I was just commenting on Thorsten Hinrichsen's "Oh my dear my Reindeer" instrumental album, the question came into my mind do people prefer vocal or instrumental songs, in my view doing instrumentals is very difficult, it is harder than doing songs with lyrics as there has to be plenty of strong phrases and riffs in there to keep the listener's attention!

I sometimes add the odd instrumental in an album, not to make the numbers up but just because some pieces don't need lyrics, there is plenty to say without words but it has to be busy enough to hold the listener's attention otherwise it could just become background music.

Many artists such as Justin Johnson have mastered the instrumental and they prefer to play these all the time - I have yet to hear him sing...one day maybe ! ;-)

Justin packs a lot of technique and interesting twists and turns into his pieces and has mastered the skill of holding the listener's attention, usually if you're singing lyrics people will  listen, especially if you include a catchy chorus, some lyrics from classic well known songs  are so strong they would stand up without any music at all, they would stand alone as poems, is a song just a poem with music? 

Up until the 50's, 60's and into the 70's it seemed to be all about the lyrics, there was always a story in the song, many modern pop songs rely on very few lyrics, just a repeated phrase matched to a riff, good for dancers and Gym users but has the popular music song been dumbed down?

Interested to hear your thoughts! :-)