I'd use lyrics for this title, but this thread doesn't have any

While I am a metalhead (Up the Irons, thumbs up if you what band that references), I find myself listening to quiet, soothing instrumentals when I want to fall asleep or when I feel like meditating. So yes, I can listen to lyric less music often.

However, while I do find it easier to appreciate a song with a good set of emotionally/conceptually driven lyrics that make it much easier for you to interpret the songs meaning while being a door to the artists mind, instrumental tracks great for open interpretation, which could even help you explore your mind a little more. In my opinion, at least.

But there is this one style of music that I listen to that rarely uses lyrics, but samples of speaking tracks more so, the style being dubstep. While that genre of music is most often associated with the raving scene, I like that style of music because of how hard it hits through sub woofers. It's not really thought evoking through, it's more for partying.

However, that style of lyric-less music is pretty left field compared to soothing instrumental tracks.

I like instrumental music and I have it mixed in with my other music. I like to use it as background music or to inspire me and sometimes help me focus. It's hard for me to focus too long when there are too many lyrics to songs. It gets distracting and I end up hearing the words and not the music.

The charts usually follow pop music (like straight up pop, r&b, etc.) which has always been lyric-heavy. It's easier to get certain ideas and messages across with lyrics ("baby I was born this way"). Without them I don't know if you could really communicate many ideas, maybe just feelings and some images (in the poetic sense, not the stage persona kind of image). Mostly ambiguous stuff like that is hard to sell to people. Instrumental music usually demands more of your attention, but even when it doesn't (like with dance music) it's still kind of lacking those easily accessible messages.

Whether vocals are there or not, it has no impact on whether I like the music. I can appreciate a simple song with little to no instrumentation, and vice versa.

As for it's lack of success, pretty much what Scarf said. People like catchy lyrics, and ones that are broad (so everyone feels like it applies to them in some way). Music without lyrics portrays emotion rather than meaning, and not everyone is into that.

I guess conditioning plays a part in it, especially for people of my generation. If our primary music experiences have come from radio, we've been brought up to not only listen to the lyrics but expect their presence in a song as a prerequisite. From that, the music we buy and request on the radio has to have lyrics in it, impacting the charts and what appears on the radio... and the spiral begins again.

Stopping the spiral by getting kids interested in non-lyrical music would certainly be a step in getting instrumental music back into the popularity it once had. Although I don't envisage people forcing babies and strapping them in place to listen to Mozart or Chopin or something...

Oh lord, for some reason that made me think of this one person my friend knows who's totally oblivious to anything that isnt radio pop and then something about her mentioning Led Zeppelin having 'a good voice'.

Anyway, back on topic: Yeah, as a hardcore Metal fan i can honestly say that instrumentals are still thriving and doing well along with regular vocal stuff. As a matter of fact, my favorite song right now is a pure 9 minute instrumental.

I love instrumental music. Oddly for me, the first thing that comes to mind for purely instrumental music is John Williams, the composer for Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. Those films have astoundingly good soundtracks and honestly I love his work. On an entirely different front, I can listen to a single piano playing any piece all day every day. Same goes for finger picking on an acoustic guitar.

To a certain extent, a lot of my favourite songs are instrumental. The instrumentation is by far the most important part of any song and when it's raised higher than any vocals it shouldn't really matter. Plus I create instrumental music myself and have a real passion for it.
So yes, whether it's electronic instrumentalists like Four Tet or Pantha Du Prince or elaborate post-rock like GY!BE or Maybeshewill, I enjoy instrumental music a lot.

I actually quite like instrumentals. The UK charts did actually have instrumentals on them in the 80s and earlier, with songs like "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" by Madness, or "Al Capone" by Prince Buster and "One Step Beyond" by Prince Buster (eventually covered by Madness), all of which are my favourite songs of the moment.

I feel that the majority feels that non-lyrical songs are harder to relate to because they don't directly spell out what they mean. On the other hand, they are also somewhat open to interpretation as a result... But also detached from a human voice (in a good way?). I have a couple non-lyrical scores in my iTunes, though.