Are your lyrics important ?

The lyrics I write are extremely important . . . to me. I spend a lot of time on them crafting them.

When I listen to someone else's lyrics, I don't really care what's sung except to the extent that the sound of the words and syllables fit with the music and that I don't get jarred by cliches, stock phrases and by, well, just plain bad writing.

I also get irritated by songs in which you can't hear the lyrics very well. If the vocal line is buried beneath the music, I wonder why they bothered with words and didn't just sing 'da da da' or something.
 
When I listen to music, it's like a peanut butter an jelly sandwich. You've got a percussion/rhythm section (the bread) carrying the music to your ears, the guitars and pads/strings/vocal oohs and aahs in the background (butter to help it go down smooth). The main music progression/riff (the sugary bit) and the vocals (peanut butter). It's the first and most dynamically entrenching part of the song. If you get a good hook, it gets stuck (just like gluing your mouth shut) and you remember it. You may not know all the words, but some lines will always stick out (like the crunchy bits in the peanut butter).
...(MAN I MUST BE HUNGRY with all these food analogies) :eatpopcorn:
 
BroKen_H said:
When I listen to music, it's like a peanut butter an jelly sandwich. You've got a percussion/rhythm section (the bread) carrying the music to your ears, the guitars and pads/strings/vocal oohs and aahs in the background (butter to help it go down smooth). The main music progression/riff (the sugary bit) and the vocals (peanut butter). It's the first and most dynamically entrenching part of the song. If you get a good hook, it gets stuck (just like gluing your mouth shut) and you remember it. You may not know all the words, but some lines will always stick out (like the crunchy bits in the peanut butter).
...(MAN I MUST BE HUNGRY with all these food analogies) :eatpopcorn:
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I think that is a very interesting analogy - it seems logical to me
 
grimtraveller said:
If you write songs that aren't instrumentals {:D}, how important are the lyrics you write, in general ? Are they meaningful, are they meant to be meaningful ? Are they an afterthought ? Are they more important than the music or less so or are the two indivisible ? Are they just carriers of the melody or rhythmic shapes ? Is their meaning irrelevant as long as they fit well ?
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When I was young the lyrics were all-important. I'd read them as poems if someone asked me to. As I got older lyrics got so unimportant to me I decided to write intentional gibberish at one point. Now I've sort of eased back to halfway between the two extremes, with lyrics that reflect my thoughts but not my deepest emotions, and I throw in a line of pure surrealism every now and then because I like the way it floats.
 
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My lyrics are important to me. Maybe or maybe not for listeners, but whatever. I'll keep whining about my problems and they'll keep listening :p
 
Yes, absolutely. I make rap music, and the lyrics are definitely the most important part of it. I'm working on a concept album about my struggle with depression. Falling into it, being stuck in that pit, and climbing out. I treat my notepad as therapy. I'm more honest in my lyrics than I am with myself at any other time. I'm totally and completely vulnerable when I'm writing. I have friends that had no idea I was even depressed, because I'm shitty at talking about stuff like that, and my lyrics help me express what I've been going through. It gets it off my chest and into the ether. Even if hardly anybody listens, it's truly for me, and it's done more for me getting out of my depression than anything else has.
 
When I listen to new music, the lyrics are usually the last thing I focus my attention on.. but I've found that if I have a set of lyrics I'm happy with, they can actually aid me in coming up with more organic vocal melodies, both rhythmically and melodically..
 
In my opinion, the melodies, rhythms and musical composition of a song cannot stick out as a song without lyrics and vice-versa. Both the song needs the lyrics and the lyrics need the song.

I spend hours and hours writing pages of lyrics about what is important to me. Lyrics benefit songs in a way that no musical instrument can.

So yes, I think they're incredibly important, if not crucial.

If anyone hasn't already heard of or listened to ELBOW, then please do. The lead singer, Guy Garvey, is a lyrical god.
 
Dave-Curran said:
In my opinion, the melodies, rhythms and musical composition of a song cannot stick out as a song without lyrics and vice-versa. Both the song needs the lyrics and the lyrics need the song.

I spend hours and hours writing pages of lyrics about what is important to me. Lyrics benefit songs in a way that no musical instrument can.

So yes, I think they're incredibly important, if not crucial.

If anyone hasn't already heard of or listened to ELBOW, then please do. The lead singer, Guy Garvey, is a lyrical god.
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A moderate response...
 
All my lyrics are dummy lyrics. I hate writing them. I like the music composition part.When I have all that recorded,I dread sitting down with a note pad to write the words.So I just wing it and slap any old nonsense down so I can get the song completed.
 
Lyrically speaking I prefer my wheels on the chariot rather than in.
Elbow?
Lyrical God, really?
Elvis Costello'd be the omnipotent uber creator then?
PJ Harvey's pretty good at words.
Nick Cave's pretty good at words.
Geezer Butler's pretty good at words.
Little Purple Circle's pretty good at words.
Most music I listen to and enjoy has a good basket of verbage incorporated.
Schoenberg wasn't too flash at words but he knew a good libettist when he read one as Pierrot Lunaire so wonderfully dmnstrates.
Mc Cartney's pretty good at melody but he's rubbish with words.
On occasion (10% of the time) ABBA was pretty good with words - particularly given they were dealing with a 2nd or 3rd language - and mainly in their latter works.
David Smith's pretty good with words.
Some bloke I've read - name of Tagbo - is pretty good at words (though we don't get to hear 'em).
Regarding my own lyrics I'd have to be honest and say they aren't about me or my struggles with the lids of jars & the contents of sandwiches. Occasionally I've written about someone but once I made it beyond 20 I stopped writing about me & mine so I've spend almost twice my ME era writing about other stuff. I included lyrics with my album because I think they're important parts of the song and whilst I like the idea of folks working out what the words are & their own meanings I rather better like the listener having at least some vague idea of what I was on about except when it's word play (which it often is) but even then the play/pun/fun sometimes needs to be seen to be heard or to paraphrase XTC OBscene to be OBheard.
 
in iran the layric is a most important part of music - becuse or people listen very carefuly ! they want a power full music in each part of that ! and surely the layric is a part of a music in and if you say itsnot so i have to say whats the diffrent betwen a Music without words and a
Music with Words ? i think we want to Convey our feelings with music and the words is so importan about it! whats your opnion friends ?
 
I think lyrics are definitely important, but in many different ways. They can be funny, clever, meaningful, mindless party slogans. It is hard to write good words without being cliché etc, but I only record music with vocals, I never record instrumentals, so I work at it and do the best I can.
 
I think melody is more important in songwriting than lyrical content. If you take away lyrics from a great melody at least you've still got that great melody that you end up humming all day or make up your own lyrics to. Take away music from the lyrics and you may be left with a greeting card that you read once, think 'ah that's nice' for about 30 seconds, and then discard.
 
ScofieldK,
Not a fan of poetry I assume.
Greeting cards are often bland or cliche ridden.
Song lyrics are often as well.
GOOD lyrics aren't and can, if necessary, stand as words alone.
Melody - obviously can stand alone if its GOOD.
Good elody & good lyrics = ++good.
 
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