How much does lyrics contribute to the success of a song?

[kidd]

In you opinion how much does the lyrics contribute to the success of a song?

I've often read comments like 'although I didn't understand the language of the song, I can totally feel the message/emotion of the song' to show how universal and barrier breaking music is.

There are also many people who are fans of singers from another country whose langauge they don't understand. For example, many Chinese are fans of Korean and Japanese singers, and there are Filipino, Malay, Idonesian who are fans of Taiwan and HK singers.

Lastly, I've also known quite a lot of people who never pay attention to the songs' lyrics eventhough they like the songs. Some can memorise the lyrics from beginning to end but stil don't know what the song is talking about.

This seems to indicate that lyrics doesn't contribute much (if at all) to the successs of a song.

But then, if lyrics is so unimportant, why are some lyricist like James Wong and Lam Jik so revered in the music industry? Why are some lyricist to sort after?

Do you pay attention to the lyrics when you listen to a song?

How much does the lyrics contribute to your liking of a song?

Note:
This question comes up while I was listening to the radio interview of Peter Lai. He was the lyricist behind many of Sam Hui's songs. They were great partners back in the old days. After their partnership broke, he went on to write a few lyrics for Alan Tam, Roman Tam, Leslie Cheung etc and some became hit songs such as 'Monica'. This made me wonder, did his lyrics contribute to the success of the songs or people just like the songs because of the great arrangement and melody?
I'm quite sure that his lyrics contributed a lot to the success of Sam Hui's songs because the strength of Sam's songs is how his songs tell the life of the common people and thus people can relate to it. But, it kinda different for the others because their songs are more melodious.

[Sillyana]

There are also many people who are fans of singers from another country whose langauge they don't understand. For example, many chinese are fans of Korean and Japanese singers, and there are filipino, malay, idonesian who are fans of Taiwan and HK singers.

Yes, you right, sometimes people including of me don't understand lyrics song like Mandarin or Korean Lyrics but I thinks many fans know the lyrics from Singer singing from Video Clips and we know the lyrics about love or sad song from there. Right

[warlock110]

I think lyric is important in the way it's delivered, we mostly don't listen to lyrics that hard, we just listen to the way it delivers.

for example a phrase such as "I want to love you forever"

different singers might want to do this

I want to love you forever

or:

I want to love you forever

or

I want to love you forever

And it'll give off slightly different meanings.

[Canuck21]

Lyrics are less important to me than the melody and the arrangements. Every time I hear a song, the lyrics come up as blah blah blah blah blah like when Charlie Brown hears adults talk. It is the melody that will attract me to a song first. When I like what I hear, that's when maybe I'll seek out the lyrics as a curiosity and if the lyrics are good, it makes me see the song in a whole different way and I'll like it even more. If it's bad lyrics, I can still like the song because as long as it sounds good, it's good for me. The only time when lyrics may ruin everything is when I'm against the content of the lyrics.

[Guo Xiang ( :]

Sometimes lyrics matter a lot sometimes a little. It depends how good the melody of the song is. A lot of Nirvana and Meat Puppet's songs have strange lyrics but the song is still good. I think that Counting Crow's songs have really good lyrics.

[jay_z]

lyrics are very important to songs, especially in the Chinese music industry. The music of 月亮代表我的心 is just average. yet, it is an all-time favorite song because the lyric touches people's hearts.

i remember someone said something like, good music makes your ears feel good and good lyrics make your heart feel good. very true.

月亮代表我的心

你問我愛你有多深　我愛你有幾分
我的情也真　我的愛也真
月亮代表我的心

你問我愛你有多深　我愛你有幾分
我的情不移　我的愛不變
月亮代表我的心

＊輕輕的一個吻　已經打動我的心
深深的一段情　叫我思念到如今

＃你問我愛你有多深　我愛你有幾分
你去想一想　你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

重唱　＊,＃

你去想一想　你去看一看
月亮代表我的心

[jadebunny9]

Lyrics are very important, except in songs with languages that I don't really understand.

A great melody is the attention-grabber, but the lyrics makes me really like the song.


There have been plenty of songs with great tunes, but really awful lyrics, and I never bother to listen to them again. But then again, everyone's different.

[Suet Seung]

i remember someone said something like, good music makes your ears feel good and good lyrics make your heart feel good. very true.

That's a nice quote. I like it.


Kidd, I think lyrics is very important. The songs I like almost 90% always have to have meaning and a special appeal to me. Then there's the quality of the singer's voice and the quality of the music. Those are the important factors that dictates whether or not I'll like the song or not.

It's a different case when it comes to foreign songs, I usually seek out the translated lyrics on youtube or something.

[Guo Xiang]

Lyrics are less important to me than the melody and the arrangements. Every time I hear a song, the lyrics come up as blah blah blah blah blah like when Charlie Brown hears adults talk. It is the melody that will attract me to a song first. When I like what I hear, that's when maybe I'll seek out the lyrics as a curiosity and if the lyrics are good, it makes me see the song in a whole different way and I'll like it even more. If it's bad lyrics, I can still like the song because as long as it sounds good, it's good for me. The only time when lyrics may ruin everything is when I'm against the content of the lyrics.

I agree. That's why I'm perplexed at some music awards that pay accolades only to lyrics but not the music/melody itself, which is the core of the song. The lyrics may be awesome but if the melody is horrible, would you go beyond reading it?

Bad lyrics, good melody, there would still be lots of people who listen to it. Go the other way round and it will be a failure.

I listen to songs no matter what language they are in, as long as I enjoy the melody. For me, music transcends all barriers so again, I get perplexed when friends and family refuse to listen to certain music because they can't understand the language. If I get really interested in the foreign language lyrics, no problem, google it and it will be all out for me.

[Suet Seung]

Guo Xiang, I still think that lyrics, vocals, and music all play important parts in a song. It's like body parts, it all serves an important function in the body. It is a rare occasion if I like a song that has bad, meaningless lyrics. However, if the song has good lyrics and music, but bad vocals, I'd have a problem with that. I can't think of an example where the lyrics and vocals are good but the music is bad.

[Guo Xiang]

Guo Xiang, I still think that lyrics, vocals, and music all play important parts in a song. It's like body parts, it all serves an important function in the body. It is a rare occasion if I like a song that has bad, meaningless lyrics. However, if the song has good lyrics and music, but bad vocals, I'd have a problem with that. I can't think of an example where the lyrics and vocals are good but the music is bad.

I agree with you on a personal note, but my point was that good melodies with bad lyrics are well-accepted on a general basis while good lyrics with bad melodies may have a very different reception.

I can put up with average vocals too, as long as it doesn't suck. Edison Chen have some songs that I like, but his vocals made the listening nearly intolerable.

[jadebunny9]

Yes music does transcend all boundaries. In fact, my most favorite songs are the ones without vocals. No need to worry about crappy singing or horrific lyrics. Just the music and music alone.

[LuNaR]

definitely less than the beat/background music

[Canuck21]

Guo Xiang, I still think that lyrics, vocals, and music all play important parts in a song. It's like body parts, it all serves an important function in the body. It is a rare occasion if I like a song that has bad, meaningless lyrics. However, if the song has good lyrics and music, but bad vocals, I'd have a problem with that. I can't think of an example where the lyrics and vocals are good but the music is bad.

Lyrics would probably be more important to me if I can hear them, but most of the time I don't. What I hear is very blurry and I can't distinguish the words.

[kidd]

I agree. That's why I'm perplexed at some music awards that pay accolades only to lyrics but not the music/melody itself, which is the core of the song.

There is such music awards? I thought music awards always gave accolades to both composers and lyricists (except awards based on listeners votes that just gave awards to the popular songs).

The award that is seldom given is the one for music arrangement. Deciding what instrument to use, what kind of background music etc is important to the overall appeal of the song.

[Ken Cheng]

It sort of depends on your expectations of the specific artist.

If you're getting a Bob Dylan record, the lyrics damn well better be great, because that's what Dylan is famous for (although some of his tunes were damn great too).

If you're getting a Ventures record, though...WHAT lyrics?

Music is at its best when both music and lyrics combine well to form a synergism. Such great artists as Dylan, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, etc., wrote a large number of classics during the 1960s because they were consistently able to successfully combine great melodies with great lyrics.

[Guo Xiang]

There is such music awards? I thought music awards always gave accolades to both composers and lyricist (except awards based on listeners votes that just gave awards to the popular music).

There award are seldom given is the one for music arrangement. Deciding what instrument to use, what kind of background music etc is important to the overall appeal of the song.

Really? Maybe those composers parts slipped my notice.

[Sillyana]

I thinks not only music and lyric which must good, but inspiration singer also must good who singer sing a song. because if the music and lyric is good but singer sing with bad voice and don't have inspiration, the song can be bad.

I thinks music or song is very interesting and amazing because its can make emotion people is gone with singing or hear the music when people is angry or sad.

[KeongJai]

songs with really stupid lyrics put me off (unless it was intended to be satirical).
But I agree with warlock. The delivery is most important.

Lyrics vs music will depend on the genre.
Let's face it. If it's a ballard or generic pop like 95% of asian music is, the music is not going to be phenomonal. It will have a core tune (melody if you like) with very simple backing or bass line.

[WeNdY]

If you don't understand the lyric, you can just enjoy the song's melody. What you don't know, won't bother you.
But if you do understand the lyric and it flops, then the song will become very annoying. Like I heard songs in other languages and they sound great, but once they get translated into the languages I understand, I change my mind and won't like them anymore. IMO, the lyrics can either boost or kill the song.