I think there was a great line in the film "Music and Lyrics" where the two leading characters were discussing this very same thing. Drew Barrymore said to Hugh Grant something like "The music is like the sexual attraction but the words are how you get to know the person."

Don't quote me. That's basically what I remember, but it rang true. While there are some amazing melodies and lyrics that can each stand alone, the hit song is even more than just those two ingredients. It takes the right arrangement, production, musicians, singers, PR positioning (like how "My Heart Will Go On" was positioned in the "Titanic" film) to create enough power to really make a song impinge upon enough people to make a hit song.

I've seen so many incredible songs just go nowhere because of lack of promotion or the singer wasn't right or such things.

Art for art's sake is great. But, if no one hears a song...even a masterpiece, it does not create any effect except within the few people who do hear it.

So, one must wind up inevitably with the question, "what purpose does this song have?" If the purpose is to create lovely background music for a film, it does not need lyrics. But, if it is the theme song for that same film and it has to tell a story rather to just evoke an emotion, well, it needs lyrics.

An element in any work of art is as important as it is needed to communicate that message of that work of art. After all, art is communication.

Heidi


"And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Paul McCartney