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Actually, I much prefer a song without lyrics. I think the lyrics screw up the song and make it… eh.

But to hate any song merely for having no lyrics is pretty stupid honestly.

I kinda like to sing along to music, so lyrics are generally necessary. Though there are some excellent game scores that are beautiful without words.

I like both, but for different reasons. If I want to focus on the music itself, I like to have lyrics, because they give me something extra to think about on top of the melody/structure. But if I want to play music while I’m trying to focus on something else (especially reading a book), I prefer music without lyrics because otherwise I get distracted by the words to the song. But I also sometimes just like to listen to instrumental music by itself, because it’s also nice in its own right.

As a bachelors student studying music at university the definitive answer is: No, music as a whole does not need lyrics to fit any standard definition of “good”.

Some of the earliest recorded (as in written down) music started as poetry, or in other words, as rhythmic prose that was set to primitive tablature type markings (later standardized into Neumes) . Later on as music evolved through the years, especially in western Europe, people starting writing more complex harmonies into their psalms and hymns, and eventually they figured out that you didn’t need to rely on something as explicit as text to convey an idea, an emotion, or even imagery. Crazy right?

Music has been evolving and changing for centuries, both in the instrumental and lyrical genres, so any preference of one over the other is just that; a personal preference that doesn’t reflect on the overall “goodness” of one style over the other. Some peeps like words with their tunes, some don’t, and most of us can appreciate both.

It depends. Smooth jazz can work brilliantly without words. However, a capella is nothing without lyrics.

I’ve never even listened to a capella that wasn’t by him

I don’t know why I like much rather instrumental music, I just do. I find it interesting that when I was a small child the only music I was exposed to was what my parents listened, and it was always music focused on lyrics, and yet even since then I had a much stronger preference for music without. I was born for instrumental.

I don’t really have an aversion to lyrics, it’s just that I don’t pay attention to them at all (not understand spoken English does not help), so if they are the only good thing about a song, this song will utterly suck for me. Singing for me is nothing more than gibberish that is supposed to go well with everything else. (Yes, I find the human voice to be the worst and most overrated “musical instrument”.) But that doesn’t prevent me from having Somebody That I Used to Know and Rather Be among my favorites.

I don’t care if someone plays an instrument well, if they can sing well or have a powerful voice, if they can write poetry, or anything else – all that matters for me is whether they are capable or not of making good tunes. Composing is where the true genius, originality and creativity of a musician shows, everything else is only secondary. I am musically illiterate, so that makes me all the more fascinated by the people who have mastered the most abstract of human arts.

My favorite musicians are amateur composers who make synthesized music. Many probably haven’t touched an instrument in years, one actually never had more than drum lessons once in life. I admire good composers – performers and lyricists, not at all.

i just noticed that there is a general music section in the forum sorry for the troubles of moving it here

The presence or absence of lyrics is a non-issue for music. At least as much as the presence or absence of any other part of any music. If a piece is composed with lyrics in mind, of course the song is bound to fall flat when that portion is missing. If the lyrics are of terrible quality, they will detract from the rest of the music when they’re shoehorned in.

The really important factor for getting good music together is for everything to be put together with a clear intent in mind with a performance that can respect that intent in earnest.

I don’t mind either (my favourite music is Disney/Musical and VGM) but I find in most modern pop songs the lyrics are awful and don’t make any sense – it kind of ruins the whole song.