'Behold as the crook in a hammock plays'

[AlexOzzyCake]

^ Yet another of Arctic Monkey's lyrics that I'll never understand, but I love 'em anyway.

Are song lyrics important in determining what music you listen to? Do you pay much attention to the lyrics when listening to songs? Will you listen to songs in other languages that you don't understand just for the music? Do you sing along to the lyrics without really knowing what they mean?

[Algo Fonix]

Lyrics are incredibly important to me. If the music is amazing but the lyrics suck, there's a total disconnect. I tend to be drawn more to the more depressing stuff just because I tend to get more out of it (bless you, Pain of Salvation). As far as stuff in another language goes, I guess I focus more on how good the musicianship of everyone else is.

[Snowdrop]

Ah, this is the thread for me! :D

Almost absolutely not. In most situations, I don't care what the lyrics say or what the meaning of the song is in lyrics. Also, I seem to have trouble deciphering what people are saying when there's audio in the background (in movies, too) so I'd have to go and look the lyrics up half the time anyway. Where the real meaning and enjoyment in a song lies for me is in the actual background music and instruments. That's why I never listen to songs with very little background music or songs where someone is just singing.

However, that's not true in every case. There are some songs that I find quite meaningful, a lot of them are about aging and whatnot. And most of them are older songs. Like:

"But time makes you bolder, children get older. I'm getting older, too"

"Goodbye, my friend, it's hard to die... when all the birds are singing in the sky" "We had joy we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time."

Etc. etc. I don't need to relate to lyrics all that much, like in the song above I'm not dying or anything lol but still. Anyways, that's just my opinion I may go into more detail later on lol

[Cassino]

Lyrics are important to the point that I prefer not to hear them. If they are present I prefer not to understand them (ie. be foreign), or for nothing to be repeated; an instance of the latter being Loreena McKennitt's singing of what was originally a narrative poem. I've heard some popular songs on the radio, they make me cringe with how often the same inane phrase is repeated.

[Shining Raichu]

Lyrics are really important to me. I'd prefer not to understand them, too, because that means I can fill the blank with what the lyrics mean to me, as opposed to what they meant to the artist. I often find when I actually take an interest and look up what the lyrics are supposed to mean, I'm disappointed because the meaning isn't as good as my own

[Razor Leaf]

I don't care at all. I'm a very "if it sounds good, I like it" kinda guy as far as music goes. Sure, interesting lyrics (hi there The Mars Volta) are nice, but if they're spewing absolute crap I don't really care at all. I'm into a lot of instrumental stuff too, although not much foreign music, so caring too much about the lyrics would just ruin that for me anyway because there... well... aren't any. However,

Originally Posted by Cassino

If they are present I prefer [...] nothing to be repeated; an instance of the latter being Loreena McKennitt's singing of what was originally a narrative poem. I've heard some popular songs on the radio, they make me cringe with how often the same inane phrase is repeated.

This applies to me, minus the bit which I took out about foreign lyrics. Lyrics don't matter too much to me but if they're repeated endlessly then they're pretty annoying. The only time that they can get away with that, for me, is in electronic music where they can be used both repetitively and inventively at the same time. But otherwise, nope.

[Mr Cat Dog]

Song lyrics are important for songs that I like, but not much else. By that, I mean that I don't really care at all about lyrics for songs that I've already written off mentally in my head after a cursory listen. With songs that DO stay with me, however, on a purely musical level, I'll try and locate their lyrics as soon as possible to see if they're anything more than completely inane. For the most part, the songs I like musically have good-to-very good lyrics, which is always a plus in music. In the rare instance where a song is just oh-so-good to listen to but has such bland lyrics, I'll still probably listen to it, but judge it accordingly.