Do you listen to lyrics?

[jrtom]

Until high school, almost all of the music that I owned and listened to on the radio, and most of the music that I listened to at other times, was instrumental (mostly classical and chamber music). (At that point, my sisters decided that I'd been deprived and started introducing me to classic rock, which stuck pretty well.)

Anyway, I don't know if this is cause or effect, but I tend not to really be aware of most of the lyrics of most popular music that I listen to. It's not that I was never curious, but if I'm not specifically trying to pick out the lyrics (and often even if I am), it's not what I hear. (I also learn music much faster than I learn lyrics when I'm studying it to perform.)

Slow accretion of lyrical knowledge, plus the more recent introduction of a smartphone that can both identify songs and look up lyrics, have changed this somewhat. As a result, I've become more aware that while there's a lot of music out there that I like, much of it has lyrics that are either banal or distasteful. (E.g., I like most of Elton John's music quite a lot but hardly any of Bernie Taupin's lyrics.)

How do you listen to music? What do you pay attention to? How do you decide whether you like a given piece of music?

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I listen almost exclusively to music with English lyrics. On the rare cases that it's something else, it's got lyrics in a language I don't speak. It needs a good beat and a good melody that I can sing along to. I pick up vocal melodies after listening to a song once, harmonies on the first or second hearing, and I'll have most of the lyrics of a song by the third listen-through (if it's country I can predict them during my first listen).

Interestingly, although I love Jonathan Coulton, his voice goes just a little bit lower than I can reach, and the high parts sound shrill if I sing an octave up. For most artists if this were the case I'd not be interested in them, but JoCo rocks.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Some things I can do harmony for on the first run-through; there's an awful lot of predictable music out there (and many ways to sing harmony). :)

(if it's country I can predict them during my first listen)

I assume you've heard the one about what you get if you play a country song backwards. :)

Jonathan Coulton: I'm basically a baritone, so I have the same problem with Simon and Garfunkel, in the opposite direction. I mean, I _can_ sing fairly high (vocal jazz has been good for that) but it's not my favorite range.

I've recently become moderately well acquainted with Rock Band (through a contest at work). I find it strangely frustrating. I mean, I can pick up melodies very quickly, but it's like threading a vocal maze, i.e., any variation from the original is penalized. Very weird.

[judovitch.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, most of the time I totally ignore any meaning that lyrics might have. That is, I can sing along to almost any song, and while the words are coming out I recognize them as english, but my brain refuses to parse them. When I am actually forced to do so I often have a hard time enjoying the song again, either because it's depressing (eg "3am") or meaningless (eg "Letter from an occupant"). Surprisingly I don't have much of a problem with inane (eg anything from Enya). Most of this can be traced back to how I use music - that is, I have it on constantly at work to distract the part of my brain that says "oooh, shiny...." while the rest of my brain is actually doing useful things.

Speaking of vocal stuff, is there any chance you might have a 10^100 voice invite floating around? I'm on the waiting list now... :-)

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

You mean that the part of your brain that says "ooh, shiny" is not the same part that does useful stuff? Perhaps you should reconsider your career path. :)

There's at least one song (Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry") that I first liked for the music, then I started disliking it once I heard some of the lyrics, then I liked it more again once I got all of them.

I do have a GV invite. Email me and let me know what address you want me to send it to.