Current Events > When listening to music, do you pay more attention to lyrics or musicianship?

(+) Yeah! (+)

(I have some musical ability): You play one or more instruments (including voice) to at least a hobbyist level. Maybe you were/are in a band. You know at least a little about melody, chords, rhythm, harmony. Does not include people who just sing along badly to songs.
(I DON'T really have any musical ability): you never really had a knack for instruments and at most you probably played the recorder in elementary school. You sing along to stuff and do karaoke maybe.

Something I've noticed is that most people are either/or in this regard. Some people sing along to their favourite songs and sit and think about the story being told. Others can listen to the same song over and over again and never know the words, but sit there picking apart the musical elements.

I like playing music and the music comes first for me tbh

Absolutely the instrumentation. Lyrics are largely just noise to me; if a melody is pleasant I regularly finding myself wishing the singer would have just shut up instead, especially when the lyrics are difficult to hear/understand anyway.

I have basically no musical ability beyond whatever little of it I dabbled in in middle school band, which was so long ago it may as well have never happened.

Philip027 posted...

Absolutely the instrumentation. Lyrics are largely just noise to me; if a melody is pleasant I regularly finding myself wishing the singer would have just shut up instead, especially when the lyrics are difficult to hear/understand anyway.

Mostly this. Lyrics can be beautiful, but I usually can't possibly pick them out before a few listens, as my brain is listening to the sound of the words and not the actual words, and even that comes after processing the drums (I play drums), synths, guitar, bass, etc.

I probably just about meet the minimum standard for musical ability. Just about.

I pay more attention to the music, but not necessarily the musicianship. I can appreciate great playing, sure, but I don't need it. I can still love sloppy playing if the energy and attitude is there. Or even if it's just a tune.

Same thing for lyrics. I have a soft spot for dopey lyrics, I can ignore mediocre ones, and I can appreciate a nice turn of phrase too.

It's a really good question.

I don't really even pay attention to the lyrics of a song most of the time. Most of my favorite songs are either mostly or entirely instrumental.

Definitely lyrics... I have no musical ability... I tried playing trumpet in middle school but was bad and gave up...

There are occasionally songs without lyrics or lyrics in another language that I still like though...

I have a hard time understanding the lyrics in a lot of music.

Composition. I find it difficult to make out lyrics when there's a load of other things going on even if I focus on them and there are very few people who can carry a song with just vocals.

That said, the voice is an extremely expressive instrument and has a place in music that's very hard to fill with other instruments. Probably one of the reasons the music in Nier is so unique

absolutely instrumentation first for me. I have to memorize and familiarise myself with the melodies and song structure/composition first before I take any interest in the vocals or lyrics.

I'm surprised by the poll results because I seem to meet a lot of people who focus on the sound of vocals, to the extent that if they don't like the vocals on a song then it immediately puts them off, regardless of the actual music. and people who tend to focus on specific singers, rather than bands.

also I guess you should have included "vocals" as part of the lyrics option. because I think people are counting vocal melodies as part of the instrumentation, hence the overwhelming favourability of that option.

Lyrics can be great and vital, but the point of music is music. Lyrics with poor music to them is just a bad night at the poetry corner.

Musician, lyrics are almost always the last thing I notice.

No musical talent. I listen to alot of metal and I'll be frank, there are songs that i love that I'd have no idea what they're saying unless i'd pull up a lyrics page or something.

I actually pay most attention to the instrumentals.

mostly the music, but that's not to say i don't listen to the lyrics. all my sigs have been snippets of song lyrics for like the past 4 years