me and a friend were arguing about what was more important in a song the music or the lyrics I think the lyrics are more important because it can give more meaning to a song where as music can only set the mood or make the lyrics flow better.

hmmmm ..... I think the music is better :D Like you said the music makes the mood, and then when you got your mood you can apply the lyrics, according to it, and make as many lyrics as you want :)
Plus the music sets the rhythm... you cant dance to just lyrics.. LOL
You ever read lyrics from a song without the music.. does it affect you the same?

Lyrics can make the worst of music sound good. But the best music always has a combination of the two, where the lyrics are thought-provoking, and mesh well with the background noise. Lone riffs and charged little solo briefs also up the song a few notches. Undone (the sweater song) being a great example.

edit: I'd also like to add that anything forced, or without an artistic verve will cause a great song to crap out. That means either lyrics or music. Music/lyrics is like a reflection on life. Life is not something to be forced...ah...you get it.

..so i say music touches us deeper..

but depends on the music.. i'm not touched
'deeply' by NIN..or Manson..or Radiohead, or Aphextwin..although i love some of the music...

but i am touched my some of Mozart, Beethoven..etc.. w/such a deepness..i feel like my genetics are listening..

but..i really love a nice tune AND great lyrics..

i've heard a few on George Harrison's last cd..

try going to the www.wingmakers.com , alice. Its very interesting site plus they got a music page that , that makes your genetics listen as you say LOL

...and the Hindu's knew this better than anyone

COnsider this: you can have music without lyrics, but what does lyrics without music sound like?

my words
are my souls
melody

I thought we were talking about lyrics and music.

I think it depends on the context and the use of the song.

wilson-if you're talking about lyrics sun with no musical accompaniment, it can sound beautiful and move you just as much as it would if there were music behind it. If you're talking about the lyrics themselves, then I guess it would be spoken-word poetry. Either way, still pretty powerful.

Its the same thing ith just music. Some music requires no words to carry across the meaning, you can just feel it. However, some music does need words, and some music is arranged to support the words.

So I don't really think that you can say one is more important than the other. I personally like meaningful lyrics, but what's meaningful to me, and whats meaningful to someone else are completely different.

Originally posted by alice
...and the Hindu's knew this better than anyone


Why do you say that?


I believe music is more important and obviously Mozart and other great masters knew that. Although anybody with commen sense will tell you a beautiful combination of both is the pinnacle of audible pleasure but lyrics alone do not a beautiful song make. The music sets the stimulus and the lyrics enhance it. So a song with bad lyrics but good music (this is a rare case seeing as in most songs that are bad lack in both departments) still sounds better then a song with good lyrics but terrible music (at least to me anyway). But hearing songs with both, amazing lyrics and amazing music, at the right time is the closest to the experience of seeing god.

what about the musci of the words ....sort of speak . Not what the words mean but how they sound .

If thats included in music , i would most defiently say music , since people mostly talk serious crap .

If its not included......it would be a problem.....if it would be the acapella or isntrumental i would go for the instrumental , although i rather have both in a beautifull language i dont understand in meaning of words .

I think music would be slightly more important, though both are wonderful together. Consider this: a song with lyrics in a different language can be appreciated by many without needing to understand the message, yet just plain poetry in a language you don't know can't make as much sense.

You might have the rhythm of the words to sustain you, at which point the lyrics become the music, but as it is said, "Music is the universal language."

Or is that love? Meh. :D

Originally posted by alice
my words
are my souls
melody


:) :) :)

lyrics of course

In my opinion - mostly the music.
Good lyrics can make a song better, though.
Iron Maiden, for instance, have great lyrics, which adds a lot to their songs. I don't really like their progressive metal style, but the lyrics compensate it.
Children of Bodom are another awesome band that can suit lyrics to melody in a perfect way, so that I get chills from listening to their stuff.
For me, it's more interesting to listen to an instrumental piece of music than to poetry, but that's me...

It would depend on what kind of mood I was in!

If I were feeling angry and disgruntled, I wouldn't give a flip what the lyrics said, just as long as the music is angry with me.
As if it related.

Depends. Great music can have shitty lyrics and survive, but shitty music isn't redeemed by great lyrics.

So I'd say that the music is somewhat more important. Take NIN's "A warm place" or New Order's "Elegia". Both are truely sublime pieces, but niether has any lyrics at all.

Or take Sadist. The music itself is absolutely wonderful - a very experimental sort of black metal. But the lyrics are often medocre:

"I open my eyes - here's a new day
I wish my hands will turn red once again
I pant for your last breath - now is the time
As my brain will call I am going to dive"

Now, they have truely excellent lyrics on some songs - but Sadist is to be commended not primarily for their lyrical brilliance, but for their music.

If I were feeling angry and disgruntled, I wouldn't give a flip what the lyrics said, just as long as the music is angry with me.

And if the lyrics are angry with you? Take "Happiness in Slavery" or - better yet, take Mozart's aria "Se Vuol Ballare". Even the bass is defiant.

Yet I didn't know the lyrics for some time:

"Bravo, my lord and master!
Now I begin to understand the mystery,
And to see plain
Your whole plan!
We're going to London, right?
You as minister, I as courier,
and Susanna...as a secret envoy!
It won't be so, it won't be so--Figaro says it!
If you want to dance, Sir Count,
I'll play the guitar for you.
If you want to come to my school,
I'll teach you the moves.
'll find out, but quietly; or better, by pretending,
I'll discover every mystery.
The art of fencing, the art of adapting,
Here fighting, there fooling,
I'll overturn all the machinery."

Originally posted by Xev
And if the lyrics are angry with you? Take "Happiness in Slavery" or - better yet, take Mozart's aria "Se Vuol Ballare". Even the bass is defiant.
Yes you got me on that one. :)
I love Maria Callas. I know Opera plots, but am faulty on the libretto. I think Opera is a case where music and voice matters to me most. I don't understand as much as I feel what Maria is singing, but she can still make me cry before the 2nd act is done :)

Depends heavily on the song. A great melody can make a meaningless song stand out, and a great lyric can make a poor musical piece brilliant.

But the music in itself is still my first pick... It can incite you without having you pay attention.

Havalina:
Ah, lovely singer. Didn't she sing Pamina once? Don't know much about her, really.

i suppose a songwriter listens to all of the package ... i'll listen to the guitars and if they are good then it's a hit with me. i can easily block-out the shitty singers.

if there is something that grabs you then you go with it and take the other noise tagging along.

!!eeheehnin

Neither their both verry important for a good song but if i had to choolse i would say music because you cant have a song w/o it

Originally posted by Xev
Havalina:
Ah, lovely singer. Didn't she sing Pamina once? Don't know much about her, really.
Yeap!
She is one of the original "3 Divas". And boy did she fit the "diva" image well.