When listening to music, what's more important?

[Arloest]

Ever since I was 4 I've always given more importance to the music itself. I will listen to great music accompanied with rather bad lyrics, but I won't listen to bad music no matter how great the accompanying lyrics are.

Obviously I don't think anyone can listen PURELY for the lyrics, ie, something extremely poetic on top of nails on a chalkboard. So for the sake of the poll assume that the music is at least mediocre.

[Maggot Brain]

They're both important to me, but I'd say the music is more. KISS, for example, have the worst lyrics ever written, but the music more than makes up for it.

When there's both at once though, I pretty much orgasm.

[sad jazz cantaloupe]

I listen primarily to Folk and Punk

now with folk, you can get stuff like Neil Young who I love to death simply because of his beautiful voice. But even outside of that, I fall in love with the songs themselves, and would enjoy a group of children singing songs just as much as a band with a lot of chops

in summation, I like to sing along so I go with the words.

[Segovia]

The Music defenitely. Lyrics at times are just stupid, but most of the time I would be attracted to the actual notes that the lyrics are sung to.

[Arloest]

Yeah, for sure the ideal situation is to have great music in a great song with great lyrics. This is what I STRIVE for in music. Or just looking for it.

[Segovia]

I would say look for. If you truly strived for it, you would make your own lyrics that applied to your own taste. Since great lyrics and music are completely subjective.

[Maggot Brain]

now with folk, you can get stuff like Niel Young who I love to death simply because of his beautiful voice.

Love him so much that you can't spell his name right?

[MuffinSticks]

I greatly appreciate both, as the music itself demonstrates talent and lyrics can be extremely intriguing and artistically expressive. However, I mainly go for the music itself because I have to focus really hard to keep my attention on the lyrics.

Only with both superior music AND lyrics, however, can a song be perfect :3

[datherman]

Very much the first option. I listen to a lot of classic rock, which tends to have excellent instrumentation but not always top-notch lyrics. I actually thought of this the other day as I was listening to "Close to the Edge" by Yes. The lyrics make no friggin sense, but I'll still sing along with them anyway. Same with Stairway to Heaven.

[nickspoon]

I couldn't choose - if the music is great but the lyrics are inane I can't listen to it, and if the music is awful but the lyrics are beautiful it's difficult to listen to that too.

[Cactus Jack]

Depends entirely on the band and the song. Some songs don't need good lyrics. AC/DC is a great band if you want to jump up and down and bob your head but the lyrics aren't anything worth mentioning. The Vaselines have some great lyrics but nobody in that band knew how to play their insturments. So I cannot pick one or another because it depends on what I'm looking for at the time.

[Rooster]

To me their both as important as each other; a song with bad music can be saved by the lyrics (eg; "It's Alright Ma" by Bob Dylan) and a song with bad lyrics can be saved by it's music (anything by Black Sabbath)

Also, it's not WHAT you sing, it's HOW you sing it. My favourite songs are the ones where the words are simple, the music fits it, and the lyrics are sweet. Examples of this are "Roll With It" by Oasis and "New Slang" by The Shins. With both of those songs, if you changed anything on them or added anything they probably wouldn't work as well as songs.

In short, I look at the whole package rather than the components of the song, which is why I'm abstaining from this vote.

[nickspoon]

What Roo says is certainly true. There are many songs which are really great, but if you read the lyrics it's pretty obvious that they're rubbish by any standard - but it doesn't seem to matter if they're sung as though they're meaningful.

[sad jazz cantaloupe]

Love him so much that you can't spell his name right?

haha, I'd had about an hour and a half of sleep in the past 30+ hours at that point, my bad

[Muninn]

I'm going to have to go against popular opinion and say the lyrics.

I find myself paying attention more to what's being sung than what's played. Poetic lyrics that are engaging, interesting and make me think have always been my preferance.

I don't completely discount the music side though. I'll listen to any song if I like it and have no genre of music I limit myself to. I approach music like poetry, it has to affect me emotionally, it has to be evocative of something. To me, words are more effective than sounds in that regard.

When people ask me what type of music I like I say I prefer accomplished wordsmiths.