Do you have to know the lyrics to the songs you are listening to? Or is it okay if you can't understand what the singer is singing?

When I listen to a song I tend to fade out the singing and just listen to the….music(?)
and the ones I do listen to I have no idea what all the words are

I like to listen to opera but I don’t speak italian, and yet it can make me cry. I LOVE Julio Iglesias and again I don’t speak spanish. So, yes, it’s ok not to understand whats being sung honey. Music has a language all of its own I think, it can provoke such strong emotions and even change your mood. That having been said, I’ve always been a lover of great voices. music where you do hear every single word and float away with each one. Who can listen to Sinatra without floating away on a cloud. Just wonderful.
hugs xx

I generally prefer being able to understand the lyrics, but sometimes the music itself is good enough to overshadow being unable to understand even a word that is being said. This is why I love metal, but generally not the “screamy” metal that I can’t understand at all. Although that too also has it’s exceptions.

I like a lot of metal songs, and still don’t know the lyrics to half of them, but I just like the sound of the instruments.

I think it depends. If it’s mysterious but you know it isn’t a bad song, for example Fireflies by Owl City, then it’s ok. By bad I mean cursing and stuff you don’t want people to judge you by if you hum along to it on the radio. Just be careful if you don’t understand what the song is about – you don’t want to learn the hard way, which can be embarassing.

As for the matter of if I care or not – I try to figure out the lyrics sometimes, and sometimes I agree with you @glenjamin and would rather leave the songs mysertious.

No, I definitely do not. As someone who grew up on classical music and still considers classical to be the best genre, lyrics are not as important to me. I listen to classical music in Italian, French, German, Latin; I have pop music in Japanese, Mandarin, Turkish, Russian, Swedish, Thai, even Twi. I don’t speak any of those languages. Part of the main reason I like those songs is simply the beauty of the sound of the language, regardless of what the words mean.

ItGenerally I like knowing the lyrics. Then again, it depends if I like the lyrics. When it’s difficult to tell what the singers are saying, though, I have to look up what they are XD

As I get older, I tend to try and listen to the lyrics more. But, when I was younger, as long as the song had a catchy tune I barely listened to them.

I don’t need to know the lyrics of the songs I listen to to enjoy them, but usually I like to know the words so that I can sing along.

Then there are songs that I thought were mediocre until I learned the words and the meaning behind them, and suddenly I love it.

Sometimes I can’t even understand what my singer is saying, lol. We’re not even metal, even though I totally am.

It’s OK with me for you to listen to music any way you wish. What a question!

Isn’t it odd how profound and moving words can be when sung though they look trite when written down.

I don’t think it matters as music is energy at the end of the day.

I like to know the lyrics, but with a lot of the music I listen to, the lyrics are pretty indecipherable. In fact, the Riverdales refuse to print lyrics in their liner notes because they know it drives us nuts. I still love singing along, just mumbling the parts I don’t know.

I need to know the lyrics because I’m probably going to sing the song at some point if I like it enough.

i listen to the song first. Then with the lyrics, then again to soak it all in.

If I don’t know every word, I look it up. I’m not humming through the words I’m unsure of. That’s just lame.