When you listen to music...
 

what keeps you listening to the song?

Do you pay more attention to the lyrics or the beats?

Personally, if the song has a terrible beat I usually dismiss it right away. Is this a bad thing? :-\

Yes

I would like to say lyrics to go with my philosophical side :) usually I give a song about 15-20 seconds and if I dont like it I wont listen unless recommended.

:rofl:

Lyrics are usually the last thing I look at in a song. For me it goes the actually instrumenation/non-vocal noise the song has, then the sound of the singer (not so much what is being sung), and lastly the words the singer has. If it has the first one and not the others it can be a good song, if it has the first two it can be a really good song, but the great songs have all 3.

Yeah, a good melody is definitely more important to me than great lyrics.

Exactly.

Meh.

It really depends to me. It's a combination I suppose. Kanye West has both down perfectly. (HED) P.E. tends to be pretty shitty lyrics wise, but at the same times, the lyrics have a certain energy to them.

Basically, shitty music and shitty lyrics can both turn me off to a song. right now the biggest turn off though is whiny singers. You know who I'm talking about, basically every modern pop punk/emo/teen/indy band. Hawthorne Heights, Dashboard Confessional, My Chemical Romance, etc. The singers make me want to stab my eardrums. No matter how good the instruments or lyrics are, I can't take the voice.

Ultimately, outside of the whiny singers, I'd say it goes music-singers voice-lyrics for me too. However, some songs just have such god awful lyrics that I can't stand.

But hey, to each their own.

Aren't you a Dylan fan?

Personally I go for the beat
then what the singer sounds like

For example motorhead is still a great band
thier beats are good, I especially like king of kings, but when lemmy sings its like he is constipated (LOL), but I still like the band.

and yes I believe if you don't like the beat, it will be hard to like the song.

Not a huge Dylan fan, no...

lol well since i only listen to dance music, beats mean everything, although when there is a vocal track in there i listen to the words

Singers Voice-Lyrics-Music

Was under the impression you were.

Anyway, I listen for different things in different styles of music. I'm not going into a metal songs expecting the same things as from a folk song.

I'm sure as fuck not looking for the same thing from Trent Reznor as I am from Bob Dylan, or from Mission of Burma as 3 Doors Down.

Generally, it's the instrumentation that's foremost, though I wouldn't simplify this as "beat," as it doesn't much matter. Usually Guitars and bass (Or whatever the guts of the music is), followed by vocals, etc. Percussion's about the last thing I look for in most styles of music, because it's generally so standard. A good percussionist can bring a piece alive, and a bad one can really ruin even the most interesting song (FUCK YOU, LARS ULRICH!), but most drummers are so MotR it's not funny.

Motorhead rules, plain and simple.

Yeah