Music

I dont post in these sections often, so not sure if this would fit better in The Speakeasy or the Rubik's cube so I'd just put it here.

Being a music major, I study music of all genres from time to time, listening to them to stimulate thinking.

Everyone has different tastes in music, and some are willing to like one and hate the other to great extents. One of the simplest divides is between instrumental music and music with lyrics. On one side, people prefer music with lyrics because the words can express emotions to their audience. However, on the other hand, music without lyrics portrays emotions through the instruments, and leaves the interpretation of the music up to the listener.

With that being said, the human voice can be considered an instrument too. After all, it makes music just like any other instrument. Which brings up my question: Would music in a language you dont understand be considered music with lyrics or instrumental music? On one hand, there are definitely lyrics there in a language (for this discussion's sake, lets say a Japanese song) that some people can understand. But on the other hand, if a person doesnt understand the lyrics, are the words being said really lyrics, or just noise/instrumental sounds like that made by say a piano, or violin, etc.?

Tl;dr- Would music written in a language that one doesnt understand be considered instrumental music or music with lyrics?

Hmm I'd still consider any song (i.e. music that is sung lol) "music with lyrics" as distinguished from purely instrumental music. If nothing else, that is the definition of a song, and not a piece. I remember one of my teachers was really anal about using the word "song" appropriately lol..

Besides even if I can't understand what the words are, there is still some quality of the human voice that distinguishes it from other instruments, and it is different if nothing else because it produces so many more different types of sound than simply those differences in pitch, duration, etc. I think voice also conveys emotions that instruments cannot, and you can always look at translations too if you are interested in the exact meanings.

To me, music with lyrics I don't understand is more like instrumental music than music with lyrics I do understand, but it's not totally equivalent.