Importance of Words to Music, a lyrical and melodic inquiry! Options

[trunks_girl26]

I resisted the urge to put this in Issues, even though it tends to be rather culturally relevant. Mods feel free to move this if they would like.

I just finished having a rather intense discussion with another forumite *cough*pwm*cough* which started as one about the limitations (or lack thereof) a choir has with music, as opposed to an orchestra and branched into one concerning the importance of words to music in general.

He tends to be of the opinion that words aren't as important as melody, while I feel that words can be as powerful, if not more, than the melody.

So, I put it to you, good Matazonians:

How important are words to music?
If words have no importance, would it be possible to take the same melody, put it to radically different phrases, and not not drastically change its meaning?
Does culture play a part in how important words are to music, if so how?

[Daria]

mmm... Perhaps. But their meaning- the political messages they are trying to get across etc etc- would still be there if you took them away from the music. But the music wouldn't be politically charged anymore.

[Wookiee]

But the music wouldn't be politically charged anymore.

I don't see this as a bad thing at all. I find overtly political music incredibly frustrating, as the majority of it is ill-conceived, poorly articulated, heavy handed and over-simplified. And a lot of it is by people like Bono and Zach de la Rocha. Also, someone please bleach Bob Geldof's brain for me? And set fire to his daughters, kthxb.

[Daria]

But the music wouldn't be politically charged anymore.

I don't see this as a bad thing at all. I find overtly political music incredibly frustrating, as the majority of it is ill-conceived, poorly articulated, heavy handed and over-simplified. And a lot of it is by people like Bono and Zach de la Rocha. Also, someone please bleach Bob Geldof's brain for me? And set fire to his daughters, kthxb.

Hehehehe, I will do if I get the chance.

I'm not saying all music has to be politically charged, but some being so is a good thing. Asian Dub Foundation, for example, creating anti-racism music. Surely it is a good thing if people can be positively influenced by it? So what if it is simplified, it still has the power to get people to their feet and realise things are wrong in the world.