Are instrumentals 'songs'?

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mjbphotos

mjbphotos

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I think this was asked in another thread. Some arguments going on in a FB songwriter group with a (primarily) lyric writer saying that unless you have a verse/chorus/etc structure, it's not a 'song'.
 
After checking a few dictionary sites, and in the context of this forum, a song is a piece of music that is intended to be sung. An instrumental could be a song if an instrument simulates the part intended to be sung. I didn't find any definition that refers to any particular structure.

J
 
So there's just as much a division here as there. So I guess the answer is 'it's a personal decision"!
 
If I, in an otherwise normal conversation, referred to an instrumental and said something like "you know, that song San Pedro by......" and the other person went "ab-ab-ab! Did you say song?!".. I would probably just leave the room. No good-byes, nothing, just turn around, walk, and never interact with this person ever again. Especially not on facebook.

I guess what I'm saying is that IMO it doesn't matter. It's just semantics.
 
mjbphotos said:
Go back and read the page 1 replies again, Gecko and jcm's answered disagree.
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I didn't read them that way at all.

The first sentence in gecko's wiki link "In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing or by musical instruments"

I don't know what side of the fence gecko falls on, nor do I care, but the link he used says that an instrumental is a song.

Nothing really surprises me with goofy internet people and their silly opinions, but I am a little surprised that anyone involved with any kind of music wouldn't agree that an instrumental is a song. Everything that western music is derived from is instrumental. Are those ancient classical compositions not songs?
 
I wasn't crazy about that wiki definition.... a song is either an "art song", "folk song", or "pop song"? That is too weird.
 
Greg has written instrumental "songs", and I've written instrumental "songs", so that means that instrumental "songs" are indeed "songs"! LOL! Why does this question interest you?
 
fat_fleet said:
I wasn't crazy about that wiki definition.... a song is either an "art song", "folk song", or "pop song"? That is too weird.
Click to expand...

That's wikipedia for you. Anything that can be written and edited by the masses can't be good.
 
Does it matter? I've got three albums worth of instrumentals... I call them songs, or tunes, or instrumentals, depending upon who I'm talking to..
 
Armistice said:
Does it matter? I've got three albums worth of instrumentals... I call them songs, or tunes, or instrumentals, depending upon who I'm talking to..
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I use the terms interchangeably as well.

It hasn't been a topic of profound philosophical concern to me.
 
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