"Listen to this song"

Post Reply New Topic

I find often people ask me to listen to a song, they want me to listen to the words.

Do song words matter to you? For me, I prefer the melody and find it quite difficult to be passionate about the words to songs.

Other times, I might really like a song, but then I find out that it's about something totally different to what I thought it was about.

It depends on the song. I like the lyrics of some songs, but a lot of them I like just for the music itself.

Usually the sound matters more than the words. Though if the words are obnoxious enough, I can grow to dislike the song.

For me it is usually difficult to understand non-verbal arts, like paintings or songs. So for me song is "poem+sound", so I listen to the words first. I like reading poems too. Even if I listen to instrumental composition, I prefer to read some kind of explanation or description before, to know, what way I should follow when understanding the song.
The only case, when words are not important for me is when I listen to music for relaxation. Or low-bass rhythmical dark music. it helps me to concentrate sometimes.

i like lyrics

My mind naturally blocks out the lyrics to music - it only pays attention to the instrumental music.

The words matter alot to me ... maybe because religion/ethics may be my big thing. Once in college I was at a campus dance with my then-girlfriend and the dj put on a song that I considered was especially morally objectionable, so I didn't want to participate in that particular song. GF said her approach sometimes was to just let the words slide and enjoy the music. (We both had musical backgrounds.)

Years later I was attending a folk festival with another young woman I was interested in (a friend), and the performers started singing a song in honor of the Hindu goddess Kali, and encouraged the audience to sing along with them. We were both reasonably devout Christians -- in fact, met through church -- so I felt I didn't wish to, while she did, for reasons similar to the above.

More recently I've sometimes found myself out somewhere, where the sound system was playing oldies rock songs, eg from the 1950s. I wasn't alive then, but heard more of them as a child or adolescent on the radio than since. And since I've become more aware of, say, sexual matters, since then, now I hear some of those songs for the first time in decades, and am shocked at what was sometimes said or clearly alluded to in them -- as well as, "Wow, what did I think this song was about?! !!" Generic romance, I thought ... not necessarily all-but-graphic detail.... Not just the well-known ones like "Under the Boardwalk," "Double Shot of my Baby's Love," etc., but just about anything it seems.

And very recently because of a health problem, I've spent an inordinate amount of time in a particular supermarket chain whose sound system plays the same couple hundred pop songs from the last couple decades, over and over and over, and I eventually wondered how we're programming ourselves thereby, especially employees of such places. And of course songs haven't gotten any *less* provocative since the '50s: "Lay down beside me, lay down beside me, lay down beside me, lay down beside me...." I'm not completely inexperienced in that area, but Shoot! In a family supermarket?!?!?

I guess it's hard for me to reconcile myself to disregarding the words when I question them in ways I have always considered important. Not impossible: There are probably a few classic rock songs -- '60s-70s -- where the music is so skillful and fun to listen to for me that I don't let myself get too worked-up over the words.

Is it just a matter of musical (accompaniment) taste in the end?!

---Pete

I like lyrics.

Singer´s voice and music are also important but I am usually more attracted to lyrics than voice/music.

I like most songs for their melody/beat, but a few for the lyrics. But if I have to choose between good lyrics/crappy beat & good beat/crappy lyrics I'll take the good beat any day.

The lyrics don't mean as much as the instruments to me, but if it has good lyrics I can like it even more, and if the lyrics are just awful in any ways, or mentions things I'm not too keen on (love songs, for example. on the other extreme, gangsta raps as well), then usually I'll dislike it.

I still think melody > lyrics, but if the lyrics are really good then they can do a lot for the song. I love poetic lyrics that cause visual imagery, or meaningful lyrics that make a good point.

Especially when the vocalist is so good that the singing is basically an instrument in itself. A high-quality expensive one.

I find word in songs somewhat distracting. I prefer instrumentals. Listening to "world" music is interesting because I can't understand the words, so it's like the voice is just another instrument. I have tried for years to get a band together that would play instrumental rock ( I love Man or Astro man and old surf/garage rock) but to no avail. All my NT friends can't live without vocals. Perhaps I should start an Aspie band.

Each decade has its own sound, lyrics, beat and melodies. The combination of those elements that made up a lot of songs, from the 60s, compliment my ears and my spirit, the most.