Singers want to be songwriters and Vice Versa. Which is more important to you and explain why?

I happened to be both, but I always favored songwriting, I always viewed at as an art in itself.

However as I got more seriously into sing, I found something very cleansing and spiritual about it.

Now I know alot of singers who always complain because there not viewed as musicians. And I know songwriters on the otherside of the spectrum, who complain because they're not singers.

Obviously the two together are magical.

But which is the more important medium?

I have to vote for lyrics. Because a singer could be terrible, but if they have good lyrics, I will overlook the fact.

I think I agree with Brian Eno, when he said

"... Songwriting is now actually the most difficult challenge in music... Lyrics are really the last very hard problem in music. Software and hardware have changed the rest of music dramatically in the last thirty or forty years. It's very very easy to make pretty good music... Pretty good isn't very interesting, but pretty good is possible. But writing songs is pretty much in the same place as it was in the days of Chaucer. Apart from hip hop, hip hop is the only breakthrough in a way, rap, because it breaks away from the strict adherence to melody and beat structure and so on... I'd love to try doing this really hard thing [songwriting] and see if I can."

I got to agree, now that we have this reliace on autotune and melodyne...

Lyrics are king...

But what are your thoughts?

i tend to lean more towards songwriting... but a good singer to go with that is not a bad thing at all.

I value a good vocalist and expect that from my artists....but the songs themselves have to be good too, and if they themselves are the writers, they earn points with me. I think songwriters these days are more important, cause since most of the artists don't have individuality much, we have to rely on whether the songwriters and producers are good or not.

I'll take both. Because I have to admit, the first things I notice are the melody/groove & the singing, the lyrics take a back seat until later when I fully digest the musical aspect of the songs, thats when I pay attention, if the song has the right lyrics as the back up, it will be the icing on the cake for me. But hell, I'm not immune to the dumb shit either, I mean I've been swinging my head to Skyy's "Call Me" without giving any thoughts to the lyrics for years, it wasn't until later when I said out loud "I've been grooving to this chickenheaded mess?"

Mind you, I'm not fussy about artists writing their "own" material, if they could paint a story no matter who handed them the lyrics sheet and convey the message in a fashion I could relate to, or challenge me, I'm IN. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a song with a profound meaning, just make me believe what you're saying.

Harlepolis said:

I'll take both. Because I have to admit, the first things I notice are the melody/groove & the singing, the lyrics take a back seat until later when I fully digest the musical aspect of the songs, thats when I pay attention, if the song has the right lyrics as the back up, it will be the icing on the cake for me. But hell, I'm not immune to the dumb shit either, I mean I've been swinging my head to Skyy's "Call Me" without giving any thoughts to the lyrics for years, it wasn't until later when I said out loud "I've been grooving to this chickenheaded mess?"

Mind you, I'm not fussy about artists writing their "own" material, if they could paint a story no matter who handed them the lyrics sheet and convey the message in a fashion I could relate to, or challenge me, I'm IN. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a song with a profound meaning, just make me believe what you're saying.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Harlepolis said:

I'll take both. Because I have to admit, the first things I notice are the melody/groove & the singing, the lyrics take a back seat until later when I fully digest the musical aspect of the songs, thats when I pay attention, if the song has the right lyrics as the back up, it will be the icing on the cake for me. But hell, I'm not immune to the dumb shit either, I mean I've been swinging my head to Skyy's "Call Me" without giving any thoughts to the lyrics for years, it wasn't until later when I said out loud "I've been grooving to this chickenheaded mess?"

Mind you, I'm not fussy about artists writing their "own" material, if they could paint a story no matter who handed them the lyrics sheet and convey the message in a fashion I could relate to, or challenge me, I'm IN. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a song with a profound meaning, just make me believe what you're saying.