Music vs Lyrics

Submitted by FlightBunny t3_yujr01 in Music

What makes a song good for you? For me it's primarily the music, I rarely know what a song is about other than the general indication from the chorus/title. It's the beauty of the music and sounds, especially synths, that make me love a song.

Is this a rare thing, because most people I know seem to think it's the lyrics that make a song good, or memorable. (I realise the music obviously has to be at a certain standard as well)

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Mercury5979 t1_iw9p07q wrote

I rarely listen to the lyrics. They are always secondary to me. I struggle to sing along to almost any song other than a handful I have come to know. It blows my mind how people talk about how good a song is and are only referring to the lyrics. Anyway, I love harmonies, layers and rhythms that challenge my mind.

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Platypus-15 t1_iwa2y46 wrote

I like quite a few "song songs" as I call them (the ones with sung lyrics), but I will ALWAYS prefer to listen to an instrumental any day of the week. The lyrics are NEVER -- and I mean NEVER -- the attraction. In some cases, they may be the cherry on top. For example, The Eagles' "Desperado" comes to mind.

My thing is film scores, so obviously, no lyrics there. I prefer to paint the landscape of my imagination with the beauty of the harmonies, to feel the narrative via the melodic lines.

The music itself speaks a language that swells my heart in unbounded ways.

I don't need words for that.

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MumblingInTheCrypts t1_iwa5nwz wrote

It's a combination of both. I don't need to understand the language or hear the lyrics clearly in order to enjoy the music, but lyrics can completely spoil my good time if I look them up later and don't like them. Good lyrics will also elevate my opinion of an otherwise good song.

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PricelessLogs t1_iwadyus wrote

Lyrics aren't music. They're lyrics. Poetry that has been given a musical form. If you like the vocal melody, then that's one thing, but lyrics are just words. So, if someone likes a song for the lyrics rather than anything else, then they don't like music. They like poetry. Nothing wrong with liking lyrics, but if you listen to music only for the lyrics, then you don't actually listen to music

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Antifreudian t1_iwb5002 wrote

Sometimes the lyrics, Sometimes the sounds, Sometimes the drum rhythms are what gets me to like a song

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nowAfterhours t1_iwbcv02 wrote

The lyrics as well as the music itself is very important, if the beat is very weak, then the lyrics will not help much here, because the song is very unpleasant to the ear. But I bet on this order:

  1. Beat
  2. Voice of the person
  3. Lyrics
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