DO LYRICS MATTER AT ALL

[Floyd.]

Can you like a song that may be racist, or about rape or whatever you disagree with but still like it for the sound? the question becomes more obscure when you don't know the language of the singing, yes?

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

If the lyrics of a song are particularly reactionary, then I take offense to them and will not vonluntarily sit through the song. Doesn't mean it doesn't have good musical value, I'd just rather not listen to anything that is degrading to women, blacks, latinos, the working class, socialists, etc.

[revoevo]

Lyrics generally mean more to me than the sound. If I just want to mellow out and listen to something, I'll just listen to something for the music, but I won't listen to it if the lyrics offend me, even if the sound is good.

[Jesus Christ]

Its all based on opinion

[Mano Dayak]

the lyrics are the most important thing in a song, without them it would just be a piece of music with no attractivity.

[monkeydust]

I couldn't disagree more, I personally feel that a heavy focus upon lyrics actually undermines what music should be about.

Feel free to disagree, as I'm sure most people here will.

[Ortega]

Lyrics make the song for me. The music usually doesn't matter all that much, but it makes good backup and gives the lyrics rhythm....

[Al Creed]

He's The One,
Who Likes All Our Pretty Songs
And He Likes To Sing Along
And He Likes To Shoot His Gun,
But He Don't Know What It Means

"In Bloom" - Nirvana

[Inti]

It really depends on the mood... But usually I get happy like a boy in a candystore when I find some new song with political lyrics, sometimes you might learn about things you wouldnt get to know otherwise.. thats also why I often prefer rap.. poetry with some good beat to it.. :D

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

I agree with Left.
In many songs the voice is the most melodic part, but I look for good instrumental parts probably more than to vocal parts.

[FatFreeMilk]

yes and no. Mostly no though. I love rap. I'm sure if you read the lyrics to alot of rap songs, anybody, everybody, would be offended. But I like the music itself (or at least the hook) :huh: This is kinda hard to explain. But in some songs the lyrics are what's really important. If an artist can have good instumentals and excelent message you'll have something to treasure, or something.

[El Brujo]

Already been discussed: http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?a...ST&f=10&t=21168 (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=21168)

[Floyd.]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2004, 10:52 AM
the lyrics are the most important thing in a song, without them it would just be a piece of music with no attractivity.
What about classical?

[Mano Dayak]

ok ok, classical music is a totally different thing, that's music designed for pure music and no voices. Anyway, with a few exceptions, I don't like classical music.

[Exploited Class]

I always look at it this way.

Music that is suppose to convey or communicate feelings to people, then lyrics are of the most importance.

When they are just suppose to convey mood, feelings, atmosphere, then they aren't needed and any voices in the music is just an instrument like the rest. Like Ultra Lounge music or Pop, Jazz.

But lyrics are open to interpitation, can be studied and repeated. They can make specific important messages more easy to remember and repeated. Union chants, 60's peace era messages, 90s discontent.

Lyrics can teach and be passed on. They are as essential as written books, movies with messages.

[suffianr]

If it's electronica, then lyrics will almost always appear as something that 'compliments' the track, whether it might be full-blown crooning ala Portishead or bits of voice samples like Underworld.

But for other genres that are heavy on vocals, the lyrics are sometimes 80% of the song, if not the song itself. I like listening to the Deftones because I like to hear Chino screaming like a madman, no offence to the rest of the band, but if Chino were to run up on stage and just scream intelligibly into the mike for 15 minutes, then that would be fine with me.

[celtopunk]

Originally posted by El [email protected] 28 2004, 12:34 AM
Already been discussed: http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?a...ST&f=10&t=21168 (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=21168)
Not really, but sort of. Anyway the lyrics are very important to me if there are lyrics but I also like good instrumental stuff too. I won't enjoy a song if I don't like the lyrics.

[The Children of the Revolution]

What about instrumentals? There are some wonderful artists out there (Joe Satriani being a particular favorite of mine) who use NO LYRICS AT ALL and still get a fantastic "song" together.



When they are just suppose to convey mood, feelings, atmosphere, then they aren't needed and any voices in the music is just an instrument like the rest. Like Ultra Lounge music or Pop, Jazz.


This is certainly true, although music WITH lyrics can do this as well...

[atlanticche]

ive said yes but the lyrics do not have to make sense they need to be simple easy sound right, but not some utter bollocks, but theyve got to make some sense but not if you know what i mean,
eg.
THE BEATLES lyrics - "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"



(Lennon/McCartney)

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newpaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds (fade out)

[hazard]

the question isnt worded properly

are people polling the "do lyrics matter at all" question, or "can u like a song and not the lyrics"?

[atlanticche]

do the lyrics really matter, to how good the song, i think

[honest intellectual]

I'm not surprised that most people here consider lyrics so important. That's very evident on this forum.
I think music is, for the most part, an aesthetic art - it need not have meaning.
I listen to loads of vocal-free music and stuff with meaningless lyrics or lyrics about a guy who wants to have sex with a girl; it's still great music. I don't listen to rap much.
Lyrics are only important if the musical style emphasises them. Like 'songpoetry' a la Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed (in the eighties). That stuff wouldn't be much without great lyrics, but for rock, pop, jazz, classical, punk, electronica, lyrics don't matter at all.

[Invader Zim]

It depends on the situation, I like lyrics a lot, and I think that they are an important part of the song. One opf my favourate bands; tool, they very much rely on vocals and lyrics in their style. However if you take a band such as the manic street preachers, (who are usually very good for vocals) but listen to the album, the Holy Bible, then a lot of the lyrics are very hard to make out, but thats probably their best album.

[celtopunk]

Originally posted by honest [email protected] 1 2004, 10:12 PM
I'm not surprised that most people here consider lyrics so important. That's very evident on this forum.
I think music is, for the most part, an aesthetic art - it need not have meaning.
I listen to loads of vocal-free music and stuff with meaningless lyrics or lyrics about a guy who wants to have sex with a girl; it's still great music. I don't listen to rap much.
Lyrics are only important if the musical style emphasises them. Like 'songpoetry' a la Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed (in the eighties). That stuff wouldn't be much without great lyrics, but for rock, pop, jazz, classical, punk, electronica, lyrics don't matter at all.
Lyrics are very important in punk, unless you are listening to generic crappy pop-punk.
The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Subhumans, Bad Religion, Stiff Little Fingers, I could go on and on and on, all these bands have powerful lyrics that are just as important to the song as the music, and in some cases more important.

[Stapler]

Well, depends on the song, Case in point: Judas Priest, The lyrics of judas preist are pretty much just funny, and well, just percussive sounds to enrich the "Music". Whereas when listening to political songs, the lyrics are very important.

[Hate Is Art]

i love the feeling when you realise what the song is about, as a writer of song lyrics for my band i would feel ashamed if people didnt pick up the subliminal messages there.

[hazard]

all of the new songs I've heard lately have had the most imbecilic approach to lyrics I've ever encountered. utterly revolting.

theres this one song or band, thnk its called brand new, and not only are the lyrics repugnant, the music is as bad as I've ever heard. its like listening to a couple of tone deaf quadropeds holding their instruments with their hooves and breathing and whimpering the most irritating and idiotic sounds into three minutes of music ever. like do they have to end every fucking line with some stupid sounding drawn out breath? and what the fuck is going on in the chorus? the bass line is as unrhthymic and AS incredibly agitating as watching a fish flop around on the shore of a lake. and did the studio really have to mix in little words with every end of every line when the puppets they have performing this horror show exhale? its like these idiots got a hold of the nineteen sixty technology of stereo sound and did as many idiotic and irritating and imbecilic things ALL AT THE SAME time. if you ask me its testing the public to see what and why and how they tolerate something. "the art of growing up" really sounds like the "art of throwing up", which is less an artform than a biological function. and if the goal of this song was to induce vomit, I should let the morons responsible for it in on a little secret. sticking your finger down your throat works much better and is faster.

[nezvanova]

well, i think it does vary. There's some songs i wouldn't stand if not for the lyrics, and others that, despite how much i dslike the lyrics, i really like them! example: I love the chord progression and melody of the beatles "across the universe" but i find the lyrics contrived and pretentious. Or, Nirvana's "lithium" I love to play that song on guitar, and i love to sing it, but the lyrics are harsh. "I'm so happy 'cause today I found my friends, they're in my head. I'm so ugly, it's okay cause so are you (something?) ears. Sunday morning, is everyday for all I care, and i'm not scared, I light my candles, in a daze since i found god" I dunno, i find the lyrics to be a real downer, but the melody is fun! same with "on a plain"

On the other side, I love the lyrics to 'smells like teen spirit' whenever my band gets together we play this song. sure, the guitar and bass and drums are fun too, but it's not really my usual style of music, but the words are just great.

anyway, I think it really depends on the song, and what the lyrics are.

[dark fairy]

you can like a song and not like the lyrics but it is complicated because the lyrics build up a song and then theres jazz and stuff like that, that don't have lyrics because it doesn't want to make you feel something im particular it's music that you have the choice of feeling happy or sad or however about and kind of make it your own... kind of corny but that's how i feel about it
:)

[dark fairy]

oh yeah and classical kicks ass and doen't have lyrics ok lyrics aren't that importan when your all for musical value and then theres people like me that don't mind when a song makes me want to punch someone in the face because my anger has to get out some how :)

[Soviet power supreme]

These two things should be examined as two different things.

Lyrics isn't music.The singer's voice is music.You guys have listed so many great songs but have you thought what it would sound like if someone who cant sing and have a terrible singing voice would sing these songs?

[bubbrubb]

i guess they do most of the time but for some they dont matter at all i mean look at techno its just weird noises made on a computer with almost no lyrics. sometimes i just like the beat :ph34r: