ReRushed Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 Lyrics are the last thing I explore when listening to a song. Melody and a hook usually pull me into a song, lyrics rarely do. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReRushed Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 To answer the actual question, lyrics and the average listener. Probably not much. For instance, take "Every Breath You Take". I bet most so-called average listeners think it's a positive love song. It's not. It's about a freakin' stalker. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 To answer the actual question, lyrics and the average listener. Probably not much. For instance, take "Every Breath You Take". I bet most so-called average listeners think it's a positive love song. It's not. It's about a freakin' stalker.Born In The USA is a great example. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytserush Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 Most of the time lyrics are pretty essential to me, but they don't have to be. I still listen to the Astonishing after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 For me, lyrics take a song or band from good to great. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
On TheRoad To Adventure Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 For me, lyrics take a song or band from good to great. Well said! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesweetscience Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 Vocals are more important than lyrics. For me anyway. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custom55 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 (edited) Edited June 27, 2018 by custom55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 Still a topic I'm interested in btw. I think I'm perhaps more interested in lyrics than a lot of the folks who have posted. While I tend to agree lyrics don't really make or break most songs for me, I often find it really helpful in connecting with a piece of music if there are lyrics I can use to paint a picture in my mind. I think one of the reasons Rush is so unique and spectacular is that, for a long time at least, Geddy and Alex wrote music which was able to support Neil's incredibly heady (and wordy) lyrics and work in near perfect conjunction with them to create cinematic journeys for listeners as they went through the song. Think of Xanadu for instance. Sure, it's an outstanding piece of music, but the repetition of the verses and the choruses probably loses value without the lyrics there to cast new mental images over the same or similar musical backdrop, making it all the more climactic when Geddy sings "never more shall I return; escape these caves of ice!" Musically this is pretty much the same as the verse preceding it, but the extra lyrical weight of trying to break free of Xanadu which the narrator had so longed for at the start of the song lends a new color and meaning to the same musical passage, helping justify its extra repetition. I also think lyrics are another aspect of the overall song which can be rendered in greater or lesser detail to help draw the ear towards various elements in the music and add another layer of complexity to a listener's understanding of the music. But now I'm speaking in terms of visual arts...see that's another thing that lyrics do for me. They help me turn the purely sonic medium into something visual in my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_hi_water._ Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Music > Vocals > Production > Lyrics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zepphead Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Depends on the song. As stated earlier good lyrics can elevate a song.However it's not always that important - for example in the prog genre I listen to a couple of French and Scandinavian bands who sing in their own language - I don't understand a word of it but still enjoy them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J2112YYZ Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Depends on the song. As stated earlier good lyrics can elevate a song.However it's not always that important - for example in the prog genre I listen to a couple of French and Scandinavian bands who sing in their own language - I don't understand a word of it but still enjoy them. Have you ever listened to any Mongolian rock before? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Depends on the style of music. I mean, I love Behemoth, and the sound and the lyrics combined with the overall effect of all the textures and general mood mean that I'm more invested in the overall sound than the message. Also, I love a lot of bands who sing in English, but English isn't their first language. I'm totally cool with the lyrics being a bit clunky at times, of pronunciation being a bit off. I love bands like Nightwish who write a lot of escapist songs where is just fall into the noise and live in it for a while. It's an added bonus when the lyrics actually mean something to me and hit me deep. Like the meaning behind Nemo, or the message in Our Days In The Sun, or the ambition and scope of The Greatest Show On Earth Or bands like Lacuna Coil, where lyrics are largely kept vague and abstract on purpose, as they like to try and tap into feelings rather than be so specific the listener needs a certain perspective only to understand what the song is about. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 But if Springsteen writes a poor lyric...eek... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zepphead Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Depends on the song. As stated earlier good lyrics can elevate a song.However it's not always that important - for example in the prog genre I listen to a couple of French and Scandinavian bands who sing in their own language - I don't understand a word of it but still enjoy them. Have you ever listened to any Mongolian rock before? http://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6ycWeird but cool!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 But if Springsteen writes a poor lyric...eek... It's so interesting that lyrics vary in importance from artist to artist. I couldn't care less what Slayer are singing about or how they sing about it, but when Metallica's lyrics don't quite hit their usual sweet spot of decent quality it's a bit jarring. Those two are even in the same genre! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughedatbytime Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 If they didn't matter to Eddie van Halen--and it's clear they didn't, because he played on songs where Sammy Hagar wrote them--why should I care? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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