Do you pay attention to song lyrics?

Lyrics are one of the most important parts for me, I like quite a lot of music because of the lyrics. It interesting trying to understand what the singer is trying to portray.

One of the best are mumford and sons because they write poetry and then the music comes after, they have some incredible lyrics, so do Thursday

No. Hint: Add poll.

Jrock fan right here. Didn't understand a damn word they said a year ago, so of course i don't pay attention. Now that I do partially understand what they are saying, I still barely ever pay attention to the lyrics. Same with English songs, I do listen to a lot of Bon Jovi(don't know why he's the only English rock star I listen to...) and the same thing happens... Still don't care about the lyrics.

If the lyrics are good, I listen to them. Sometimes they contain a whole other dimension that isn't apparent on the surface, which can be especially poignant when it wasn't actually intentional. For instance, the popular Jim Croce song "Time in a Bottle" was actually written for his (at the time) unborn son. How tragic that the song is about not having enough time to spend with the people you love, and that Jim ended up dying before his son's second birthday. It's almost as if he knew, though of course that's impossible. It's hard to stay dry-eyed whenever I hear this song now, and I'll admit there was a period right after I discovered all this where I didn't even try.

 

And then, there's Yes. There aren't enough drugs in the world for those lyrics to make any sense, though I'm sure Jon Anderson and co. made a valiant effort when they wrote it all up. Especially things like 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' (yes, I can make it through the whole album) are grating and incoherent lyrically, and I just try to ignore it and listen to the music. Which can be difficult sometimes with Yes, which you know if you've ever tried sitting through some of the more obscure stuff--almost always musically fascinating, but often lyrically cringeworthy.

 

Overall, I tend to listen to music with good lyrical content more than that with prosaic or pretentious lyrics. It just makes a better overall package, and it also tends to be more musically interesting, anyway. If the artist put some effort into the music and performance, then they probably felt the need to put some effort into the lyrics as well.

Edited by Argyris - 10/22/12 at 3:55am

Don't care about the lyrics. Prefer to not know what's being sung about. Much more interesting to hear the human voice as an instrument rather than as a letter. The total lack of knowledge about the song's linguistic contents keeps it open for you to interpret rather than being guided towards what the lyricist preferred.

Two songs with excellent lyrics...

 

 

Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer

 

The Killers - Human

well, i listen mostly to electronical music. if theres any lyrics theyr usually just catchy half sentences, these are easy to remember.

 

however, theres bands like faithless whos lyrics can be quite good imho. in this case i remember them perfectly. theres also bands like pink floyd or porcupine tree who dont get too much listening time anymore, but to this day ill remember the lyrics of my favorite songs.

 

on the other hand, i can just ignore the lyrics if i like the overall music, theyll have to be really bad to get me to dislike the song just based on the words.

 

so i guess it all depends.

it really depends for me. i listen to lyrics sometimes but mostly for the musicality or a certain type of musicality im feeling for atm. but if im hearing a new song and ive heard the lyrics are good if the musicality is not to my liking i may not like the song,lol so there has to be both. Im not sure if other ppl agree but id listen to a song with great instruments and bad lyrics but probably not listen to a song with great lyrics and ****ty instruments.

Lyrics are the very most important thing to me in music. Well, maybe tied with the emotion given to them. That's why I'm such a huge fan of Bob Dylan. His lyrics are light years ahead of any other lyricist, and his honest voice portrays emotion like no other singer.

 

He's an absolute master story teller, regardless of his song length. Something like Desolation Row, which is about eleven and a half minutes long, tells this huge, sweeping story about some counter-culture community, with oodles of characters, and lots of great imagery. He can also tell a fantastic story in a short amount of time. Something like When The Ship Comes In, which is only about 3 minutes long, tells of a ship coming in and laying waste to some oppressive force. Again, with fantastic imagery.

 

There are countless examples of his utterly amazing lyrics throughout his career. I encourage anyone interested in lyrics to check out his stuff. Basically anything between The Freewheelin' and New Morning are pure gold, with a couple excellent albums outside that stretch, like Blood On The Tracks and Desire. (If you have a hard time acquiring a taste for his voice, I'd recommend starting at Blood On The Tracks or Nashville Skyline. Nashville Skyline is far from his best lyrical work, but it undoubtedly has his smoothest voice.)