Do most people listen to song lyrics more closely as they get older?

[raccoon]

I know I do...anyone else?

I just happened to think that it might be because in the 90's I started listening to audio books,
and consequently just became more in the habit of listening more closely to whatever I'm listening
to.

[jakeXT]

1. If it's in a language I understand and the words aren't mumbled

As an adult you certainly get innuendo

But if people like Nat King Cole or Ritchie Valens can sing in Spanish without speaking it...

[pipi_k]

3. Speaking of innuendo...

I don't understand Italian, but I can feel the emotion here...

The high note at 2:57 gives me chills every time

[pipi_k]

2. I never really

thought about it, but yeah...maybe so.

When I was younger, I cared more about the music...the melody.

Not that I don't now. It has to be melodic in some way, not a bunch of what sounds like toddlers bashing away on pots and pans.

But now I do pay attention to the lyrics, and my only guess is that, being older, I can really feel...identify with...the words.

Like the saying goes, you can't feel the blues until you've lived them.

Well, getting older, a lot of the lyrics have a very special meaning because of what I've experienced in life, whereas I didn't have the experience before and could not really FEEL them.

[Scuba]

5. You got this part right! ....

[Tobin S.]

4. I've always had a hard time hearing lyrics

They have to be really clear for me to hear them or I have to have read the lyrics somewhere to know what they are saying. I'm not sure why that is. So mostly I just like the sounds. I'm 39, btw.

[AsahinaKimi]

6. Lyrics don't have to matter to me, especially

If the songs are in Korean, or Chinese. I don't know those languages but I can love the music!

[seabeyond]

7. walking thru house last night and busted out in song. jermiah was a bullDOG....

both boys on different sides of the house yells out

bullFROG

no way i say. really. not a bulldog, but a bullfrog. bulldog sounds better

i have never gotten songs right. ever. make up my own words. lol. was a blast when kids were little. they would just giggle. i cannot decipher what singers are saying

or i would listen to the words

but then again, i am more into the beat and letting music in than listening to words.

[treestar]

8. Don't know but I do know that some songs

Don't stand up very well to really thinking about their lyrics.

I was on a long drive one time and the person who was with me and I - we were listening to songs and then talking about the lyrics and wound up laughing our asses off at some. The one I remember most was Stevie Nicks - Dreams. Thunder only happens when it's raining. I guess so. When the rain washes you clean, you'll know (what?)

Neil Diamond and his chair - even that chair didn't understand him. Like chairs are the first to do that.

[BrendaBrick]

11. Neil Diamond - I Am I Said.........

sweet, profound and empowering, imo.

For some folks...'a chair' is ALL they really have in life!!!!

[applegrove]

9. I purposely memorized the words to a few songs when I was young... maybe 5 or 6 songs. But I do not

even know what most songs I own are about because I never listen to the words. Even the classic I couldn't tell you what the subject matter is about.

[cyberswede]

10. The opposite for me...

It's all about the music for me - appreciating good musicianship, etc. In fact, for many songs I like, I avoid figuring out the lyrics, because I think they're less relevant to me the older I get (but I'm a 40-something mother of 2 who listens to death metal - definitely for the music and not the lyrics).

Obviously, this doesn't apply to stuff like John Prine and other outstanding singer-songwriters.

[pitohui]

12. erm that would be a no

the older you get the more you realize that lyrics don't mean crap

[BrendaBrick]

13. For me, exactly the opposite...no lyrics, just great feeling -

case in point: Pink Floyd/Dark Side of the Moon Album - Great Gig in the Sky = Clare Torry:

An impromptu right there on the spot. Real, honest & spontaneous and luckily they captured and laid it right down on a track as it occurred.

[pscot]

14. Only the ones in my head

and most of those are from 60 or 70 years ago. I had Vaughn Monroe drifting around up there last week.

[Tom Ripley]

15. I find myself listening to more instrumental music as I get older