[Oli Dickinson]

I don't think either are as important as their delivery.

Beautiful lyrics can be sung heartlessly, and perfect music can sound lifeless if played without feeling.

From my own perspective, lyrics are more important than music. It's far easier to ruin a beautiful melody with clichéd and twee lyrics than it is to hide the impact of meaningful lyrics by poor musicianship. Also don't forget that lyrics without music have been around a long time (...I think we called it "poetry"?).

But as with reading a poem or singing a song, I believe that the best experiences come when the delivery of the piece convinces the audience that the meaning is truly appreciated by the artist.

Oli x

[S.T.C]

A song that shows they are of equal importance or at least in perfect harmony

A song with lyrics that dominate..

A song where the lyrics don`t seem to matter?

[Jess]

The lyrics are the most important bit! I mean naturally I'm going to be biased (beacuse I write lyrics not music) however the lyrics provide the foundation for a song, therefore they should be the best bit. I guess as a lyric writer the first thing I listen to when hearing a song for the first time is the words, then Ill digest the melody the second or third time.
Obviously the best songs are where the lyrics are music are as good as each other, but personally as a general rule, I love lyrics more

[GTB]

I like it best when both combine to create something greater than the sum of their parts: e.g. Hotel California, Take Away My Pain (Dream Theatre), most of Pink Floyd's stuff from DSotM onward and many others too numerous to list :-
GTB

[diademgrove]

Sometimes it is neither. A song by one of the greatest groups in the world.

Spend 12 minutes of your life listening to I Will Follow Him (Sister Act, the movie, Petula Clark, or, the original, Little Peggy March) as you've never heard it before (excluding Digger, who knows how great this is). You will never be the same again.

Have fun,

diadem

[man of simple pleasures]

But then there's the more pragmatic part of me that realises that a good tune with bad lyrics is usually preferable to good lyrics with a rubbish tune.

i would say thats pretty much spot on for me , gotta be music , melody first then the lyrics!

[keith21583]

I don't think either are as important as their delivery.

Beautiful lyrics can be sung heartlessly, and perfect music can sound lifeless if played without feeling.

From my own perspective, lyrics are more important than music. It's far easier to ruin a beautiful melody with clichéd and twee lyrics than it is to hide the impact of meaningful lyrics by poor musicianship. Also don't forget that lyrics without music have been around a long time (...I think we called it "poetry"?).

But as with reading a poem or singing a song, I believe that the best experiences come when the delivery of the piece convinces the audience that the meaning is truly appreciated by the artist.

Oli x

Agree with your comment Oli. The feel of the singer while interpreting the song is most important so that the message in the lyrics will be successfully delivered to the listener accomanied by music.

[Bernd]

MUSIC

I've happily irgnored all the other statements. AND I'm a lyricist!
But it doesn't help to throw sand in one's own eyes. Lyrics should not mess up the songs 'feel', they must not irritate the listeners. But that's about it. I'm a fan of AC/DC (among many others). Bon Scott's lyrics still had some fine irony to them but since then their lyrics have been crap. The irony and self-mocking still exists in their performances, but if you analyse the lyrics per se there's nothing to them.

Cheers,
Bernd

[Gallowglass]

I believe people register the words of songs even if they don't consciously hear or remember them. I've heard songs completely different to what I'd normally listen to and loved them without knowing why, only to find out later that the lyrics meant something to me. 'Bastards' by Defeater is a good example for me - not only did I not hear the words, I couldn't, as it's a screamo song. But on some level my mind must have recognised them.

For that reason I'll say that lyrical content is more important than people on here give it credit for. Yes, people only tend to remember the hook/riff, but that only makes the song memorable, or 'catchy,' not popular. Think of 'hi ho silver lining' up there: how many times have you seen someone actively seek it out? People only go back, time and time again, to songs that they relate to, or which put them in a certain mood, and the main ingredient in that is the lyrics.

[hardtwistmusic]

I don't think either are as important as their delivery.

Beautiful lyrics can be sung heartlessly, and perfect music can sound lifeless if played without feeling.

From my own perspective, lyrics are more important than music. It's far easier to ruin a beautiful melody with clichéd and twee lyrics than it is to hide the impact of meaningful lyrics by poor musicianship. Also don't forget that lyrics without music have been around a long time (...I think we called it "poetry"?).

But as with reading a poem or singing a song, I believe that the best experiences come when the delivery of the piece convinces the audience that the meaning is truly appreciated by the artist.

Oli x

Interesting question:  and there is no single answer. 

One "sorta answer" is that, since you can ruin a good lyric with a bad instrumental, or vice versa, whichever is LACKING in quality is the more important IN THAT SONG. 

Some songs are lyric driven, and any one of a dozen instrumental treatments would work for them.  Some (Stairway To Heaven is an example) are dependent upon great instrumental sounds. 

So, the answer is "neither and both". 

[Jamie]

If I try to be objective I would say that if lyrics were the most important thing then poetry would be much more popular than it is. Rap is a sort of poetry normally associated with some pounding drum n bass, not usually very musical in truth.
There are some songs where the lyrics are important and definitely add to the experience,but then many great songs have lyrics that are nonsense. For me the sound of words and how they fit the song 'feel' are more important than the literal meaning.
So for me it's musical ideas (interesting harmony melody structure feel emotion) and then words. The important thing is the sound and feel of the words should add to the song and not compete for the attention. I think that a good lyric is one that if you asked ten people what it meant and you got ten different answers then that is a good lyric. But what do I know!
 
Cheers
Jamie

[KristoferPetersen]

Personally, I don't care as much about lyrics as most music fans do. There are only a few artists where listening to the lyrics is really worth it. (e.g. dylan, cohen, waits (some obvious ones) or conor oberst) It highly depends on the way the lyrics are related to the music. If the music is constructed around the text, they're naturally more important. But there are a lot of songs where the voice acts more like an instrument and the lyrics become some sort of texturing tool. (Think of bands like Sigur Rós or Radiohead)

The balance between lyrics and music is highly dependant on the complete structure of the piece. How much room is there in the arrangement? How much text does the singer actually try to sell? How important is the vocal melody for the whole song? And so on.

Lyrics and music have to come together. ("come together" is btw a perfect example for a song where the lyrics are fitting perfectly to the song.)

[Jess]

The question is surely to whom?

WHOM. WHOM. AHHHHHHH I love this word! I need it in my life WHOM

[flossie]

not a cop out I have come to realise that they are equally important for a resounding hit, but I don't give my lyrics the care and attention they deserve that needs working on 

[KEROUAC1957]

I agree with some who've said that they should be equally important. But how many people bought a Sigur Ros song and understood the lyrics? The same with Cocteau Twins who I really like.

I like the chocolate bar analogy about the music being the wrapper and the lyrics being the chocolate. If we are talking Snickers then what are the nuts?