Music Banter - View Single Post - Music vs. Lyrics
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Old 05-28-2020, 09:38 PM   #2 (permalink)
Frownland
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: East of the Southern North American West
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Depends. Both.

Good lyrics don't automatically make an artist great much like how ultra-skilled playing doesn't automatically lead to good music. I guess if I had to pick one, I'd pick music because that's the bigger umbrella that quantifies all of, well, music. Some artists don't give a **** about their lyrics, some are the greatest poets of our time. I take it on a case by case level. I think that makes it easier to forgive bad lyrics than bad music since you can just lump the artist into the "doesn't give a **** about lyrics" category when the lyrics suck. If the music isn't good then there's little reason to justify waiting around to see how great the lyrics are. The only thing that I can think of that I appreciate (key word: appreciate as opposed to like) for its lyrics more than the music itself was A Crow Looked at Me. Artists whose lyrics I love (billy woods, Richard Dawson, El-P, Idles to name a few) generally drew me in with their music first.

The lens is important too. If I'm approaching the album with no context and the lyrics don't engage me as important, I'll usually approach them as a secondary element. If I've heard that an album has great lyrics or the music presents itself in a way that makes it seem like the lyrics are important, I'll put the lyrics in the front seat since that's what the art has to offer.
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