When you listen to music do you ever have the need to understand the lyrics?

A name, event, location etc is sung about but you don't know the reference.

I do and often have to look it up so I fully understand the song.

Another thing is when I can't quite get all of the lyrics within a song, and I have to then look up the lyrics to see what they are really singing. Do you have to do that?

One thing I did discover while looking the lyrics up for a song today is that not all lyric sites can be trusted. Some for a song were clearly wrong, and I had to look up three different sites before I found one with accurate lyrics. Not good. But that is the internet for you. Created by fans, for fans.
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I did always have a look at the lyrics when I was a lot younger, when I listened to my metal bands, I had to know what the message of Slayer f.ex. was. Nowadays I don't really bother, as I have so many CDs, that I don't look at the lyrics every time, only if something really interests me.
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Usually i just look on the CD/LP cover and they have the lyrics in there. But if you own nothing but pirate copies of everything then you deserve to have difficulty in finding the correct lyrics. Support the multi milionares artists that spend three weeks of the year to bring you thier music and not the pirates who are all members af Al-quieda if you believe the Americans.
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I find that if I try to understand the lyrics, I spend too much time/effort focusing on that rather than enjoying the song, so most of the time I don't even listen to what's being sung. Perhaps it's just because my native language isn't English, meaning I have to focus a lot more in order to 'get' the lyrics, while it comes naturally to most of you guys.
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Strangely enough, I'm just not that interested in what Kylie Minogue and Co have to say.
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The same thing for me.

yes, the same with me. Some years ago, i went to the web and look for lyrics about Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Dream Theater etc... today i don't do it, only if a track really interests me a lot.
Last year i went to pick all Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons lyrics, but was only for this 2
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Depends on what I'm listening to. I listened a lot to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds before, still do sometimes. And that isn't easy listening, the lyrics is a very important part of most of Cave's songs. Often the music itself is only there to complement the text and doesn't really work on its own. Not all of his music is like that, but a lot of it is so you really need to pay attention to his lyrics to get the most out his music in my opinion.

But for other generic music I don't really pay much attention to the lyrics anymore.
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I used to read the lyrics quite often for Nine Inch Nails, The Doors, PWEI, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Therapy? and a few others but i'm not so bothered now.
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It annoys me when they don't though. I like reading the lyrics and I find it a bit irritating that some bands never include them (Idlewild and New Order have never included lyrics in the album sleeve) especially when they can be hard to decipher at times.

It's not a big problem obviously as you can get 'em on the internet anyway (though has anyone ever come across songs that don't actually have the lyrics on the 'net? I can't find the lyrics to Idlewild's "Hidden Ways" anywhere, for instance) and I'm generally only interested if I really like the song anyway.
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Same here. I will only look lyrics up for a song I really like, where I just can't work out certain words or lines.

Years ago a lot of LPs had lyrics included, and many early CDs continued to do the same, but in recent years it seems more and more don't include any. Instead just including a 4 page booklet with a couple of abstract pictures.
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