Sunday, March 20, 2011

Lyrics and music

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with one friend of mine. We mostly talked about some bands we like to listen to, the lyrics of their songs and what kind of live shows they do.

At some point one of my friend's other friend joined us while we were discussing about some band's lyrics. He soon declares that in his opinion the melodies and talented playing are far more important than the lyrics of the songs. Kind of an interesting point of view I must say, but also a bit funny. Atleast we had a nice discussion about it, and he did have a few good points to back up his opinion.

I think it is understandable, kind of, since we were talking about metal music, where you often have to look up the lyrics yourself from the album booklet or from the internet. Because, tbh, most of the time your ears/mind can't extract the words from the vocalist's performance.

Anyways, the funny thing was, that the person I was talking with only knew the names of the songs of a certain artist, but had no idea what the songs were about. I was a bit amazed of this, because I've usually kept the lyrics as one of the main reasons to like or dislike a band/song. I mean, if the lyrics were really something close to utter bs, it immediately decreases my interest towards the band. Ofcourse this is a rather extreme example and it doesn't apply in all cases, but you get the idea. Atleast I would find it a little strange to cheer for a band that praises something in its songs I fully disagree with.

In the end, I think we managed to convince him to take a closer look to the lyrics of the bands. I hope so. Not necessarily memorize all the lyrics, but atleast to get a faint idea what the songs are about. 

14 comments:

  1. interesting point. if you take a look at the modern history of songwriting, you'll find most of the best songs are a product of a close collaboration between two individuals: the composer and the lyricist.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lyrics are so important to me its frightening

    ReplyDelete
  3. well if lyrics are important then what's wrong with Friday, Friday, Friday and My jeans

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm more about the melody than the lyrics but I do listen to them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am about both, the lyrics can kill a song if they are lame though

    ReplyDelete
  6. i like instrumentals quite a bit because you can say so much with just pure music. however, lyrics can also make a good song excellent but i can't stand bad singers. there have been many a time when i start a song and it sounds great to only be ruined by some terrible vocals thirty seconds in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love intrumental tracks, the lyrics can ruin the song easily if it's not well made

    ReplyDelete
  8. i find lyrics important, but the melody more important

    ReplyDelete
  9. Its a part of song making that this gets missed out... Like that Friday song but whats her face... the lyrics are SHOCKING!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I sometimes get disappointed with the lyrics, ignorance is bliss, they say.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lol, I just learned about this "Friday Friday" phenomena, I guess I've been living under a rock or something.
    I also happened to read a very detailed analysis of it, quite an interesting point of view I must admit. :D

    ReplyDelete