How Important are Lyrics to You?

[Sigz]

Well?

[PlaysLikeMyung]

Very

BRGM doesn't know what he's saying

[Nic35]

Very important. I don't listen to TCOT anymore because the lyrics are just too awful.

[Sigz]

Very

BRGM doesn't know what he's saying

Actually for the most part I agree with him in this case.

And come to think of it, this should have been a poll. Oh well.

[sonatafanica]

It really depends. If the music is good, then lyrics won't bother me if they're bad. But honestly, I find more enjoyment from bands with good lyricists. For example, Modest Mouse is made just that much better by the brilliance in Isaac Brock's lyrics.

Overall, I'd say they're important to me depending on the sort of band. In Opeth, I don't think I know the lyrics to more than a few songs, though I love the music to death. In Pain of Salvation, they're a little more important.

[In The Wake Of Poseidon]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

[Adami]

Lyrics are interesting, but it's the one layer a singer has above any other musician. The guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, etc have to hit the right notes. Their melodies have to be good and so does their tone. All of this applies to the singer, however they also have to deal with the idea of lyrics. To me, they are very importan to an extent. I don't need super serious lyrics all of the time. And I have no real set of standards.

I can listen to Rhapsody at anytime, but can't listen to some Ayreon because of the lyrics. I can listen just fine godsmack, but can't stand some modern DT cause of the lyrics. No real logic behind it, I guess I just hold certain bands up to higher standards based on what else they do.

[setrataeso]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

Pretty much this.
I'll feel way more connected to a song if they have great lyrics. But good music is good music, and I try not to let less-than-stellar lyrics bog it down.

[ehra]

Honestly, it hasn't been until relatively recently that I'll listen to a song and what the singer is saying will register to me as actual words that have real meaning when strung together. It use to be that it was all just melodies and noise. It's really weird and I'm not sure what to make of it right now.

[Sintheros]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

This.

I love Even Less and Buying New Soul more because of their lyrics, but I don't like The Count of Tuscany or Ants of the Sky less because of theirs.

[Arcaeus]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

This. I don't mind if they're bad, but it's a big + if they're good.

[Seventh Son]

Considering I listen to a lot of death and black metal, not so much.

Great lyrics are a plus, definitely. But not a requirement. Otherwise I wouldn't be a Megadeth fan 

[skydivingninja]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

This mostly.  If the lyrics are really, REALLY bad, then I probably won't bother with it too much.

[KevShmev]

Very important, and I honestly feel sorry for those whom lyrics are not important to.  Not caring about the lyrics is like watching a movie and not caring about the dialogue. 

[The Letter M]

I think they're VERY important in regards to the quality and level of the music. Simple music can call for simple lyrics, and more complex music (i.e. concept albums, rock operas, thematic albums) can call for more complex lyrics.

I think good ideas that turn into good lyrics can sound great if backed by great music. Rarely do I feel that good lyrics are found with bad music. It tends to be the other way around - bad lyrics with good music (as some might say is the case with DT's "The Count Of Tuscany", but I've actually grown to like the lyrics BECAUSE the music is so good!).

One case for me is Neal Morse's lyrics since he left Spock's Beard. As someone who doesn't really believe in Christianity (anymore), it took me awhile to get used to his new lyrical style and presentation, but his music is just so damn good, I've grown to accept them as just another lyrical subject matter (much in the way Jon Anderson used Eastern philosophy and religion as a basis for some Yes material) that Neal has decided to use, albeit in a more direct manner. One song in particular, "King Jesus", is so overtly Christian Rock, but musically speaking it's one of Neal's best rock tunes and I love playing it full blast in my car while spinning One.

In other artists, though, sometimes the lyrics do have to be intelligible, and smart, and not simple "love ballads" or "hateful screamers", but there's a time and place for those as well. For the music I listen to most, I think the lyricists do a GREAT job in conveying what they mean and put it with music that matches it so well.

So in other words, yes, lyrics are VERY important, especially when it comes to making or breaking the music behind it.

-Marc.

[Adami]

Very important, and I honestly feel sorry for those whom lyrics are not important to.  Not caring about the lyrics is like watching a movie and not caring about the dialogue. 

Thank you, please go to the "most talented member of DT" thread and back me up.

[Seventh Son]

Very important, and I honestly feel sorry for those whom lyrics are not important to.  Not caring about the lyrics is like watching a movie and not caring about the dialogue.  

Or maybe I care about the music much more so than the lyrics? I have a lot of bands I listen to, and honestly, there is a threshold where you can't look up the lyrics to every song in your library. Looking up the lyrics to about 10,000 songs would drive me crazy.

The music caries so much more emotion and feeling than words have the capacity to do, I like to think.

P.S. If it means anything, I don't consider DT's lyrics that special, with a few exceptions. There are times that they stand out here and there, but for the most part DT's lyrics aren't really that special to me. I listen to them because I like their music.

[KevShmev]

Or maybe I care about the music much more so than the lyrics?

So, really, vocalists in the bands you like might as well just sing wordless vocals, right?  I mean, if you don't care about the lyrics at all, it
wouldn't matter to you if they weren't singing any actual ones, right?

[The Letter M]

Or maybe I care about the music much more so than the lyrics?

So, really, vocalists in the bands you like might as well just sing wordless vocals, right?  I mean, if you don't care about the lyrics at all, it
wouldn't matter to you if they weren't singing any actual ones, right?

Also being the case, do you have any music you listen to that you like from other countries, meaning they sing in their native tongue and not English or any language you speak/understand? There's LOADS of great music out there (more than I'll ever know) from parts of the world where they don't sing in English... I think that'd be perfect for people who don't care so much about lyrics.

-Marc.

[Sigz]

Or maybe I care about the music much more so than the lyrics?

So, really, vocalists in the bands you like might as well just sing wordless vocals, right?  I mean, if you don't care about the lyrics at all, it
wouldn't matter to you if they weren't singing any actual ones, right?

Might as well. As long as it sounds good I don't particularly care most of the time.

[pogoowner]

To me, lyrics have much more ability to drag a song down than to lift it up to a higher level. I don't pay all that much attention to them except when I specifically notice that they're bad.

[MetalManiac666]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

[MykeHavoc]

Second only to the melody line.
But lyrics are indeed very important and I go through painstaking levels to scrutinize my work until I feel its perfect...
and even then I'm always thinking about how I could tweak bits here and there later on.

As for artists I listen to? I usually don't care about their intended message.
Example: Nevermore's opening track off their new album is pro-life. I'm very much pro-choice
and just had to recently go through the hardest decision in my life and actually go through with getting an abortion
with a girl I'm dating...yet I won't let it hinder my enjoyment of the song.
I like Trouble, who are a pro-chrisitian doom band, but I'm a hardcore atheist.

There's a million examples of artists I disagree with thematically.
That's irrelevant though. Music is there for enjoyment first and
foremost, and for thought provocation afterward.

[Seventh Son]

Or maybe I care about the music much more so than the lyrics?

So, really, vocalists in the bands you like might as well just sing wordless vocals, right?  I mean, if you don't care about the lyrics at all, it
wouldn't matter to you if they weren't singing any actual ones, right?

Think of it this way. Its not what is said that is important to me, but how its said.

If I cared so much about lyrics, I wouldn't listen to a lot of the bands that I do. I'm not religious, but pro-religion lyrics don't bother me for the most part because I don't put too much stock into it.

[toro]

Bad lyrics take away no enjoyment for music for me, but great lyrics add a ton of enjoyment.

This

For Example i can listen to TCOT over and over just beause to the music, not paying much attention to the lyrics but when I DO get TCOT lyrics, i listen to LTL instead. 

[ZBomber]

Its really important to me, unless the band specifically doesn't give a shit about lyrics. But for bands that I would expect quality lyrics from given their past (like DT), I get disappointed when we are stuck with clunkers. At that point, it does take away from the song as a whole.... the music is still great. but lyrically, it will always bother me, like The Count of Tuscany.

But since one of the things I love doing with my time is writing lyrics, they mean a lot to me, and is what I associate with the most when I listen to music.

[AcidLameLTE]

It depends on what type of music I'm listening to, to be honest.

[wolfking]

Doesn't really bother me to be honest.  Sometimes if I read lyrics they may add enjoyment to the atmosphere of the song, but a lot of the time it makes no difference.

[j]

If the lyrics are astoundingly bad, they can seriously hinder my enjoyment of a song.  This happens fairly often.

If they're extremely good AND fit the music particularly well, they may take my appreciation of the song to a higher level.  This happens very rarely.

In general, I think most lyrics are average (or weak) enough that the aspects of them I tend to enjoy have more to do with the way they sound, or the way they are delivered by the vocalist, than what they are actually saying.

-J

[Fluffy Lothario]

Very

This was going to be my "in brief" answer.

If I find the lyrics to a song atrocious, I won't even give it a chance, with very few exceptions. Pretty bad lyrics won't completely ruin a song for me, though I won't listen to it often.

And generally, if I don't absolutely adore the lyrics to a song or album, it'll have a very hard time climbing high in my favourites.

Though this doesn't mean all my favourite songs are lyrically elaborate poetic masterpieces. Simple lyrics pulled off brilliantly are brilliant lyrics. It's also about the style of lyrics fitting the style of song.

I have a lot of bands I listen to, and honestly, there is a threshold where you can't look up the lyrics to every song in your library. Looking up the lyrics to about 10,000 songs would drive me crazy.

If a good enough percentage of the lyrics isn't reasonably discernible enough for you to get a sense of the quality of a song's lyrics by ear, it's not worth listening to, simple as that. There are exceptions, I suppose, but again, very few. Lyrics are extremely important to me, but I'll usually only look them up once they really start to interest me or impress me.

Also being the case, do you have any music you listen to that you like from other countries, meaning they sing in their native tongue and not English or any language you speak/understand? There's LOADS of great music out there (more than I'll ever know) from parts of the world where they don't sing in English... I think that'd be perfect for people who don't care so much about lyrics.

-Marc.

Lyrics in another language is an entirely different matter. Assuming your competence in that language is low to nonexistent, as you're suggesting, the threshold of effort required to actually familiarise yourself with that band's lyrics is far too high to bother trying to judge them on the quality of the lyrics.

Normally, for lyrics sung in other languages, I'll find out what the songs are about, perhaps follow it with a translation of the lyrics, but anything beyond that I don't think I've ever done.

[Adami]

To be make a point, there is a difference between bad lyrics and foreign lyrics. You can't say "Well you have no idea if the foreign ones are good, blah blah blah". If I have no idea what they're saying, it's neither good nor bad. If I know what they're saying, they can then become good or bad.

If I hear a song in finnish that translates to "Then I went shopping and bought some cool shirts and blew brad pitt in the back of a volkswagen", but I don't know the translation, then I don't care, cause then it just sounds pretty.

However if that same song is in english and I can make out what they're saying, I'll hate it.

[ZKX-2099]

Why not just read poems if you like lyrics... 

[Adami]

Why not just read poems if you like lyrics... 

Are you serious? I honestly can't tell.

[tri.ad]

Why not just read poems if you like lyrics...  

Good God, what is this?!

Lyrics are kind of important to me, but I don't base my opinion of a song solely on the lyrics. Still, very good lyrics that work well together with the music can put this song on a higher level. Also, bad lyrics can narrow my enjoyment of a song.

[ZKX-2099]

I'm sorry. I'll revise.

Why not just listen to spoken word poem recordings if you like lyrics...