Do lyrics enhance or distract from music?

I let the music itself overtake me before even attempting to understand the lyrics.
I like some lyrics, just not most. Then there are the pop songs that would be nothing without.


Don't get me wrong... I love it, but it's nothing we'd want an alien culture thinking "So, this is humanity."
 
Last edited:
I'm a bit more connected to what is trying to be said so often I prefer music with lyrics.

but I am a sucker for celtic/irish music and violin music. A complete sucker.
 
Though instrumentals move me, lyrics speak to me ... music at 180 proof is just as much as a handcrafted flutist playing from the soul ...

for examples

 
Really depends on my moods. I think I prefer lyrics when i'm doing work that requires no brain power but when I need to dig deep, its ambient or instrumental all the way for me.
 
Enhances to me. I really appreciate good sang poetry... Like this:

 
I wouldn't really say enhances or detracts as I think there's room for both, but ultimately I find that I prefer non-lyrical music as I think words are pretty terrible at conveying emotion in comparison to rest of the song. I usually use music as a catalyst for what I'm feeling, not really the situation I'm in so in that way lyrics can be kind of distracting. I very rarely pay attention to the lyrics of a song but I'll admit for the ones that I do they might be even more important to me then the one's where I don't focus on the lyrics or there isn't any.
 
It depends. I like songs that are in good harmony with the lyrics but it's not what I only prefer. Some instrumental music are okay with the way they are but I prefer instrumental music that have a meaning as if it tells a story with the way the melody is, otherwise it feels like someone having a seizure LOL as how Mozart pieces seem to me :grinning::grinning::grinning:. Some songs have a great melody but lyrics ain't in great harmony so I would rather want it without lyrics but some songs has great lyrics but the melody ain't in harmony with the lyrics so I would rather want another melody that's apropos for the lyrics.

What I mean by "harmony" is for example sad lyrics always goes great with sad melody and it's stupid when the lyrics are like "I'm so sad I want to horribly suicide" but the melody is so happy when irony wasn't intended LOL.

A great example for melody-lyrics harmony in a song:


And this is a great example for a instrumental music that tells a story:


I gotta say this one being without lyrics make it tell more with its melody because you would ignore the meanings that can't be conveyed with words if it had lyrics which can only limit the meanings this piece trying to convey with its melody. That guy translated a whole emotion into music and I think words never enough to convey emotion but music is more than enough — that's the fundamental power and importance of music in my opinion.

This song for example is a good reason for why lyrics enhance music:


The melody here conveys how it's so dynamic but basically the same in the street every day (can you hear the "bang bang bang" in the melody which symbolizes someone somewhere is probably murdered?) but it doesn't enough to make the song convey what it wants to convey so melody actually a supporter of the lyrics. Without lyrics the melody itself wouldn't have a clear meaning in my opinion.

This song is a good example of lyrics that distract from music:


Melody is like a Sega Genesis video game soundtrack which I like and makes me feel something bad-ass action moments happens in which people are killed and all when there is one cool person who always survives but lyrics are about sex which is eeewww and bruh his voice is so annoying I want to throw him out of the window LOL. Lyrics bothers me so much I can't enjoy the damn melody.
 
For me, most lyrics go over my head, i hear them simply as any other instrument... probably from my proficiancy (cannot spell that word.) in cantabile.
It solely depends on repetition of either voice.

If they feel like the piece could go with out... (in which i find a lot of rock to be pointless in this manner. (Like Rush, later AFI, or 90% of those Pop-punk bands.)

There are some i prefer they never had a singer like Dream Theater and that specific progressive rock.

Grunge Rock should never have existed. -_- that is one genre no one can convince me to appretiate, everything in it can be found in other locations with more dissonance or even more profoundity.

Metal and all it's subgenres are a hit or miss... some are really good for lyrical counterpoint some are just WHAT THE HELL?

Kiss... is another perfect example of no lyrics needed.

Onto pop. Pop is way too overrated. It relies on background lyrics. Droning out to some madness and causing such invigerating beats just with different colours attached to their songs... though pop has changed since the Beatles.

However with the lyrics being the prime focus it would enhance it... there are few pop artists who i would say it enhances, as they still incorporate a story or even a concept, rather than having a meaningless monotonous value...

Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music each have their value with lyrics, but again... please go back to hymnals and study those first... It just sounds like you are really trying to swoon Jesus so he invites you into his bed... (seriously... compare with the boy bands of the nineties and the Free Jazz bands of the Roaring Twenties. then tell me...)

Now one of the most well know works of all time is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It was innovative at the time because no symphony had used choir prior to this. At the time he was fully deaf and not realized that the music was complete and behind him was a standing ovation.

Personally i find that lyrics get in the way of the music especially when i am trying to concentrate on something let alone a discussion.

I may beable to hear a hundred different nuances of instruments being played at one time, but when someone is talking... it takes my focus away from their talking because the music is trying to tell me something...

I am a pianist composer... i tend to not sing very often... i tell a story with music using techniques of cantabile, dissonance, harmony, atonalism, chromaticism, ambient aleatory, and most of all emotion.

However... this specific recording of Fauré's Requiem is truly awe inspiring...
 
to add, as i don't know if there is a limit on the posts...
Country music kinda requires lyrics because the music often plays as basso continuoso rather than a melody.

Motown is one of the few genres i have little or no knowledge or experience of... Amy Winehouse is probably the only exposure i have that comes remotely close.

Blues is really interesting as it is dependent on which part of the US. some is more Gospel affiliated like Blues Brothers style... or more Jazz oriented like "There Will Be Blood" (the band not the film.) I prefer the Jazz oriented type as it tends to follow a story, while i've pointed out the gospel fallacy.

Then there is my hypocrisy and also one of my favourite bands, who sorta fall inbetween Blues and Jazz. Where they have some spoken word... which is suprizing even for me to enjoy. They've authentically inspired me to change genres from electronic to Avant Garde.

Hip Hop, much like country also require lyrics to be done, otherwise it's not quite hiphop...

and often times Hip Hop is the only genre that strictly lyrics enhance the music. Especially Early 2000s as it was the time when hip hop artists were more inclined to explore various techniques and styles. 90s and underground late 80s are okay... but the rawness of it kinda tore me away...


...However, to end my long as nerdgasm i'll conclude this with...
I think; if the lyrics overpower the music to where you pay attention to just the lyrics it would be a distraction, same with the music (but to a far lesser degree.) If the two play a counterpoint to each other, much like the Fauré Requiem, then it enhances. :3
 
I prefer everything with lyrics.
It's not to say there aren't instrumentals that resonate with me,
it's more that I'm more focused on how I can relate with
the song in general. Feel the emotion behind it.

Sometimes I feel music is beyond us, something ethereal,
and the addition of the human voice ties us to that something
a little more beautiful than the human form creates.

The blend of the two captures me.

I'm far too focused on the human element as a whole, in a lot.
 
You know... instruments often require a human element... (not DAW based music.)

Voice tends to be an instrument. (a lot of composers call instruments like violin, guitar, piano, as voices in their compositions. As they each are professed by a human who happens to practice their music well.

Here is a really good short piece that you have heard many times before in many sitations...


It is highly recognizable, the reason behind this is because it is one of the earliest of what program music professes. What program music is, is basically today's film music.

There are two kinds of program music the above Vivaldi and the below Marin Marais (In which a lot of metal was inspired through.)



:O initially this directed at you @yokai lol but ended up me nerding out... again. Sorry.
 
ESC2367 said:
You know... instruments often require a human element... (not DAW based music.)
Click to expand...

You're not wrong; I mean specifically that it originates from the human body, without the usage of an instrument as media, is all.
I mean no insult to any sort of instruments or music type; it's just a simple preference, is all, and I embrace both.

Thank you for the lesson on this, too. It's quite insightful.

lol but ended up me nerding out... again. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Hearing (or reading) someone talk about their passions is still quite beautiful. Don't be sorry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top