Understanding lyrics in music

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Hi, does anybody here not listen to the words in songs?
I find if I try to understand the poetry of a song I don't enjoy it, I like the way the lyics flow but they have no meaning for me.
Just curious.

edit: added poll

I prefer to listen to the lyrics in songs as you might guess from the number of 'favourite song lyrics' posts I make, but am occasionally disappointed if they turn out to be rubbish. If thats the case I try to focus on the flow as you say - in the case of artists singing in another language, eg Rammstein, or nonsense {Cocteau Twins} it just sounds good anyway...

I can pick out the lyrics at an only slightly sub-par rate depending on the singer and how much attention I'm focusing. My dad's worse but I really do think it's an Aspie thing to not be able to decode lyrics.

I dunno.... I'm pretty good at picking out lyrics, its the cadences of normal speech, picking it out from background noise and decoding it in real time I have more trouble with.

So long as I'm not listening to Pearl Jam, yeah. And I hear Vedder's only gotten worse...

why spoil beautiful music with words?

Lyrics are what I enjoy most about music, and I'm unusually good at picking out lyrics and decoding them, however I do tend to listen to music over and over. Okay, I obsess over music and listen to it over and over and over and over and over again. I usually start on the lyrics after I've listened to it 5 or six times through, when I've gotten the general flow of the music.

I think thats a pretty normal thing for all people NT and AS alike

But yeah, I don't usually understand the lyrics until I've heard the song a few times or looked them up.
Unless I'm really familiar with the band and the singer's voice.

If I do at all, that's the way I do it.

I usually get carried away by the emotional response I have to the music, so a song about suicide, for example, might end up meaning something completely different, then if I read the lyrics it tends to ruin it, kinda like "seeing the movie after reading the book" syndrome.

So yeh....... what he said.

I can only usually pick out a handful of lyrics, so I usually look up lyrics if I like the song and then memorize them. I don't think much about lyrics, but some songs I need to know the lyrics to.

I'm pretty bad at deciphering lyrics, so I usually look them up if I like the song. I appreciate it when a band goes to the effort of writing clever lyrics (Arcade Fire, Page France, Wilco, etc.). Then again, I have a great love of instrumental or non-English music as well.

I have trouble hearing some song lyrics, especially sung by artists like Edwyn Collins.
Sometimes double meanings come abit later, and often with poems I come-up with over elaqborate notions at what they may be hinting at.

Does anyone else have difficulty with books with creating a flowing mental image in their head?
I have had a bit of difficulty with that as often it is fragmented and if there is too much infomation I get confused.
Also I have noted that characters in books assimilate in their appearance people who I know as opposed to creating a whole new character.

writing and re-writing the lyrics to my favourite songs is one of my habits. sometimes i will get a bit fixated on a song, so writing out the lyrics helps me to stop obsessing over it.

most of the time, i find that the lyrics seem have a different meaning to the emotion conveyed in the music- i've always found it much easier to label the emotion of a song than identify my own feelings. but the rare occasion when the emotion in a good song matches the lyrical content is like heaven on earth for me!

i love finding out about the inspiration for a song, the process of writing it, the subject matter, additional influences and the author's thoughts on the finished product.

it annoys me if a songwriter makes an error in the lyrics, for example: "if she floats then she is not a witch, like we thought,*" from serve the servants by nirvana. i suppose it is within the realm of possibilty that this was intentional, but i doubt it. abstract lyrics annoy me too.

* it should be "if she drowns then she is not a witch, like we thought."

I cant understand what they sing.

I NEVER listen to lyrics when im listening to a song. Not consciously anyway, i do however eventually pick it up and start singing to it.

I only look at lyrics when im not listening to the music, i read it as poetry. I also absolutely love breaking down the lyrics into meaning and imagery. I probably gonna write my interpretation of Dark Side of the Moon soon

Im like Theman, just get absorbed in the music. The vocals are like another instrument in the band as far as im concerned.

Well the intention for the vocals is to convey melody and verbal language. It adds a new dimension to a group.
Without a vocalist many bands would be dreadful live, and you'd pick-up how monotonous most songs actually are.
If the lyrics are saturated with metaphors and irony then that will add another more complex side to the group.
I've noticed most groups with clever lyrics are not well recieved in America...