How important are lyrics to you in music?

When talking about lyrics, there's also the question of their potential function as means for improvement of 

society and culture. 

I am confused... how can you like ska, rocksteady and dub, but dislike reggae?

Unless you dislike the sort of cheesy reggae that has dominated the mainstream -- things like UB40's onslaught of horrible cover versions post 1984, or Aswad's departure into utter commercialism with "that one song they are known for" -- rather than both bands' other authentic material which in my opinion is well worth listening to.

Dub originally was simply reggae without the lyrics and with added production techniques, i.e. Lee Scratch Perry, etc... but has since broadened into something utterly beyond that... to the point that it's now perfectly normal to have dub music.. with lyrics... which brings me back to the German "reggae" I was listening to, which may have been more aptly described as dub, although I didn't want to confuse matters by calling it that!  Unfortunately, I've totally forgotten the names of the artists I was listening to so can't give an example. 

PS. I utterly despise reggaeton!

Megistus wrote: I went through a phase of listening to German reggae a while back.

As if regular reggae isn't awful enough to begin with:)

Hi,

Thank you ... I get concerned when people think they have to have some meaning before they eat their bowl of cereal. It's weird, and rather strange if you ask me.

Some stuff is nice, some isn't, and the main issue is ... the personal side of things and the choices made here ... there is no effort to help identify what might be considered "good" lyric and what is considered "bad" lyric, this conveying this poll to nothing but an internet nothing. 

The worst part, is that in many cases we are saying that words don't matter ... and you should try that on the wife or kids, see if you like it! The problem, and question, is when it is overblown and people think that it is important because it was Joe Schmoe that said it and did it! 

If Neil Peart's lyrics, don't stand out on someone else's rendition, then his lyrics are not that great! That's really simple. If you can not feel, or say, the same words as Ian, then you know that there is something there that stands out (in earlier days, anyway!) ... 

We remember many words in literature ... and we still quote Shakespeare and many other writers ... well we also quote the horrible translations of that one book that changed the meanings to a Walt Disney version of things! Hundreds of actors have lived through many of those words, and they still live.

This is an issue with a lot in this board ... a lot of the material is ignored, without any intelligent discussion and comments, other than personal garbage. So, how is it that you will think that one person's words are OK and fine, and another's are not? Are they not people, as well?

personally, it is not the "lyrics" that matter ... it's the cohesion of the two ... and you can tell that many folks have not heard operas, so they can get a different of how music for 200+ years has interpreted words, only to find that in the 21st century no one gives a damn, except throwing stones at someone ... for whatever they said or thought.

Some/most new lyrics lately are really tough to get into or understand what the band is trying to portray/communicate. It could be a language barrier (ie Riverside...) that makes it tough to understand what Mariuz is trying to convey, but I appreciate what he is doing.

Clearly not the case with a lyricist like Neil Peart......he makes you think.

In fact I'm not going to defend my lack of attention for lyrics. Actually, despite having lived in the UK for 14 years, I'm still able to listen around the content of English lyrics, not so much if they're German. So I see why bad English lyrics are more of an issue for native speakers. I have caught myself liking something with quite embarrassing lyrics; mostly I'm just able to ignore it and take the voice for its sound alone. On the other hand, I occasionally pay attention to Peter Hammill's lyrics but mostly not, knowing that I miss something there. But in my brain the meaning of lyrics and the music are really quite separate. For me personally it's not so much that "lyrics are about something and have a huge bearing on the mood of the piece"; rather I get the mood from how it sounds, and may later discover that the lyrics are not matched to the mood that I get (or sometimes but rarely they are, or I never find out, which is probably the most frequent case).

I can appreciate lyrics that have no obvious meaning but may trigger the imagination. This kind of lyrics actually is the best match in my view to music that is "autonomous" as music in the first place. Sometimes the music follows the lyrics, which is an entirely different story.

Although, contradicting myself here to some extent, in one of my music projects (in fact the only one that has a significant amount of singing) we always do the lyrics first. They mean something, but are not that important on their own... but I can be inspired well by existing lyrics as a musician and composer.