"Lyrics are a waste of time"

[Lefordea]

IMHO, lyrics are hugely important, but most will get lost if the melody doesn't touch someone, the delivery is weak, and/or the music competes too much with delivery.

 

As a songwriter/bandmate/vocalist, I feel that if you're going to add lyrics to your song they need to be well thought out and executed. The words need to become part of the song. Not something above the song or below it. As the singer, my voice needs to be a driving force along with the instruments. I don't mean scream or sing louder (fit the song), but it needs to be delivered in a way that connects those words to the music effectively from both an emotional and logical way.

 

Of course, if you put that much effort into making the lyrics part of the song, you might as well put some real effort into saying something good in a way that is as intelligent/original as you can.

 

Regardless, my songwriting process always starts with a guitar and a unintelligible vocal melody. I work on the feeling of the song since the songs usually come out of my mood. If I can capture those elements, I can return with lyrics that fit the feeling later. I can't do that if I start with a lyric sheet. When I do return to the song, though, I feel the song deserves quality lyrics...and if I/we can't get good enough lyrics, the songs get put on the backburner. Happens more than I like to admit. Ha ha.

 

Just my two cents.

[Li Shenron]

As a representative of the public which doesn't speak english natively, but still listens to most music from UK/USA, I can tell that at least the success of anglo-saxon music in the rest of the world is certainly not due to lyrics.

 

I'm rather of the opinion that awful lyrics can really spoil a song, but "only mediocre" lyrics cannot... listeners would just treat the song as light-hearted but still enjoy the music. They won't stop listening to a nice song just because the lyrics aren't profound enough. OTOH a boring music with wonderful lyrics will be appreciated ONES, but not listened to again.