How Far Do You Go With Lyrics?

I try to keep my faith and my musical taste seperate but, of course it's never that simple. I do have my limits when it comes to secular lyrics. I am not too sure where my line is since I can listen to a lot of anti religion and anti Christian lyrics. I guess I'm at the point where if it is attacking Jesus/God directly, then I'll turn it off. I'm ok with people being angry at us and taking out their anger on us so, I have a lot of records that my church friends would probably love to burn behind my back, haha.

Same here, though i also dont like racist lyrics or pro-drug songs. Of course, i also judge bands on a song by song basis. If an album has 9 positive or neutral songs but one "bad" song, then i just dont listen to that song, but i would never judge the band on that song, unless all their material is like that (after all, if an actor/actress you liked starred in a movie you found offensive, would you stop watching everything they made?).

If i like the track or the band i buy it..i have no limit with the lyrics...

I don't feel comfortable with songs that are anti-Christ or anti-Christian.  Overly sexual lyrics bother me as well as many of those bands were definitely not singing about their wives.  Even with the secular bands that I have brought back into my listening of late, I limit how much I listen to them.

I prefer to listen to only Christian lyrics but I listen to secular as well. When it comes to Christian bands, I don't care what label the band uses, as long as its Biblical or is written from a good view/standpoint. I'll usually invest in the bands albums if the music is to my liking.

If its a secular band, I stay away from heavy amounts of language, anti-Christian, and perverse lyrics

I prefer to get something out of what I listen to that's why 98% of my collection is Christian. The other 2% is just turn your brain off glam metal

I prefer to get something out of what I listen to that's why 98% of my collection is Christian. The other 2% is just turn your brain off glam metal

That's me as well!

Mostly I listen to black metal and my lyrical threshold has increased in rigour over the years.  Nowadays I  bypass anything with blatantly Satanic or blasphemous lyrics (a big disappointment to skip Batushka), although my collection retains earlier stuff I wouldn't pick up now.

I have no problem with racist lyrics in NSBM because I just consider it stupid and it doesn't challenge me, plus since the vocals can't be understood it doesn't diminish the listening enjoyment.  Sexualised lyrics are similar but more problematic because it has more effect.  Gore I just don't like.

Christian bands get a free pass, even with dodgy theology

I have a lot of respect for those who maintain higher standards than I do - sometimes I think the choice to listen to 'questionable' lyrics comes from strength, and sometimes from weakness.

Reminds me of the secular lyrics poll I made a while ago. I have no qualms listening to any type of lyrics. ANY.

I sometimes prefer really dark lyrics because it's audio horror. While this was a former conviction of mine, I no longer understand recoiling from MUSIC because of the LYRICAL content. It just seems like splitting hairs to me.

Why is Hail Satan so taboo? Tshirts and beer is just as lost. I've seen this happen before... "Wow! This sounds great!" and then "I found a song that I don't like what they say so I don't like this anymore." - which is reminiscent of my brother as a kid, hates onions, finds out years later that there were onions in his favorite soup, and stops eating it at the discovery.

Really? That's giving way too much power to a placebo. The soup is no different, it won't kill you, you like it - quit being weird. Worse yet when every mother loving food item is now painstakingly scrutinized for onions.

Hey Thomas!  Good to see you again!!

To the topic, I don't really have a rule, I just know when something doesn't sit well with me.  I've also found I can have different modes of listening and can tolerate different things in some modes than others.

Thanks man! Miss seeing you on The Blackest Light though.

Before, i was strictly limited to Christian and secular bands who didn't have clearly anti-Christian music. Since some months, i'm trying to explore some genre only by music (Black/Thrash/Death), even if they have anti-Christian or sexual lyrics/artwork.

Of course it impact my tolerance about their music, and i tolerate them only if it's good/very good to me.

I have some difficulties to understand spoken English, so it can be a "pretext" to listen some ambiguous lyrics.

We had an interesting discussion about that (anti-Christian, Jew, Muslim artwork and lyrics) on a Black Metal forum some days. Most fans of Black seems to use it more because it's a "tradition" than really to denounce religions. Others are really against of course, but for them it's like long hair, devil sign and corpse paint.

About anti-Christianity itself, i found it interesting when it's not only rude and provocation but also a
reflexion about problems and incoherences in churches and Christianity. I have more tolerance about bands who criticize Brasil's churches, who have a too reduced vision of society, than criticize about France's Catholic church who's almost dead, don't have any influence and frequently have scandals. You don't kick someone while they're down.

I'll listen to most things, depending on my mood. Lyrics don't bother me in the way they used to. Ther's a large proportion of my music collection that was shoved in a cupboard for years as I didn't feel comfortable with it, due to lyrical content, but it's all fine now.

I used to listen to most things.  Then one day I got some lyrics stuck in my head that weren't very nice - and they just stayed there for ages.  That's one of the reasons I listen to 95% christian music.  I don't want that other stuff getting in my brain.

Why is Hail Satan so taboo? Tshirts and beer is just as lost. I've seen this happen before... "Wow! This sounds great!" and then "I found a song that I don't like what they say so I don't like this anymore." - which is reminiscent of my brother as a kid, hates onions, finds out years later that there were onions in his favorite soup, and stops eating it at the discovery.

Really? That's giving way too much power to a placebo. The soup is no different, it won't kill you, you like it - quit being weird. Worse yet when every mother loving food item is now painstakingly scrutinized for onions.

exactly right.. The other one that gets me is "I own that record but I always skip track 1"  
Come on man, If a band has one "evil " song then that might should tell ya something about the band..Dont buy something like AC/DC and then skip a track here and there..

Savage Amusement wrote:

Why is Hail Satan so taboo? Tshirts and beer is just as lost. I've seen this happen before... "Wow! This sounds great!" and then "I found a song that I don't like what they say so I don't like this anymore." - which is reminiscent of my brother as a kid, hates onions, finds out years later that there were onions in his favorite soup, and stops eating it at the discovery.

Really? That's giving way too much power to a placebo. The soup is no different, it won't kill you, you like it - quit being weird. Worse yet when every mother loving food item is now painstakingly scrutinized for onions.

exactly right.. The other one that gets me is "I own that record but I always skip track 1"  
Come on man, If a band has one "evil " song then that might should tell ya something about the band..Dont buy something like AC/DC and then skip a track here and there..

And that goes back to my statement about judging bands on a song-by-song basis. Forget lyrics for an instant, what if a band released the best album of their career, followed by their worst album, followed by a worthy comeback. Would you completely abandon the band because of that album in the middle?

WildWorld wrote:

Savage Amusement wrote:

Why is Hail Satan so taboo? Tshirts and beer is just as lost. I've seen this happen before... "Wow! This sounds great!" and then "I found a song that I don't like what they say so I don't like this anymore." - which is reminiscent of my brother as a kid, hates onions, finds out years later that there were onions in his favorite soup, and stops eating it at the discovery.

Really? That's giving way too much power to a placebo. The soup is no different, it won't kill you, you like it - quit being weird. Worse yet when every mother loving food item is now painstakingly scrutinized for onions.

exactly right.. The other one that gets me is "I own that record but I always skip track 1"  
Come on man, If a band has one "evil " song then that might should tell ya something about the band..Dont buy something like AC/DC and then skip a track here and there..

And that goes back to my statement about judging bands on a song-by-song basis. Forget lyrics for an instant, what if a band released the best album of their career, followed by their worst album, followed by a worthy comeback. Would you completely abandon the band because of that album in the middle?

Too many bands I like have gone through that and I still manage to find something I like about the worst albums haha.

I can't stand the skip track mentality either. I skip tracks I think are boring, like intermission tracks that are just noise leading into the next track.