Are your lyrics important ?

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
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 ?
 
We sit around making fun of the lyrics all the time so I would guess they are not that important, but something has to be there.
 
My lyrics are always meaningful to me. Whether or not they're important to my listeners, I have no idea. I'll have to go find the 3 people that have ever heard my music and ask them :)
 
I don't know if I could actually claim my lyrics are important to me (or anyone else for that matter). I do not write personal songs in which I bare my soul.

I do try to tell a solid story about characters who perhaps have a rough road to travel - it often feel that characters come to me in the guise of the "Muse" and ask me to tell their stories. (Fortunately the voices in my head hardly ever tell me to do bad things). So - I take pride in my ability as a "wordsmith" to tell a story and I do try to write reasonably intellegent, articulate lyrics .......... but do I consider them improtant or meaningful ....... no.
 
My lyrics play a major part in the song. Whether they're important is dependent upon context. It's important to me that I write songs with good lyrics, but AFAIK they're not going to save lives in Syria or feed the starving... so not really important in the wider context of the world.
 
I don't think I can remember 1/4 of the lyrics of songs I've written in the past.....so in that regard, they are not important, as if they were about some deep, personal experiences or what have you....
...but when I'm actually writting a song, yeah, I think lyrics are important AFA what they mean to the song (not necessarily to me personally). IOW, I give them as much thought (maybe more) as I do to the rest of song writting/recording process.
 
Lyrics are important in my songs, but the music must match too.

As Rosanne Rosannadanna once said "You sure ask a lot of questions!"

ros.png
 
I like reading & listening to lyrics and as a result I find my lyrics have to meet a standard of topic or technical execution for me to use them.
I have plenty that sit in notebooks or in a comp file waiting to be cannibalized or rewritten because they didn't come up to scratch.
I know Greg pays attention to lyrics because he comments when lyrics are unintentionally assinine or deliberately preachy.
Besides I like the look and sound of words, (and sometimes the taste too).
 
My lyrics are either political or anti-religious or topical or philosophical, but they're rarely fun. Or successful! I've never been able to write a fun song, like "All I Wanna Do" or "Jack and Diane" ...
 
I used to think they mostly just needed to fit rhythmically with the song. Then my girlfriend (now wife) have made it very clear: words come first. Turns out it works for me too. I used to create a LOT of unfinished song intros or choruses. Now I sit and put down words. Odd but seems to make me more productive.
 
its different for everyone. sometimes when you are in a certain mood you just come up with things that are viewed from that lense, then other times you feel different and you look back on it and its not how you are feeling so it sound stupid, but really in the scheme of things its all good as long as its honest. then again, some styles of music require you to be abstract, if that is the case that is sometimes even more difficult. the job you have is also to provide the ride for the listener so there are some rules that you should follow but overall, yes lyrics are the only thing 95% of listeners hear when a song plays
 
For me the lyrics are important because the way I write is the lyrics, melody, rhythm all develop simultaneously. If after a verse or two or the chorus the lyric stalls, so does the rest of the song and it never gets finished.
 
I'm not typical of HR posters but, because I write for the musical theater, lyrics are absolutely critical.
 
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