The original post: /r/music by /u/AngryRomper on 2024-10-13 15:07:37.

I was at a concert a few years ago for a band that I have been a fan of almost my entire life, when the crowd started singing along with one of the songs. I quickly realized, I had no idea what the lyrics were outside of the chorus. I then attempted to follow along with every song played after that but could not recall any lyrics. After this experience I went home and started listening to songs with a specific focus on lyrics and realized even songs I have listened to hundreds of times, I could hum along with the song without issue, but the actual words were lost on me. When asking my friends, none of them related with what I was saying, not for music they were a fan of anyways. Is this a thing? It’s just been on my mind again because it came up in conversation recently and ultimately, it has not changed.

For the sake of clarity, this is not isolated to one genre of music for me. Rock, pop, hip-hop, metal, and country I listen to a lot of music, and its the same across the board for me.

Edit:

This is easily the most responded-to post I have ever made, so a couple of things

• To be clear on my post, I am a native English speaker, and I was mostly referring to songs written/performed in English. it’s all music for me, and I was not aware I was doing it. This is not a choice I’m actively making.
• Thank you for the kind comments and for sharing your experiences, at least I can now point to this post when my friends give me that weird look when I tell them this.