Music or Lyrics
 

What is more important?

This is a tough one, but I'd probably rather have nonsense lyrics and incredible instrumentation/composition than deep lyrics and throwaway background noise.

well... it depends of the point of view
in a audio with someone reading a poem with music playing
of course lyrics are more important
but as someone said before:
a song without lyrics, still is a song
but a song without music is just poetry

For one who likes Scat Singing, sound/instruments/voice definitely come first.
Lyrics are just an addition of meaning, imo, and I don't think I should be stuck with the artist's meaning. Sometimes a song makes me feel something and the lyrics have nothing to do with it at all.

a song is still a song without lyrics.
Its a speech without music.

First and foremost is the music. But while I generally don't go for instrumentals, it's the vocals more as a musical instrument rather than the lyrics that I find important. That's why I have no problem listening to music sung in various languages I don't even understand.

Music overall

But... I can get turned off the music if I hate the lyrics, especially for songs in my mother tongue. I don't think the opposite is true though.

While I am a music person, I don't want to discount the importance of lyrics. Sometimes, the lyrics just make the song for me. A few Luna Sea songs were like that for me. I didn't always care for the music by itself, but the lyrics pulled the song together for me.

I've had too many debates on this to not be the perhaps only person in the forum to vote for lyrics. XD But I'll admit that in general, I listen to music first, and if the sound doesn't thrill me, I could care less for lyrics. However, I love that beautiful moment when you're listening to a song for maybe the tenth or even hundredth time, and the meaning of the lyrics finally hits you and you realize it's about something amazing and maybe even relevant to you. That's a great experience that you can't get with just music.

Music will always come first. After all, it's music. The importance of lyrics depends on the artist. I won't go searching for an artist for his/her/their lyrics. I'll judge them on their music, and if I later on find lyrical brilliance then it's a great bonus.

There are times when lyrics can be a turn off, and there are times when it really doesn't matter. Freezepop, for example, may have a deliriously catchy, but ultimately shallow hook and I couldn't care less. But then I can get turned off to the point of not listening if the lyrics are so atrocious that they're borderline embarrassing. Kate Nash being a recent example of this. Thankfully it very rarely happens.

Then you get somebody like Thom Yorke who has been known to write a song backwards, or literally pull lyrics out of a hat and it always works, but it shows that music comes first. If the lyrics don't stand out, it usually never detracts from the song and melody. Unless you're Kate Nash or Fred Durst.

Great song + standard lyrics = great song. Great song + great lyrics = great song.