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