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How Important Are Lyrics In Your Appreciation For Rock Music?

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For myself they are sometimes important, but other times not important at all. It depends on so many different things, like vocal style, the musical complexity on offer and styling.

Three Days Grace – Let It Die (All Rights Are Retained By Three Days Grace)

For example Three Days Grace have a really deep lyrical foundation that I love to draw into and fully take on board. However other bands like Royal Blood I like to focus almost entirely on the music through my body. When lyrics truly make me feel something, that is when they are the most important!

Royal Blood – Figure It Out (All Rights Are Retained By Royal Blood)

That is not to say the lyrics of Royal Blood are bad its just that different music should be enjoyed in different ways. Sometimes I need to experience every emotion through the lyrical stylings. But others I want to drift away and let the beats of the drum and the guitar strings take me to another place.

Three Days Grace – Over And Over (All Rights Are Retained By Three Days Grace)

I want to know though how important are lyrics to you? Let me know in the comments.

All rights to the music used in this post are retained by the recording artist. This site claims no rights over it.

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25 responses to “How Important Are Lyrics In Your Appreciation For Rock Music?”

  1. Mike settino avatar
    Mike settino

    The music caresses the soul; the lyrics feed the brain.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. cookie avatar
      cookie

      I like the way you put it

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. Paul Carney avatar
    Paul Carney

    Lyrics are huge for me. So many bad lyrics in rock, but love Led Zeppelin

    Like

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  3. lyndhurstlaura avatar
    lyndhurstlaura

    As you say, it depends on the music. For concept albums, like my favourite ‘Aqualung’ and ‘A Passion Play’ by Jethro Tull, the lyrics are of paramount importance. Ditto with many singles, like ‘Thorn in My Side’ by the Eurythmics, as the words have personal significance. For the classic ‘Paranoid’ (RIP Ozzy) the words might not necessarily apply to the listener, but fit the dark nature of the music to a tee. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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  4. Margaret McCaffrey avatar
    Margaret McCaffrey

    Very important.

    Like

    Reply
  5. Greg Dennison avatar
    Greg Dennison

    I think it depends on the song for me. There are songs I love for the lyrics, and there are songs I love for the music or other reasons.

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  6. richardbist avatar
    richardbist

    To me, lyrics are just as important as the music. With that said, the lyrics don’t necessarily need to be profound or insightful, but they need to compliment the music and motivate me to sing along. So even nonsense lyrics are appropriate if they fit the overall song.

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Mx. Phoebe avatar
    Mx. Phoebe

    I can remember buying an album or later CD and the first thing I would do is pull out the lyrics and read through them. Then go through it again. Look at the other artists who contributed or who are playing on the album. It’s something I really miss and it’s why I stepped back from reviewing music. I like to read the lyrics.

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      I thought it was just me that did this! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. Le Su avatar
    Le Su

    There are different genres where lyrics/spoken word are very present and others like post-rock entirely based on the orchestration/instrumental voices. It depends on the mood like you said, but for me, it has happened that I travel to places/feelings with both. Depending on the layout of the song and when the lyrical part isn’t taken up from the instruments, I find lyrics a necessary adding to the story.
    Also, the story. What is the intention of the song? Cause I can play a blues part without any lyric, where most people would comprehend as a story about poverty or love, but it can also be about religion or a messed-up parenthood or about hope for the future of migration (e.g.).
    I don’t really consider it something to be missed really though, cause anyone can sing their own lyrics to the songs that don’t have any. So, in a way, every person can express their own feelings and tell their story to non-lyrical tracks, when they find something missing. 🙂

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      A better write up I could not find! 🙂

      The story is the lyrics, but yet also the instrumental parts!

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  9. RasmaSandra avatar
    RasmaSandra

    Depends on the music and what I am listening to. I know I always tear up if listening to Love You Till the End by The Pogues and a lot of other emotional ballad. Some songs that are just fun make it more special by having lyrics that make me smile and so on,

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  10. robjtriggs avatar
    robjtriggs

    Sigh.

    Buckle up, folks, this is going to get complicated.

    I love lyrics. I was a lyricist, and I spent hours working on mine. I still have all my drafts, all the crossed out syllables and reinvented rhymes. These things mean a hell of a lot to me personally – not just the words but the intonation, stress and emphases.

    I love story songs like The Beatles’ Eleanor Rugby, Richard Marx’ Hazard, and Iron Maiden’s Ancient Mariner.

    But I also love songs where, frankly, I have absolutely no clue what they’re on about. The Pixies entire discography. REM’s opaque references that really make sense if you know what Michael Stipe’s been reading that week.

    I also hate bad lyrics. Maiden rhyming ‘defense’ with ‘presents’. L7 rhyming ‘Scrap’ with ‘garage’. Some of the Pixies’ efforts from Trompe le Monde. Oh, and the all-time favourite where RHCP gave up on Around the World and replaced words with ridiculous noises. That really ruined an otherwise excellent song for me.

    I think lyrics have to sound like they could mean something, even if you don’t understand what precisely they’re getting at. I like an illusion of meaning, even if all you can really take home is an emotion. This may explain why I’m not a huge hair metal fan.

    It’s to my shame that this means I struggle with bands who don’t sing in English. It shouldn’t matter but, to me, it does. I like the odd instrumental, but lyrics are crucial to me

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      If you had to pin down your favourite lyrics ever what would they be ? And thank you so much for the in-depth response!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. robjtriggs avatar
        robjtriggs

        Well, I used to be a lyricist so, as you can imagine, I have Opinions 🙂

        I’m going to forget all my favourites now, but I love The Shins’ Pink Bullets:

        ‘It’s like a book you read in reverse/so you understand less as the pages turn’

        The lyrics to Swervedriver’s Deep Seat almost made me weep when I first really clocked them (on a train from Bradford to Lancaster when I was eighteen, if you’re curious). They’re too long to paste here but the way the first and third verses are identical but for a few swapped words is devastating.

        The simplicity in Eleanor Rigby. The kick in Belly’s Judas My Heart or Tanya Donelly’s Mysteries of the Unexplained (my no 1 ‘nursery rhyme’ for both kids). I mean, give me half an hour and then list will be completely different. Best stop now or I’ll go on forever

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        1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
          Fox Reviews Rock

          Well if you went on forever at least i’d know even more great songs! Thanks for the mentions of the songs, i can check the ones i dont know out :)!

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          1. robjtriggs avatar
            robjtriggs

            Have I just fantasised a post about best opening lines? I’ll bung this one here anyway:

            “You look like you’ve been losing sleep,” said a stranger on a train

            I fixed him with an ice-cold stare and said “I’ve been having those dreams again.”

            (Swervedriver, Last Train to Satansville)

            What a great achievement is was to get a hotel room this late

            Bet they charge by the hour here, the kind of place you should bring your own UV ray

            Not a big problem with me, love, you don’t look that hygenic anyway

            I’m only here because I want to twist the structure of the average day

            (The Wombats, Jump into the Fog)

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
              Fox Reviews Rock

              Love that wombats songs lyrics!

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply
  11. valenciartist avatar
    valenciartist

    Just as important as the music mate.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      I agree 🙂 , Maybe even more

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. valenciartist avatar
        valenciartist

        Absolutely!

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  12. BrendaLynne avatar
    BrendaLynne

    Lyrics penetrate my soul.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      The best ones do! 🙂

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  13. HerHighness avatar
    HerHighness

    The lyrics only tell me a story ,the way the singer sings those lyrics is where you find meaning it’s where you find true depth in how someone feels inside. For example our last night – beautiful things and the original say the same things in a way ,but the difference in how they express how the lyrics resonate with their life their pain their successes , the screaming states much more than how the original is sung and that’s OK but that’s how meaningful the lyrics are.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      I think this sums it up beautifully! 🙂

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