Different ways people hear music
Discussion
Was just reading the thread about music that stirs you emotionally and it made me think about my own perception of music. Recently I've been getting quite interested in psychology and how different people have different perceptions and ways of looking at and understanding the world, and how that applies to music.
Anyway, since for as long as I can remember I have never 'done' lyrics. I just don't hear them when music is playing. All my attention is on the tune and the various parts, and the vocals just become another instrument whereby I purely hear the tune of them and not what they are saying.
On the other hand, I have friends who pick up the lyrics without even realising. It seems as if the whole purpose of the song revolves around the understanding of the lyrics and the music is just background to them. They start talking about them and I look at them cluelessly as I have literally no idea what the song is about.
There are a few notable exceptions where I really connected with the lyrics. They have been times where I really focussed on the music and got lost in it, listening to the story as if the singer was speaking directly to me, but those times are few and far between.
Can anyone else relate? Does anyone else not really hear the lyrics when listening to music?
Or on the other hand, is anyone perplexed as to how music without any lyrics can be good or enjoyable?
Does it mean anything? Do girls stereotypically make a connection with the artist and listen to what he/she is saying, whereas stereotypical males enjoy the 'engineering' of how the music is put together and sounds without really caring for what the artist is saying?
I'm curious for other people's take on the subject.
Anyway, since for as long as I can remember I have never 'done' lyrics. I just don't hear them when music is playing. All my attention is on the tune and the various parts, and the vocals just become another instrument whereby I purely hear the tune of them and not what they are saying.
On the other hand, I have friends who pick up the lyrics without even realising. It seems as if the whole purpose of the song revolves around the understanding of the lyrics and the music is just background to them. They start talking about them and I look at them cluelessly as I have literally no idea what the song is about.
There are a few notable exceptions where I really connected with the lyrics. They have been times where I really focussed on the music and got lost in it, listening to the story as if the singer was speaking directly to me, but those times are few and far between.
Can anyone else relate? Does anyone else not really hear the lyrics when listening to music?
Or on the other hand, is anyone perplexed as to how music without any lyrics can be good or enjoyable?
Does it mean anything? Do girls stereotypically make a connection with the artist and listen to what he/she is saying, whereas stereotypical males enjoy the 'engineering' of how the music is put together and sounds without really caring for what the artist is saying?
I'm curious for other people's take on the subject.
It depends on the song really. I tend not to listen to lyrics much because they are often terrible (If you thought "Smoke On the Water" was in any way deep and mystical think again, for example), but when the writer has done something very good with them I will. Generally I do concentrate on the "engineering", listening for things like how much AutoTune has been used (the voice will appear to "step" between notes if you listen carefully), whether multiple vocal tracks are used, what instruments are sitting low in the mix and why are they there, reverb types and stereo positioning, whether the loud bits are any louder than the quiet bits, etc. etc.
In this way even rubbish disposable pop can be interesting.
In this way even rubbish disposable pop can be interesting.
I'm in the same boat as you OP.
I listen to the way they gel as a band, and imagine how they would sound live and how they would pull it off without (sometimes) fancy production.
I sometimes focus on listening to the drumming, or the lead guitar, the bass guitar, and then key changes etc. and wonder who thought of what. I'm fascinated by the meeting of minds within the band.
The vocalist has got to be good/fitting also, but as to what they are singing is (usually) the least important thing to me.
ETA: Oops, Just remembered the Arctic Monkey's debut album. Pure genius lyrically!
I listen to the way they gel as a band, and imagine how they would sound live and how they would pull it off without (sometimes) fancy production.
I sometimes focus on listening to the drumming, or the lead guitar, the bass guitar, and then key changes etc. and wonder who thought of what. I'm fascinated by the meeting of minds within the band.
The vocalist has got to be good/fitting also, but as to what they are singing is (usually) the least important thing to me.
ETA: Oops, Just remembered the Arctic Monkey's debut album. Pure genius lyrically!
Edited by useyourdellusion on Thursday 1st July 23:04
Edited by useyourdellusion on Thursday 1st July 23:11
I find it depends massively on the type of music.
Take Steely Dan as an example, you can listen to the songs as a whole, or if you like you can seperate it out into instruments, groups of instruments, structures, use of production techniques etc. Stevie wonder is good for this too.
Some music is just raw energy ( like prodigy etc) where theres not a lot of point trying to do the above, just take it for what it is - and "feel" the music.
I freaking love music - for this ability and more.
Helps to have a decent Hi Fi with some proper power..
Take Steely Dan as an example, you can listen to the songs as a whole, or if you like you can seperate it out into instruments, groups of instruments, structures, use of production techniques etc. Stevie wonder is good for this too.
Some music is just raw energy ( like prodigy etc) where theres not a lot of point trying to do the above, just take it for what it is - and "feel" the music.
I freaking love music - for this ability and more.
Helps to have a decent Hi Fi with some proper power..
And me. Voice is another instrument. Moreover most lyrics are incomprehensible and even when you can make them out precious few are worth listening to and a lot are just embarrassing. I write the music and the come up with some words that scan and sound right.
But there is the occasional exception like Ship Building and some wit with Madness and Squeeze.
L.F.
But there is the occasional exception like Ship Building and some wit with Madness and Squeeze.
L.F.
I prefer the instrumental side in general but if a voice is powerful enough or a writer is creative enough and the subject is worth singing about I will listen to the lyrics. For example I enjoy the lyrics in Ian Dury And The Blockheads songs(Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy ) and from Tears For Fears songs as much as I like their music.
Frontmen like Johnny Borrell and Chris Martin do my head in, too much attitude and bluster and not enough talent, overshadowing the rest of the band who in my opinion create the bits I like.
Frontmen like Johnny Borrell and Chris Martin do my head in, too much attitude and bluster and not enough talent, overshadowing the rest of the band who in my opinion create the bits I like.
Depends. It's sometimes easier to ignore the words and focus on the melody if you don't understand them - for example this - but then I've never really paid much attention to the words in this and it's sung in English. On the other hand, it's hard to appreciate the poignancy of this without having the lyrical context of the song and the rest of the album to fill in the scene - and the emotional impact of the song relies on poignancy. Would Bob Dylan be half as good if he'd just written the tunes and Pete Waterman had filled in the lyrics?
A couple of years ago, I put a lot more effort into improving my guitar playing, and for quite a while was seeing a guitar tutor for an hour a week. I found that as well as improving my playing (a bit, I'm still crap) it changed the way that I listen to music. Not just the way that I listen to the guitar parts - although there is some interesting research showing that if you stick people who can play an instrument into an MRI scanner and play music to them, different parts of the brain light up when they hear their own instrument - but in learning a bit more music theory and being more consciously aware of some of the composition of the music. My wife is most of the way through an interesting OU unit on music, mostly concerned with harmony. I was going to follow the course with her, but ended up not having time, but still intend to go through it. My only worry is that sometimes you want to see the painting, not examine the brushstrokes - she complains that her English degree ruined a lot of good books for her, and I wouldn't like to find myself unable to listen to music without dissecting it.
A couple of years ago, I put a lot more effort into improving my guitar playing, and for quite a while was seeing a guitar tutor for an hour a week. I found that as well as improving my playing (a bit, I'm still crap) it changed the way that I listen to music. Not just the way that I listen to the guitar parts - although there is some interesting research showing that if you stick people who can play an instrument into an MRI scanner and play music to them, different parts of the brain light up when they hear their own instrument - but in learning a bit more music theory and being more consciously aware of some of the composition of the music. My wife is most of the way through an interesting OU unit on music, mostly concerned with harmony. I was going to follow the course with her, but ended up not having time, but still intend to go through it. My only worry is that sometimes you want to see the painting, not examine the brushstrokes - she complains that her English degree ruined a lot of good books for her, and I wouldn't like to find myself unable to listen to music without dissecting it.
I'll try to avoid repeating what I posted in the other "....gets you" thread.
The first group I totally "got" and became a "fanboi" of was Tubeway Army. I was 11 at the time, and listening to the tunes (Cars / Are Friends Electric / We Are Glass / I Die You Die / Down In The Park etc etc) the lyrics were almost noise compared to the lush melodies and harmonies being played by the synths, the heavily gated snare, and the fantastic, distorted, and lightly flanged (ahem) guitar.
Maybe that's where it started for me. Maybe that's why I love trance and classical; genres where the music leads and vocals follow. Even blues is a case of "Went home this morning. Went back to bed. My baby left me. For a man called Fred" followed by 64 bars of tortured guitar solo. The vocals are pretty meaningless, it's the solo that counts.
This is not to say that vocals don't add anything to the party. A Soundgarden tune would be nothing without Cornell, as would Metallica without Hetfield and Deep Purple without Gillan. But, by the same token, I could have done without Ian Dury (rest his soul) and just listened to The Blockheads.
The first group I totally "got" and became a "fanboi" of was Tubeway Army. I was 11 at the time, and listening to the tunes (Cars / Are Friends Electric / We Are Glass / I Die You Die / Down In The Park etc etc) the lyrics were almost noise compared to the lush melodies and harmonies being played by the synths, the heavily gated snare, and the fantastic, distorted, and lightly flanged (ahem) guitar.
Maybe that's where it started for me. Maybe that's why I love trance and classical; genres where the music leads and vocals follow. Even blues is a case of "Went home this morning. Went back to bed. My baby left me. For a man called Fred" followed by 64 bars of tortured guitar solo. The vocals are pretty meaningless, it's the solo that counts.
This is not to say that vocals don't add anything to the party. A Soundgarden tune would be nothing without Cornell, as would Metallica without Hetfield and Deep Purple without Gillan. But, by the same token, I could have done without Ian Dury (rest his soul) and just listened to The Blockheads.
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