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Music vs lyrics |
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HackettFan 
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Joined: June 20 2012 Location: Oklahoma Online Status: Offline Posts: 564 |
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 Topic: Music vs lyricsPosted: July 03 2012 at 20:14 |
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Good lyrics can make a song bad too. Marillion had fantastic lyrics. The lyrics worked very well with their music on their first album. The lyrics remained fantastic through Misplaced Childhood, but by that time it just seemed to be a venue for Fish and all I was thinking was "Enough already! Could I please hear an instrumental!!" Frank Zappa is another case (please forgive me - all hail Zappa!). Truly top notch lyrics with social and political commentary and satire, which I love in moderate doses. Some of his albums, though, are relentlessly lyric driven that it doesn't matter to me good they are. I just end up looking around for my three favorite Zappa albums; Shut Up n Play yer Guitar, Shut Up n Play yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up n Play yer Guitar.
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Indy
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Joined: January 18 2012 Location: NY Online Status: Offline Posts: 5 |
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 13:36 |
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I like it if it has a good beat and you can dance to it...
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Indy
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Joined: January 18 2012 Location: NY Online Status: Offline Posts: 5 |
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 13:42 |
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As long as it has a good beat and you can dance to it... couldn't disagree more with people who believe vocals are just another instrument- that may be true if the lyrics are nonsensical sounds and not words- a Singer has a responsibility to communicate the perceptions being shared by the songwiter- how well he accomplishes this determines how good a singer he is.
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rogerthat
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 20:22 |
The first job of the singer is to sing the words well. I get confused when I see aspiring singers in vocal forums go on and on about range. I think the voice quality and the inflection which the singer produces on the words are very important. The latter maybe not so much in case of more unorthodox styles like that of Liz Fraser. |
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Slaughternalia
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Joined: February 17 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 896 |
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 20:32 |
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I really like good lyrics, but sub-par and average lyrics don't take away from music for me. Embarrassingly horrible lyrics can be distracting though.
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I'm so mad that you enjoy a certain combination of noises that I don't
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smartpatrol
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Joined: April 15 2012 Location: My Bedroom Online Status: Offline Posts: 9411 |
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 20:53 |
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I seem to be interested in both equally.
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Ambient Hurricanes
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Joined: December 25 2011 Location: Cotopaxi Online Status: Online Posts: 2088 |
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Posted: July 11 2012 at 21:52 |
This. But although so-so lyrics don't distract from the music, I think excellent lyrics can really elevate the music to an even higher level. I think I may have said this already in the thread, but it was a long time ago: I don't like to separate music from lyrics as if they were two completely different things; the question "music vs lyrics" really doesn't make a whole lot of sense with regard to the type of music we're talking about. The lyrics are an integral component of the song just as much as the guitar part or the vocal melody or the drum beat. Just like any other component of the song, terrible lyrics can ruin the thing, average lyrics can be ignored, and excellent lyrics can really lift a song. When we're talking about a song, we're not talking about some sort of side-by-side milkshake where you have music on one side and lyrics on the other; the lyrics are one component of the song mixed in with all the other components. They are no more and no less important than any of the instruments' parts.
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"The hero's journey is the journey from strength to weakness."
- John Green |
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rogerthat
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Posted: July 12 2012 at 10:18 |
Yeah, I like good lyrics that I can relate to but I don't mind average or even poor lyrics as long as I am enchanted by the music. |
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smartpatrol
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Posted: July 12 2012 at 13:16 |
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ScorchedFirth
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Joined: May 16 2012 Online Status: Online Posts: 187 |
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Posted: July 24 2012 at 20:33 |
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Music is more important, but can be made more powerful if married to lyrics with thought put into them. Ultimately great music without the words doing much feels like an opportunity missed a lot of the time to me. It doesn't even have to be massively insightful, what's important is it has been chosen specifically to go with the music.
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breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking, spewing, sleeping...
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BassoonAng
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Joined: July 22 2012 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 112 |
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Posted: July 24 2012 at 20:41 |
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When I'm driving in the car and I hear the glissando as the song transitions from In The Rapids to It, I feel like Han Solo going into lightspeed in the Millenium Falcon.
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The Dark Elf
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Joined: February 01 2011 Location: Michigan Online Status: Online Posts: 1591 |
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Posted: July 24 2012 at 21:46 |
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Well-crafted lyrics often transcend the need for complicated music. Here are two examples, one of limited accompaniment, and one with none at all (a capella):
Moving and memorable. Edited by The Dark Elf - July 24 2012 at 21:49 |
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Please pay a visit to my blog...The Dark Elf File...a slighty skewed journal of music reviews, literary comment, fan-fiction and interminable essays.
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Slartibartfast
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Joined: April 29 2006 Location: Atlantais Online Status: Offline Posts: 26083 |
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Posted: July 24 2012 at 23:22 |
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Lyrics are overrated, music wins every time.
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WormHole
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Joined: July 24 2012 Location: OutOfThisWorld Online Status: Offline Posts: 24 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 03:24 |
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if you ask me music is more important than lyrics
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Dayvenkirq
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Joined: May 25 2011 Location: Reno, NV, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 7529 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 04:15 |
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For me, music for the most part. It keeps me alive ... I think. Don't know any experiential lyrics ... or, at least, I don't remember any.
Edited by Dayvenkirq - July 25 2012 at 04:16 |
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Saperlipopette!
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 05:55 |
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I'm more interested in how the lyrics are sung rather than what they mean. Just finished listening to KC's The Great Decevier (the track). The Cigarettes, ice Cream... figurines(?)-part is stuck in my head the same way that monster riff is. I know what the words mean and in the context of the tune they give me certain (or rather uncertain) feel. I also remember Wetton aggressively spitting the words Health food fa****t!... right after the riff. Who's the great deciever in the song? Satan himself or that eh... other guy? The rest is a blur - Virgin Mary... perfume... cold winds... cadillac, blue jeans(?) etc...I don't know excactly what it's all about and I'll probably never bother finding out, because this is how I prefer to relate to lyrics.
With some poets/storytellers such as Tom Rapp, Leonard Cohen, Roy Harper or Joni Mitchell paying attention to the full lyrics comes naturally. But most of the time lyrics connects me to the music in a similar way as a musical theme, a solo or a riff does. A word here... a sentence there, that in combination with other sounds creates an atmosphere, mood or establishes a universe.
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mister nobody
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Joined: June 03 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 979 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 06:09 |
I never knew, until yesterday, that Fripp wrote lyrics for The Great Deceiver. An interesting fact.
Edited by mister nobody - July 25 2012 at 06:10 |
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M27Barney
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Joined: November 09 2006 Location: Swinton M27 Online Status: Offline Posts: 892 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 06:25 |
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If you approach this from a scientific POV - If you disconnect your human speech interpretation sub-routine then the human voice is just another instrument along with all the rest - then the listener can determine whether or not the human instrument is complimentary to the rest or a counterpoint to...whether meaning to be or not.....
I think that Jon Andersons voice seems almost part of the music sometimes...thats why I like it so much....
If you want to parse the voice and interpret the lyrical message...then your brain is doing something else completely - thus you have two ways of listening....I mainly switch off the syntax parser...and take it as a whole....What about you?
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If music be the food of love......play on
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M27Barney
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Joined: November 09 2006 Location: Swinton M27 Online Status: Offline Posts: 892 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 06:28 |
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^ I definately have to do this when I'm listening to the "Whirlwind" - coz the lyrics wind me up....so just ignore them...
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If music be the food of love......play on
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Dellinger
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Joined: June 18 2009 Location: Mexico Online Status: Offline Posts: 3771 |
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Posted: July 25 2012 at 18:31 |
Jon Anderson has said that he thinks about lyrics as another instrument... not just vocals, but the words. As far as I understand, that's why sometimes Yes's lyrics don't make sense, because Anderson sometimes chooses the words for how they sound together, more than by their meaning. |
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