how little emphasis Kurt put into lyrics. It was music first for him, lyrics a distant second.

Yeah that's so true. I don't see how his lyrics could get any better, let alone when he would put in significant effort.

With a lot of Nirvana songs, their lyrics are just intentionally confusing and they sound like something...I can't explain...just something really spiritual or dreamish. It's amazing.

But there are exceptions like About a Girl, Polly, Lounge Act etc, where there's a straightforward meaning

 

[raven echo]

Yeah that's so true. I don't see how his lyrics could get any better, let alone when he would put in significant effort.

With a lot of Nirvana songs, their lyrics are just intentionally confusing and they sound like something...I can't explain...just something really spiritual or dreamish. It's amazing.

But there are exceptions like About a Girl, Polly, Lounge Act etc, where there's a straightforward meaning

Yeah some of those songs were so non-linear. Just different snippets of poetry and ideas thrown together to form lyrics.

Where as you said some other songs like About a Girl etc. were much more structured.

Incredible lyricist

 

[CURVE]

If I was an artist and someone liked my music yet dismissed the lyrics as unimportant I'd probably be a little disappointed. At the very least. The lyrics are very important to the artist as they are trying to tell the listener a story or inspire them.
As a listener I find myself paying more attention to the lyrics than I did in my youth, and in some cases songs I liked previously I'm liking less because the lyrics sound out of context, out of place or just plain stupid. Whenever I hear those songs now I struggle to enjoy them the way I did in the past because I'm waiting for that awful line.

 

[He_Beast]

Mike Patton and AC Newman have both said they primarily focus on the phonetics of their lyrics - and they're certainly not the only ones. I mean why should we expect that a great musician is also a great writer?

 

[Holy Foley!]

I read somewhere that generally people listen to music for either A) for the lyrics or B) for the melody, and depending on which brain you are; left or right (I can't remember which one), this determined A or B.

Personally, I couldn't care less for lyrics. It's all about the instruments.

 

[CLUBMEDhurst]

Mike Patton and AC Newman have both said they primarily focus on the phonetics of their lyrics - and they're certainly not the only ones. I mean why should we expect that a great musician is also a great writer?

Same could be argued for the Melvins, case in point "hag me"



It all depends on context. For bands like the Melvins lyrics ain't important. Singer/songwriters like Eddie Hinton, very important

 

[Cruyff14]

Music > lyrics.

But when you have amazing music accompanied by lyrics just as good, it is something really special.

 

[cammo84]

For me, it depends on the style of music. Hip hop is centred around lyrics more than some other genres so it is quite important. Metal has some pretty silly lyrics, but it's more about the music and vocal sound rather than the lyrics. I read an interview with Max Cavalera where he said that Sepultura used to record demos of songs with him just singing gibberish and they would write lyrics that fit into the melody later.

 

[Tex_21]

I read an interview with Max Cavalera where he said that Sepultura used to record demos of songs with him just singing gibberish and they would write lyrics that fit into the melody later.

If you listen to Metallica demo's, Hetfield's vocal work is often very similar, just rambles shit, then comes up with lyrics later. Contrast it to Megadeth, where the demos are basically the finished version, probably due to Mustaine running a very tight show - his show.

 

[00Stinger]

Depends.

Shit music/vocals = better ******* have good lyrics.
Good music/vocals = don't care.

Nirvana is a perfect mix of good music-good vocals-legendary lyrics

I remember seeing an interview with Kurt Cobain and he said lyrics were totally over rated and didn't mean much to him. He used 'My Sharona' as an example. WTF is My Sharona? Who cares? the song is a classic