This thread was inspired by something Def-fx and some other members were discussing in a thread about favorite bands. The question is, do the beliefs, ideologies or political/religious statements that bands make effect weather or not you will enjoy listening to them? Is the message as important as the music?

Some of you may have noticed that I have listed Burzum as a favorite band in my profile. And in truth I think he has recorded some of the most dark and beautiful music ever. I also think that his beliefs are stupid as hell. Yet I do not let this effect my enjoyment of his music. For me, the message has no impact what so ever on my enjoyment of a band.

man, like someone said before it's just a matter of opinions, so it mostly ends out in an argument between boardmembers or something shitty like that.

like a moderator posted before, don't talk about religion and music and stuff, it gets under peoples skin and some people can get pissed off.. I won't post in this thread anymore, I've said enough about this subject...

yeah there is said a lot about this.. my short answer is: yes, i does effect me. I won't listen to music with lyrics i don't like ( has not to be satanic.) now i'm going to shut up as well..

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i dont pay attention to the lyrics, even if i;m singing along

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I pay particular attention to the lyrics. You might have noticed I'm a particularly verbally-driven person. It's very hard to take stupid gore lyrics seriously, or the continually cliche shit that often masquerades as extreme metal. It's the reason I like bands like Bad Religion who actually have statements to make in their music. A lot of hardcore is intelligent, leftist-based and particularly angry, which loosely correlates to me.

There are exceptions to this rule. Some bands just fucking smoke and they could be singing a shopping list for all I care.

The bands I like the very best, like Opeth and Misery Index, have both lyrical & musical content. This is one of the reasons I don't give Dream Theater a top 5 place in my hierarchy... the lyrics tend towards the trite SOMETIMES...

Everyone play nice in this thread, please. It was an intelligent question asked in good faith. You fuck up the vibe, I'll delete your post.

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Lyrics are of some importance.....but if the music is really good, i usually dont bother.

Lyrics usually only come into play if i want to sing along or something....otherwise i usually don't care what they're singing about.

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I think lyrics are an important factor in music and so the meaning of the lyrics.
It´s hard to seperate them.
On the one hand you like the music but on the other hand you can´t accept the lyrics, still you´re supporting this band, while you´re listening to their music. And supporting this "movement" you dislike.

For myself i try not to listen to Nazi/ Right-winged-music (sometimes i don´t recognize it), even they make good music. First because of the history of Germany and because of my history, because i listened to punk and still like their attitude.

Now I think music shouldn´t be misused as a media for spreading political/ religious contents. You can take part in a religion or a party, but parties/ religions shouldn´t take part in music. With music you can tell stories/ fairy tales/ feelings/... Even religious/ political provocating is possible without being political/ religious.

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lyrics mean nothing to me, if they did, i would never listen to Cannibal Corpse.......and you know.....that would suck.

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I actually do not know the lyrics to many of my favorite songs! For instance, my band is practicing a cover of Circle of the Tyrants, and I have had to study the lyrics for it, since I have no idea what he was singing. But I had no problem playing the song. Lyrics for me are a non-issue in the extreme, propably to a fault.

I care about the lyrics of the bands that I hear but I don't
think that if I disagreed with a group's lyrics I wouldn't listen to it.
For example I hate CC's lyrics but I like their music a lot(the only gore
lyrics I like is from Carcass)

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lyrics mean a *lot* to me...
but if a song has damn good music etc but the lyrics arent very developped i'll like it...mostly depends on my mood

but good lyrics definitly affect me more than good music