What gets you off?
With all this talk about Taylor’s new songs and the lyrics, I got to thinking. What is more important to you, the music or the lyrics? Are you all about the beat and drive of the instruments, or do you like to listen to the storyline?
For me, the lyrics are more important. I love to try to figure out what songs mean, what the songwriter was trying to portray. Even though different music can have an impact on a song, the lyrics are what stand out.
Check out this example of a famous song:
I found this version the other day by Foy Vance:
Obviously the music creates a different vibe, but the lyrics are still there, with the same message.
What gets you off musically?
January 25, 2009 at 11:47 am
iag, For me its the beat that catches me first then the trying to understand the lyrics comes second. If I don’t like the sound of a song I don’t bother with the lyrics.
JI
January 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm
The melody and the lyrics are both important, but the lyrics is what grabs people the most. If you can come up with lyrics that are universally accepted and what you can identify with and has a great hook.. that is the makings of a great song.
January 25, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The melody catches my interest, but the lyrics keep me coming back. I think they are both important. The lyrics to WRIR are not that great, but it creates a hell of an earworm!
January 25, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I’m all about both. I agree with you in that I NEED to understand what the lyrics mean. I look up lyrics online all the time if I can’t understand what the singer is saying.
Shoot, girl! I was just working on a blog entry about the words to What’s Right Is Right. I guess it’s on our minds.
January 25, 2009 at 1:03 pm
To me melody is king. I can forgive less than amazing lyrics if the music itself blows me away. There are songs that I love that have lyrics that can bring tears to my eyes. But then again, there are some pretty silly songs that have a place in my heart as well.
Hey Jude and Silly Love Songs were both written by Paul McCartney.
The lyrics in Silly Love Songs are well . . . silly. But the melody makes me want to sing along every time I hear it.
As Sir Paul said, “Whats wrong with that? I need to know . . . ”
PS: I am not comparing Taylor Hicks with The Beatles. No way, no how.
January 25, 2009 at 1:09 pm
The Melody attracts my ear first , but it is the lyrics that will reel me in to keep listening to a song over and over.
January 25, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Looking at the Beatles since that’s brought up, many of their songs were like riddles – sometimes nonsensical seeming linking of words and people spent a great deal of time deciphering what the meaning was behind. One example, “I am the walrus”. Recall too the playing of the vinyls in reverse for hidden messages – something we can’t do today with our bits of plastic. LOL
It’s a combination of factors that draw me to a song. Too, as Caryl indicated, sometimes you can’t understand what’s being actually said by the singer. So you look it up. Even then it’s hard to comprehend the meanings. Take Nirvana – “Teen Spirit” even checking the lyrics you’re in the dark about what was really intended, then it hits you, the title the tune, the force of the music – the package is what that song is about.
Now if a singer does like Taylor Hicks does in WRIR, and is specific about the words, enunciating them with clarity like he does those lyrics need mean something and make a cohesive message.
Billy Joel was that way as Bright’s pointed out – and his songs have definitive intention and message. Elton Johns too, and more contemporary, Jason Mraz.
January 25, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Just want to say I appreciated seeing the old MJ video. This was one performance where lip synching was completely forgivable!
I remember how spectacular that was then. Nobody had seen him move like that, and it’s all anyone I knew talked about for three days. Gene Kelly called him to congratulate him, and called him the best dancer he’d ever seen. Really, it was stunning.
January 25, 2009 at 7:00 pm
What gets me off? hhhhhmmmmmmmmmm
January 25, 2009 at 7:01 pm
And Rosie? Still waiting on that proof!
January 25, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Good question and a hard one to answer….really depends on the song. There are some songs I actually like in SPITE of the lyrics (ahem…”Hot for Teacher” — yes, I admitted that) and others I like more because of the lyrics. And sometimes it’s about genre, too — if I’m looking for a good dance tune, I really don’t care much about lyrics, but if I need a good cry, well then they matter a whole lot.