Are instrumentals 'songs'?

[DrewPeterson7]

What do you do with a song? You sing it. Do you sing an instrumental? No. Therefore, an instrumental is not a song.

Unless you play a song. Which, if you do, you absolutely can play instrumentals.

If you want to insist on various parts of song structure as well, then as someone who writes instrumental songs, I absolutely think in terms of verses, prechoruses, choruses, bridges, solo sections, etc. The only difference is the melody is played on a guitar rather than sung.

I think about the only was I could see a solid argument that an instrumental couldn't be a song would be if you considered lyrics the defining quality of a song. But, if so, if a song is in Spanish and you don't speak Spanish, is it still a song in English? Or, no one knows what the lyrics are in "Louie, Louie." "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is up there too. Or, for a more modern example, "Yellow Ledbetter," where Eddie Vetter just sang nonsense as a placeholder that they never went back and changed. Are those still songs?

 

[GONZO-X]

Are instrumentals 'songs'?​

ask any modern classical composer.

ask bach and handel.

ask pink floyd.

 

[NSH333]

I agree songs can be any format. If you saw a guitar player and said "play any song" they would start playing, and IF they liked to sing, maybe they would sing. But they would play something for you to hear, and it would be a song. It would be an instrumental song.

So I would say there are lyrical songs and instrumental songs.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Mendelssohn - 'Songs Without Words'.

 

[Track Rat]

I'm late to the party. OK. If we're fucking and I don't hollar, are we still fucking?