Do You Really Listen To Lyrics, Or Just The Music?

I admit, I've found myself in the past enjoying a song without really listening to the lyrics, but for me, I really need a good combination of both. If you like songs simply for the beat, or rhythm, that's OK, but you should try to start listening closer to the words of the song, and see if you can figure out what the song means to you. There are some really great songwriters out there that many people have never even heard of. This article will mention a few of my favorites. RELATED ARTICLES Use Language Creatively When Writing Music Lyrics Psych yourself to Power With Southern Gospel Music Lyrics Feeling Blue? Cure it With Powerful Southern Gospel Music Lyrics How to Write Country Music Lyrics Are music and lyrics two separate beings? I say no, because while obviously they go together well, they can both exist independently from each other. That's why we have "instrumentals" and also "spoken word poets." Ok, so that makes me think "what about acapella" -- is it music or is it lyrics? I say, obviously it is music because it has a melody. So anyway, I got myself off track here and started talking about music in general, but as I said, I like songs that have a good combo of melody, lyrics, and instruments. I like a wide variety of music from all genres and time periods. Everything from classical instrumentals, to "oldies" from the 1950's and 1960's, to rap, rock , country and pretty much anything else that sounds good to me. An example of an artist whose songs I really enjoy, but honestly I don't even know what she's saying in her lyrics most of the time, is Enya. I like Enya and I listen to her music a lot, it's in rotation on my playlist. She makes absolutely beautiful music, but obviously I don't usually understand or pay a great amount of attention to her lyrics. There are some rap artists who have songs I like the lyrics for, but not necessarily the beat. Nas is a good example of this for me. Sometimes it takes listening to a track a few times before it catches on with me, but he is a very good lyricist. Don't get me wrong, he has some catchy tunes also. If I Ruled The World is a good example, it just sounds good all the way around, even if I don't agree with all the lyrics. Ads by Google A recent band that it took me awhile to get interested in, is Arcade Fire. I still only have their "The Suburbs" album, and I haven't heard any of their other stuff. I first saw them when I was shown a cool video made using the Arcade Fire song We Used To Wait (The Wilderness Downtown). That was cool. Then another of their songs popped up when someone showed me a Youtube video of a girl running track, she falls down, gets up, and wins the race. A good video with a good song behind it. So I bought their CD, and I'm glad I did. It took about playing the CD four or five times before I finally caught on to what the lyrics were saying in Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains). When I noticed her say "Can we ever get away from the sprawl? Dead shopping malls, rise like mountains beyond mountains", I was immediately interested in the song, and it just kept getting better each time I listened to it. The singer, Régine Chassagne, performs the song perfectly, even though I've heard people criticize her voice. Regardless, it is the lyrics that primarily attracted me to the song, because I grew up in rural country areas, and have watched those areas turn into concrete jungles and suburban sprawl. Then we have a ton of garbage that calls itself rap, like Soulja Boy, and his stupid song Crank That. My apologies for hating this song. To each his or her own, I suppose, but this is not songwriting, and it barely qualifies as music even though it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Song. It has terrible lyrics, and a boring repetitive beat. Give me some Nas, Eminem, Notorious BIG, or Outkast. In closing, I'll say my favorite songwriter of all-time, in any genre, is Ryan Adams. Check out his music.