Trouble hearing lyrics in songs?

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I guess it's not only me who doesn't have great abilities to grasp lyrics out of music nor words from movies. Which reminds me, any of you listen to new-age music? They hardly contain any lyrics at all…and they sure fit into my broad imagination.

I've heard it a few times...and yes, I know what you mean.

Also: Kiss This Guy - The Archive of Misheard Lyrics

My native tongue is Dutch. Most of the time I watch Dutch TV. The problem is, that I often can't understand what is said. I have to record the sound in my head, replay it, and then interpret my mental recordings.

I sometimes watch English and German TV, or someone on the Dutch TV speaks English or German (with Dutch subtitles). And then it is suddenly not a problem anymore. I understand and can follow anything that has been said.

Is it me or my autism? Apparently not. My parents have the same problem, and none of them are autistic. I have also tinnitus, but that can be ruled out as well for the same reason. It is the poor speaking skills of Dutch program and movie makers.

This.
I listen to it as absolute music, so I always forget to pay attention to the lyrics.

This ! Exactly this ! !

Now this is why I love this site as I've never seen or heard that sentiment anywhere else apart from my mind !

I often tell people that when I listen to any kind of music with lyrics - I hear words as just another sound rather than a meaningful word . So I have NO IDEA AT ALL what a song is about but I can remember every NOTE OR SOUND of that song ..

Am a musician, of a genre that either does not use lyrics or uses them rarely.

I listen to electronic music and most of the stuff I listen to is also electronic (non-vocal).

I'm far more use to trying to listen to music actively rather than passively.

I try to pick out every sound, texture and instrument, and, electronic is usually a very repetitive genre with subtle differences here and there, so I try to discern and analyze all the small changes.

Don't have any issues hearing lyrics in electronic, as I'm use to it.

Other genres though, are a different question, as they are made differently.

Rock/country lyrics I can pick out every 2nd to 4th word, usually due to the vocalist having a far more unclear voice.

Pop music just sounds very congested to me as the vocals are overly-loud and the instruments crushed so they can barely be heard.

I also focus far too much on trying to hear the instruments.

Rap, don't even ask. Far too difficult.

Every 3rd word seems to be a common swear word, making it very distracting, they're far too fast, and I just find singing more easier to interpret than speaking.

This happens to me a lot! I thought I was the only one. Often I can't make out exactly what a singer is saying, especially when I hear a song for the first time. I have to listen to it multiple times or just look up the lyrics. With TV I can usually understand, but the closed-captioning is always on just in case. I find it very helpful, and often I enjoy reading the lines even more than hearing them.

Not lyric based, but sorta the same:

Was watching TV last night and noticed something odd. It had a few people in a crowd. There were certain vocal types that I just could not understand at all. I could understand certain qualities in the same scene and then a different person would talk and it sounded a bit like Morse code in that I could only hear punctuated sounds and not words. Most of them I had to piece the conversations together by context....really disrupts the flow of things, eh?