How important do you guys feel lyrics are to a piece of music?
Obviously it plays a big part in the whole song writing process and it depends on the genre sometimes, but sometimes i feel like when people criticise music they tend to only bring up and focus on the lyrics because they don't know how to explain what's good or bad about the actual music.
Do you guys agree with this? What are your guys thoughts about lyrics in music?
Depends on the genre.
If it's pop/country/singer-songwriter/folk then the lyrics are usually pretty forefront, and the music is pretty simple.
But if it's something like Prog then it's the opposite. I don't listen to EL&P for their lyrics, and I don't listen to Bob Dylan for his instrumentals.
>>64308628
How willing are you to forgive bad instrumentals for good lyrics and vice versa?
>>64308586
after getting into electronic.. none at all. it´s a nice add but i dont really need to hear human body as another instrument. unless you´re doing rap or pop which has a message but deadmau5 sounds good without 3 minutes of blog copypasted on the track, so can other beats.
>>64308586
I think the lyrics can add a great deal and they can also take away. If the vocal performance is good and matches the music I don't think the lyrics matter too much though.
>>64308672
If the lyrics are good I can deal with three chords.
and vice versa.
eh I generally care more about how the musician's voice sounds and how they use it to add to their music. does that make sense? I'm tired and can't find the exact words I'm thinking of. But for example I really enjoy animal collective's music because of how they use their voices as instruments rather than just singing the lyrics
>>64308734
Im rereading this and it makes almost no sense I'm sorry everyone
>>64308766
it's fine
>>64308766
I think you made your point clear enough. Sometimes the delivery is just as if not more important than the actual lyrics. Reading Death Grip's lyrics isn't exactly going to have the same impact as hearing MC Ride belting them out.
lyrics are gay
I have a pretty extreme view about it i think. I think i can forgive pretty horrific lyrics if the music and vocal delivery is good enough. If people are so caught up in lyrics, then maybe they should just look into getting into poetry or something
I can forgive a song with bad lyrics if the song is good enough, but nice lyrics can make a good song great. Pink Floyd's Echoes is my favorite song, and really even if it had no words at all I would still love it. But the poetry really propels the song to a different level.
What would you guys say is the best song with the worst lyrics and vice versa?
>>64308731
exactly. Heroin is a 7 min song with two chords, and a great song.
>>64309076
Early Phil Spector like the Ronettes have competent but extremely soulless lyrics, but is still great music. Pink Floyd has a lot of really stupid lyrics after Syd was kicked out but pretty good music still.
I can't really think of anything the other way. Very lyrics oriented music tends to be pretty sparse so it's hard to really fuck up. There are some songs that are really boring both lyric and music wise that still have one cool line though, like that terrible pop song Jar of Hearts has the line "You're gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul" which if it didn't try to be so damn serious could have been a Magentic Fields line or something.
>>64309146
Heroin is very advanced musically though, even if it isn't hard to play on guitar.
>>64308766
I understand what you mean man, MBV's loveless is like this, the lyrics are more so sound than anything. There are words in there and you can memorise the lyrics but you won't be able to understand them just by listening to the songs, its more so part of the music.
>>64308672
>>64308586
I can forgive mediocre instrumentals for good lyrics, but I can't forgive good instrumentals for shitty lyrics. See DRONES
