To ask whether you’re a lyrics person?

[Forwardthinkingcrayfish]

Having heard various people say many times this year that Taylor Swift “is a lyrical genius”, it suddenly dawned on me that when I’m listening to any vocal music (even my favourite artists/bands) I don’t pay attention to the meaning of the lyrics!

Disclaimer: I’m a classically trained pianist (without wanting to come across as snobby… believe me I listen to cheesy pop too!). I believe my mind has been trained to focus on rhythm, chords, melody and some other aspects that, when put together, make the general “feeling” of a song for me… but lyrics really don’t fall into this list.

I genuinely think that a song could be about monkeys in a zoo or the treatment of sewage and if it’s sung with feeling, then I’ll enjoy it and wouldn’t probably pay any attention. I enjoy rap music because of the rhythmic and rhyming nature of the lyrics, but don’t especially care about the content of the lyrics themselves.

Of course, there is no right or wrong answer to this poll but I’m intrigued:

YABU - Lyrics are really important to me and I pay great attention to them when listening to a song
YANBU - I don’t/rarely pay attention to lyrics

As a fully fledged swiftie, yes lyrics are really important to me! But I think you're right about how your brain was trained to listen to the music not the words!

I am a words person - lyrics are important to me.

I like the lyrics - when I listen/pay attention to them. But above all I'm a music person. I wonder if it was the music lessons I had as a child/teen that influenced that? (Piano and violin)

Intetestingly, I would call myself a words person too - in the context of enjoy poetry, books etc., but just not with regards to vocal music!

Oh and also I enjoy Taylor Swift songs too!

I’m not a musician in any way, I love listening to the melody of music but the words pretty much have no meaning to me. I make them up most of the time anyway!
I’m not interested in or excited about Taylor Swift just in case we need to declare our feelings on this 😂

I can't remember music well unless it has lyrics; I remember lyrics very clearly. My DH and DS are the reverse - they have a great memory for music and are hopeless with lyrics.

I'm a lyrics person but it does depend on the tune as well. I don't like Taylor Swift though.

I am not classically trained, but I don't really listen to the words, or at least don't think about the meaning - they're mainly part of the tune to me. Most songs that I can sing along to, I couldn't easily tell you what they're about.

Occasionally a line or two will speak to me, but that's it.

Definitely a lyrics person here. Otherwise, who’d listen to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits sing? 😊

I have a fairly high level of musical education and I’m exactly the same as you OP. It was a source of complete amazement to me when DD started to learn lyrics and analyse them (in an age appropriate way) from as young as about 3. I never really thought about them!

I get annoyed if I can't quite hear or make sense of the lyrics in a song, so I think that means they're important to my enjoyment.

Hmm, I think it's a bit of both for me. If the music is terrible then the lyrics will not save it for me. But I do like powerful lyrics to sing along to.

I’m genuinely like “damn” at some lyrics.

Take Kendrick’s song about Drake calling him out.

“Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minor”

I'm with you OP, lyrics don't matter at all to me

On a side note… can anyone else actually make sense of what she’s saying in that new “Espresso” song? 😂

“bum bum bum bum… COS I’M A SINGERRRR”

I'm a metal head and though I love lyrics, I do tend to focus more on feeling the bass line and following the drums and guitar rhythm 😁

I love a clever lyric, many of my favourite songs are 'story songs' but that doesn't mean I can't love an instrumental or something with bland lyric.
I have no musical training/ability so I'm probably much less aware of the technical aspects of the music than the OP.
I'm mehh about Taylor Swift, not hugely familiar with her stuff, have liked a few songs of heard on the radio but nothing has grabbed me either lyrically or musically and made me want to seek out her music.

Until recently I had NO idea there were people who didn't know the lyrics to songs. Even if I'm not keen on the artist I usually have a good idea what they are singing about.
(See username).

I prefer the sound of music. I can't even hear the lyrics apart from perhaps a repeated chorus. As soon as I read them, oddly it all becomes apparent. Quite a surprise when I revisit old songs. I've tried to listen to every Swift album, and only really clicked with Folklore. Still have no idea whatsoever about the words, so perhaps that's why I don't get her.

Interesting - had this conversation with DH recently and it turns out we experience music in very different ways. Lyrics are very important to him, I completely ignore them and it's all about the music.

I'm definitely a lyrics person. I love to find meaning in a song.

I'm not a Taylor Swift fan but I do like her song Karma.

Not really bothered about lyrics. I know all the words to eg Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell but I never think deep and meaningfully about them beyond maybe “Perhaps Paul Simon write that when he was homesick” or “Carey was probably a real person”. I did a literature degree as well of that matters. I mainly just like songs I like the tune of.

I could pick both. I love lyrics but many of my favourite songs have none.

Simon is kind of an odd one out for me, he's just an ordinary player in the key of C. And yet I love listening to his words. Lou Reed too.

That song isn't Taylor Swift!