Good Music, Bad Lyrics VS. Bad Music, Good Lyrics

Yep, definitely the music, partly because of what Joe says (you don't know what the words are), but also because the human voice itself is in fact an instrument so meaningless words don't really detract (think Woo-hoo in Blur's Song 2 - Or for that matter Opera in a foreign language).

I've certainly heard songs I liked but later decided I didn't like the lyrics, but I've never heard a song that I didn't like the music but the lyrics meant I liked the song.

I've also had that thing were I thought the words were great only to find out I'd misinterpreted them (subconsciously making them meaningful to me). Mondegreens rule.

Lyrics, definitely, hence I'm a Steely Dan fan, and a fan of a lot of other artists who kind of lead with lyrics (like The Who, The Alan Parsons Project and Al Stewart, to name 3 off the top of my head). Great q!

The first thing I notice is the rhythm, then the melody and finally the lyrics...but melody is the most important to me and what sticks in my brain.

Da beat.

lyrics for me, that's why i tend to avoid basic pop music/top 40 radio in favour of more off the wall indulgences

For me its basically was djjd62 said. Because of lack in interesting lyrics i steer away from the radio. Any monkey can write a catchy melody, but a true artist can write great lyrics.

Both are important, but music is far more important. A great tune still sounds great even if the lyrics are stupid. No one wants to listen to great lyrics if they're set to a crappy tune.

Good point and welcome. One comes to mind:
"The Pina Colada Song". I love the melody and can hum it in my sleep, but the lyrics, well...dreck would be too kind a description.
When I was building high-rises , we carpenters would amuse ourselves by singing:

"If you like working for peanuts,
Standing out in the rain..."

Well, well. Lots of cuban music (in my humble opinion) have the most irrelevant-funny-kind of stupid lyrics. Yet, the music is sweet! I could follow the rythm all night long. Lots of genres share the same thing, sometimes the voice is another instrument and whatever the singer says (sometimes even improvised) doesn't matter much.

And how about instrumental music? It can sometimes communicate much more than a song with good lyrics.

Yeah...the other night we ripped into Tequila and the barflies were doing the Pee Wee on the bar top...

the pee wee is a good stretching exercise if done correctly :-)...i do it to liven up a dead party...or if I've thrown a strike in league :-)

it's a beautiful native dance of joy and exultation