Anything. Try me.

[bubbles]

I'm in the mood for some debate. I don't particularly care what topic, but I'll throw one out there.

What's more important: lyrics or melody?

Or choose your own subject.

Be silly, be philosophical, be arbitrary... just jump in and play!


ETA: after posting this yesterday, my day went totally sideways and I couldn't get back to it until now. Sorry for the delay. Thanks for playing! You guys are awesome.

Comments

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

For me, it would be lyrics. Even if the song has an awesome melody, I can't listen to it if it has rotten lyrics or a message I find offensive. And there are songs with great lyrics but mediocre melodies that I still love for the lyrics sake.

[bubbles79.livejournal.com]

Aren't there any songs that you like in spite of yourself, because they're just that catchy? Are there songs that make you feel nostalgic or high or anything in between, because you link them to a certain time in your life? I find that usually has more to do with melody than anything. Would you recognize the "good" songs by beat or lyrics alone? Lyrics by themselves are poetry. Lyrics with a beat are a march. Melody by itself is music.
Yes? No?

[nonnierms.livejournal.com]

blame it on the English major in me but words are very important. There have been melodies that I have enjoyed until I heard the lyrics and then the melody itself became distasteful to me. Its kind of like people--I'll meet someone and think they are attractive yet when I discover they have a horrid peronality, I no longer find them attractive (or the opposite--people I didn't originally find attractive become so because I'm so enamoured of their personality).

There are many many songs that I recognize by beat alone, just as I would recognize them by the lyrics. If a song truly has meaning for me, the lyrics and the melody are inseparable--if I hear one, my mind supplies the other. When a song has lyrics, I tend not to like the instrumental versions--the lyrics and the melody belong together.

Yet I love compositions that are pure melody (as my huge classical and jazz collection can attest). But if you were to put lyrics to those pieces, my mind would protest because it recognizes them as masterpieces all on their own, not to be diluted with lyrics :p