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

Yabu! I focus very much on lyrics. The most well crafted musically inspired tune can leave me cold if the lyrics are garbage or I don’t connect with them.
By this I DON’T mean classical music or music with no lyrics, that’s different. The best music in the world can have no lyrics, but if a song has them they better be good.

I'm a bit of both. I like a good hook and I can overlook (to an extent) lazy lyrics. I play guitar but it's all about the melody and guitar solos do nothing for me either.

Controversially I don't think Taylor Swift's lyrics are great on many of her songs - I think she found a formula and stuck to it.

To add to my reply- someone like Paul McCartney is a good example in my view. He has some genius songs but others which have lyrics which are just inane drivel, absolute rubbish, despite the music being well written, interesting and technically accomplished (Maxwells Silver Hammer- yuk!)

I prefer both music and lyrics to be decent, but I have a much higher tolerance for good music and poor lyrics than good lyrics and unmemorable music.

Which is possibly why I found Taylor Swift’s most recent album boring!

I'm a bit of a mix. I love a good lyric but it's the sound that makes my hairs stand up on end.

I’m all about the lyrics and DH is only interested in the music, he’s the one that plays musical instruments.
I find I just pick up lyrics really quickly.
we have two DC. One is all about the tune and one all about the lyrics 🤷‍♀️

I’m a lyrics person. Lyrically poor yet inexplicably popular songs actually piss me off.

Case in point-

Too bad your ex don't do it for ya
Walked in and dream came trued it for ya
Soft skin and I perfumed it for ya
I know I Mountain Dew it for ya
That morning coffee, brewed it for ya
One touch and I brand newed it for ya

Now he's thinkin' 'bout me every night, oh
Is it that sweet? I guess so
Say you can't sleep, baby, I know
That's that me, espresso
Move it up, down, left, right, oh
Switch it up like Nintendo
Say you can't sleep, baby, I know
That's that me, espresso

I mean… what?? It doesn’t even make any sense!!

I can sometimes forgive a song with crappy lyrics if it has great melodies and production but this has neither.

I'm definitely a lyrics person, I'm good at remembering all lyrics to songs so I can sing along to them, even ones I haven't heard for donkeys years. My husband is the opposite, he can't remember words to songs

Not a Taylor Swift fan, but Sam Fender writes incredible lyrics.

Huge Swiftie.

Lyrics are sooo important to me. And her bridges.. fuck, always the best part.

I love words. I don't listen to very much music without words and the words are very important to me.

In fact, lyrics plus melodies are what I like. Not really interested in music as rhythm or mood.

I prefer music to lyrics. One of the few acoustic bands I listen to is Cocteau Twins, and the lyrics aren't really discernable. Strong, punchy voices like Jess Glyn for example, leave me cold.

Generally prefer an instrumental, but I like the sound of the human voice reverbed, distorted and layered. Also, I think female voices sound much nicer than mens, which usually sound a bit cheesy. Bryan Ferry does cheese with aplomb though.

If it’s a song I like then I tend to learn the lyrics, but I’m not usually aware/bothered about the meaning of them unless it’s really obvious.
Occassionally I’ve learned the meaning of lyrics and it’s then spoiled the song for me.

I can't play any musical instruments but it is the music/arrangement that generally attracts me to a song. Having said that my very favourite songs are those where the lyrics - or probably the combination of words and music draws me in. 'The Boys of Summer' by Don Hendly is one, I am immediately in my mind standing in a deserted seaside town in the depths of winter when I hear it. 'Mrs Potters Lullaby' by the Counting Crows is another one, I love the imagery, reminds me of studying poetry in Uni.
Re Taylor Swift, 'Last Great American Dynasty' is a fabulous piece of story telling imo, the way she draws parallels between herself and Rebecca Harkness using their ownership of Holiday House as the base, the music of this one isn't important to my love of it.
My funeral song would be 'The Parting Glass', and that's down to the combination of lyrics and music.

Sheeran is such a shit writer.

What's that song where he sings about dancing 'with you between my arms'. I mean who says that? With you in my arms, maybe.

It's the music that grabs me. I've sent friends Spotify links because the song gives me goosebumps, that surge of endorphins ... and then I've realised that the lyrics are a bit derogatory - and the recipient is probably thinking 'wtf! Does she not like me'? So many people think if you send them a song it's because the lyrics have a message for them, but for me it might just be that it has a good bass hook.

If a song has decent lyrics though, it's a bonus. Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, Lana Del Rey, Robert Smith are great lyricists and I could quote their words like poetry.

I posted earlier I'm not bothered about lyrics, but on reflection, there's a few that I appreciate:
Brian Eno - Spinning away
K's Choice - I'm not an addict
Guy Called Gerald - Body electric
Q Lazarus - Goodbye horses
Roxy Music - More than this
Kate Bush too, I've just started listening to The ninth wave, and a bit obsessed with The Jig of Life

I'm a song person. In my favourites list I rarely have 2 songs by the same artist. Yes lyrics are important to me.

Ooh, what an interesting thread.

Definitely a "meaningful lyric" fan here.

Late DP was a muso in his downtime and introduced me to loads of songs I wouldn't have even come across until we met both aged 42.

Hawkwind - Damnation Alley - resonant because my Dad's a nuclear test vet.

PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke - This Mess We're In - (one of dozens that assumed meaning of immense proportion after he died).

I have a massive list of songs that are all about the lyrics.

When I was revising for my O-levels my Mum wryly commented it was a shame they couldn't set the syllabus to a few catchy tunes so I'd retain more educational information than pop songs.

On a "scientific" note (no pun intended) do you think that it's a mathematical versus language brain thing for some people? I am not maths orientated at all - failed the blessed O-level 4 times before I conceded defeat. I can do the basics but geometry and algebra are just "nope".

Language however is my thing - got A in Lit and Lang.

I'm asking because I accidentally ended up at a King Crimson concert and the music was described to me as music for mathematicians and it didn't really grab me at all. In fact it had been a long day and I nodded off halfway through.

I don't get jazz either - the type where it sounds like 6 different instruments are playing 6 different tunes - so I do wonder if it's a difference in the way people's brains are wired / process sounds?

Oh, and a track that sets me off every time? Pearl Jam - Come Back. For obvious reasons.

I walked out of a jazz concert once - apart from it just being a cacophony of noise, the absolute absence of lyrics practically sent me to sleep.

There's a book by Nick Hornby called 31 Songs where he writes the story of why his fave songs are what they are, and in it he writes about classical music, and how he can't connect to it because it seems to speak to huge and grand emotions, and not to the minutiae of life, like when you've been dumped and your flats freezing and you wish you could phone your brother but he's busy.

I totally totally understand that; I read it about 20 years ago and it's stuck with me since.

I walked out of a jazz concert once - apart from it just being a cacophony of noise,

Oh God, jazz😢 The sporadic nature of it. Where are the hypnotic, repetitive beats?

Exactly! Not to sound like a philistine but jazz is shite 😂

Louis Armstrong was not shite, not Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald etc. Acid jazz is shite.

@Withswitch

Ah, is that what they call it? I shall remember that thank you 😊

The other jazz artists you mention are great - I was brought up on Glenn Miller alongside the Beatles and Rolling Stones etc and you're right they are definitely NOT shite x Ah, fond memories .... ❤️

Louis Armstrong was a fantastic trumpet player, but a shite singer! His voice to me is like nails down a blackboard.