My wife and I were talking over dinner last night about music, and we've come to the conclusion that we are very different in how we not only perceive music, but also in how we listen to it. Strangely enough, our musical tastes are very similar, but when we got to talking about what she "hears" in a song versus what I "hear", I realized how different our experiences with the same songs were. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the actual act of listening to music can be such a varied experience, depending on not only who you are, but where you are, what you are doing, and perhaps most importantly, what you are not doing.When my wife listens to a song, the first things she hears are the lyrics, and after listening to a song a couple of times, she has already memorized half the lyrics. I operate completely differently. The first thing I hear in a song are the instruments, the types of sounds heard, and perhaps most importantly to me - the melody.
Without a doubt, my first impression of a song is always the strongest, although it is fair to say certain songs have a tendency to grow on me over time. I'm sure this happens with everyone else too. Back to the point though, the very last thing I hear when I listen to a song initially are the lyrics. Point of distinction - I hear the voice, but I hear it more as a melody, and less as lyrics... at least initially. There always comes a point, especially when listening to music that I truly enjoy, where I will finally make an attempt to understand the lyrics. Sometimes it involves reading the book that accompanies the CD's to find them, and other times you can just understand the lyrics easily by listening to the music. It depends who's singing, and how easy they how to understand. Try deciphering a Bob Dylan or Radiohead song on the first attempt.
The relationship between music and lyrics is thoroughly inter-twined, and the importance of one element may rely entirely on the existence of the other. How do you hear music? Do you break a song down into it's respective instruments, and listen to the ways the different sounds and rhythms interact with each other? Perhaps you don't hear the different instruments, but rather hear the song as a collective "whole", rather than the sum of it's parts. Or perhaps you focus entirely on the lyrics, and find the actual music to merely be a backdrop to the thoughts, ideas, and stories being expressed within the song.
Of course, every musician and band has their thoughts and opinions on the matter, and this becomes a determining factor in the shape of their music. There is certainly no right or wrong answer here... it's more of an unconscious reaction than anything else... at least in my opinion. I could literally go on and on about this subject, but in my attempts to create some sort of "order" to this conundrum, I have also spent 4 and a half months without any other entries, which is, to quote my friend Eric, "pathetic". Indeed, Eric. Indeed. Instead, I will merely pose the question "How do you listen to music?", and perhaps it will make you stop and think for a second.
