Occasional aversion to voices in songs

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I was wondering if anyone is ever kind of bothered by the human voices in songs. I've loved music since I was kid, have played in bands before, etc., and this thing about voices isn't something that always bothers me. But it seems like sometimes I just really want to hear instrumental music because the singing, words, etc., in songs seem to carry too much emotional "noise" or whatever.

It's like, if there are words in the songs, then you have to listen to them and think about what they're saying. And maybe the words don't quite fit how you feel, or want to feel, right then, and there's this sort of "cognitive dissonance." And people often sing about emotional turmoil, relationships, etc., and maybe you don't want to hear about all that heavy stuff while you're trying to clean or something. Which is not to say that I always listen to "light music" (a lot of stuff I've tended to listen to is pretty far from that, actually), or that I don't have any appreciation for singing, vocal ability, etc., because I definitely do. It's just that sometimes the voices, the lyrics, that whole sort of human "presence" that comes with singing, just seems too intrusive or something. But, as I said, thankfully this isn't something that always bothers me, and I still do listen to plenty of music with lyrics.

Absolutely! Well-written post and I've often felt that way. In fact, as a kid and teen, I listened almost exclusively to instrumental music (prog-rock, instrumental guitar, classical) because I couldn't stand vocals. Honestly, I'm sitting here trying to think about what insight I can add to this but you've pretty much nailed everything; "singing...seems too intrusive or something" I can really relate to this, specifically. Like you said, I don't always feel this way and I can't say I'd love Radiohead if they were purely an instrumental group but overall, a lot of vocal tracks can almost put me on edge, I guess. Also, nice username .

Thanks so much for your very complimentary reply. I really appreciate the positive feedback. I haven't been officially diagnosed with AS, but I have so many traits, like the lyric thing I mentioned, that sound exactly like things that people who have been diagnosed describe about themselves. I'd be pretty amazed at this point if I don't have Asperger's.

Btw, I came across a very nice instrumental, or mostly instrumental, prog rock album yesterday. I don't know if it would be your cup of tea, but it's called "The Snow Goose," and is by a band called Camel. The album came out in 1975. So if you're interested, you might check it out. I thought the title song was especially good, but obviously people's tastes vary.

While I'm thinking about it: doesn't Thom Yorke kind of seem like the epitome of someone with AS? I don't know if he actually has it or not, but he certainly seems to have that "vibe" about him.

Yes. That's why I can't listen to songs in my first language.
With English I can tune out the lyrics easily and enjoy the vocal as another instrument.

Yes, you nailed it with the "cognitive dissonance". I prefer downtempo and trip hop and other mostly instrumentals. Always thought that downtempo is a very aspie form of music

As for diagnosing strangers, all I really know about Thom Yorke is that he's aloof and makes beautiful music, so he might as well be a schizoid as an aspie.

I listen primarily to classical music. That said, I avoid opera whenever I can. I have albums by about 600 composers but not one opera in the lot. I do like the music, though, so occasionally I look for Opera Without Words albums. They've made a few of Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Gershwin and Bernstein. I don't know why but the singing just irks me, like nails being shot through my temples.

These replies all are really interesting to me. I've read about many symptoms that are commonly seen with AS, but I don't think I've come across any mention of this thing about voices/lyrics before. Obviously, it's something I've noticed in myself, and since I've gotten more info. about AS I just kind of assumed it was associated with that; I never realized, though, that a lot of other people probably have the same issue. I mean, this is obviously a small "sample size," but the fact that several people have responded since I made the first post yesterday kind of makes me think it probably isn't an uncommon thing.

I was struck by Yuzu's comment about tuning out the words and enjoying the vocals as just another instrument. I think that's one thing I like about shoegaze and some dream pop music. The vocals are often buried deeply in the mix, and have lots of effects on them, so it's hard to make out individual words. The singing just becomes like another instrument.

My boyfriend is like this. He likes jazz, although he does enjoy some classic rock such as Bob Dylan.

I think it's much easier for me to hate music with vocals, if I don't like the singer's timbre.

What's your opinion of foreign music?

If by foreign music you mean "world music" (as I believe it's often called), I haven't really listened to a ton of it, but I do think it's interesting. I've always been fascinated by other cultures, and music is definitely a part of culture, etc. I guess world music would be in that big category of things that I've been meaning to find out more about, but haven't really looked into yet as much as I would like to.

If you just mean music that's in a language other than English, again I'd have to say that I don't really have that much experience with it. Of course, I've heard some songs in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, etc., but it hasn't really been a big part of my regular listening.

If your question wasn't actually directed at me, then just disregard my rambling! Sometimes I talk too much when I'm tired (or else I hardly talk at all).

Yes it was directed at you, and I was referring to the latter. I'm asking if vocals in a language you don't understand still annoy you.

I can only really listen to clean vocals. It's hard for me to make an emotional connection to singing if its growling or screaming, as opposed to a guitar solo or drum solo.
If there is bad singing, I don't have the will to ignore that and pay attention to the rest of the song, so singing can be important to me.
There are bands that I have listened to plenty of times without knowing what they were actually saying, and I could still appreciate the songs for the other instruments.

Is that similar to anyone else here?

Hmm...It seems like the experience I've generally had with that is a strong desire to know what they're actually singing about (other languages are really interesting to me), which kind of distracts me and makes it hard to just listen to the music. Also, it seems like the "intent" behind the words can sometimes make a difference to me. So if, based on the way the music sounds, etc., it seems like they're probably singing about something I don't really want to hear about right then, then that can sort of bother me (I know that sounds kind of ridiculous since I can't actually understand the words, but a song tends to take on a certain mood or atmosphere based on what I think it's about, which can then have an effect on my experience of it).

It seems like I have had the thought before of maybe listening to more music in other languages to see if it seemed more "neutral" to me or whatever, but my experience was kind of what I described above. As I mentioned in the first post, this thing with words/lyrics really kind of comes and goes for me, and right now it actually hasn't been bothering me as much as it has at some other times (maybe talking about it has helped - haha!). I did think it was a curious phenomenon, though, and I had been wondering if other people who considered themselves autistic to some degree had experienced it.