Quote from: DmonSlyr on March 27, 2008, 08:39:28 PMif its heavy metal the voice almost acks as an instrument.
just because you cant understand what they are saying, doesn't mean there isn't something being said.
That is true, Vorticon, to be sure. However, Demonslayer has a point with vocals also being an instrument.
This is not restricted to heavy metal either, the voice is an instrument and it is only different from any other instrument in that we, as humans, have attributed meanings to specific sequences of spoken sounds. It would be no different to attributing a specific meaning to each of the components of the harmonic minor scale, for example.
The key difference in the understanding of the vocal instrument and the physical instrument is that one conjours defined ideas where as the other paints a more ambiguous picture that lays open to interpretation. Music can be written to be sad, happy, hateful, violent, joyous or anything the writer desires. Words can also be used to conjure these same feelings.... words are just part of a more defined structure of communication.
Having said all of this, lyrics have varying degrees of importance in different genres. In my opinion the larger part of easily accessable music (top 40 charts etc) consists of music devoid of any lyrical importance. Lets face it, there's the undying love song, the break-up song, the 'I want to be the popular kid at school song', the 'you are beautiful' song, the (and very common these days) 'I am a filthy, diseased potato and I want to suck your ----' song and also the 'I am such a pimp, suck my ----' song. This is a sample of the tried and tested money spinners and each year sees the rehashing of the 'proven' forumla. Hence, lyrics don't matter in 'popular' music because they're a selling tool not a thoughtful piece of writing.
Given the popularity of 'rap' and other such styles of predominately vocal-driven music one would assume that lyrics would indeed be of great importance. This seems to be a misplaced assumption on the whole. I will, however, not write off the vast amounts of underground 'artists' (and I use that term lightly in this case) who may have a substantial message to go with their excuse for music. Perhaps you can tell that I am not fond of rap music?
There are also bands that exist solely for the expression of a particular message. Political rock bands, political metal bands, satanic and occult metal bands... the list goes on. In all of these the music serves only to carry the vocals which project a (sometimes) clear and intended message.
So it seems to me that lyrics have absolutely no point in many cases (particularly in cases where they
should), though there are also forms of musical expression that do rely solely on vocal expression and also portray a serious message. In these cases it seems impossible to question the necessity of lyrics.
Hopefully this provides some food for thought.
