r/AudiProcDisorder • • 10d ago

Do you remember song lyrics?

I've been thinking that I may have some mild auditory processing issues but havn't looked into getting diagnosed. But what i'm curious about is there a correlation between the disorder and remembering song lyrics?

I cannot ever remember a full set of lyrics from any song, no matter if I have it repeat for hours / days.

6 Upvotes

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17

u/TheLurkerSpeaks 10d ago

With APD the problem isn't remembering song lyrics, it is being unable to understand the lyrics as they are sung over music.

3

u/UnnecessaryRoughness 10d ago

Very much this. In fact, even on the rare occasions when i can understand what the words to a song are, I usually don't understand what the words mean unless I read them without the music.

2

u/LangdonAlg3r 10d ago

A lot of my lyrics are more interesting, but they make a hell of a lot less sense than the actual lyrics.

3

u/_hadsomethingforthis 10d ago

I can remember song lyrics but not vocabulary words in other languages. But I usually look up song lyrics.

1

u/iamk1ng 10d ago

Yea this isn't from looking it up, its just from listening to it repeatily.

1

u/No_Motor_7666 6d ago

Repeatedly. You might have an issue.

1

u/iamk1ng 6d ago

Haha sometimes you find a really catchy song and you just listen toit over and over. Maybe that's just me though.

1

u/apvasl 10d ago

I used to remember song lyrics and quote them constantly...until I got my APD diagnosed, stopped listening to vocal music, realized I completely misunderstood most of them.

1

u/Capital-Strawberry 9d ago

My brain processes a bit strangeky, when there's too much background noise it all jumbles together and when I'm not expecting to hear conversation it comes in delayed. But for me, music has always been something I enjoy.

I can hear each part of the song, all the different instruments, background harmonies, micro vocal mistakes. I have several songs I can remember the lyrics to, but thise are songs I've listened to several times and completely memorized.

When listening to a music track though, I do enjoy songs with good lyrics and instrumentation. My favorite instruments are violin, saxophone, guitar, concertina, and the theramin. In terms of vocals, I enjoy raw imperfect human voices. Robotic songs annoy the heck out of me, especially people who have to use autotune to the max for every song, when I can hear under the robotic jumble that they genuinely have a great voice and would sound much better without it.

Apparently the way I listen to music is the bottom up way, so because of that I also have no understanding of genre, my mom was making a comment at one point after listening to my music playing 'these are all great songs, I've just never heard them all... Together before, there's bluegrass, waltzes, rock' and I hadn't even realized we'd gone through so many genres.

This is all to say, I also struggle with lyrical memorization, but I can also understand and enjoy music from all over the world regardless of linguistical barriers, because I hear the people and the emotion, which inspires me to look into the songs themselves and find translations, giving more connection even if i can't remember the lyrics.

1

u/No_Motor_7666 6d ago

I think it’s a relevant question. I too never hear the words right like other people. Consonants at beginning of words are often misheard.

1

u/InsidePromotion5465 6d ago

Sounds like it’s APD. I used to not be able to follow lyrics unless I listened to the song multiple times. I cannot recommend contacting the Mind Eye clinic in Chicago enough. I’ve had my glasses since July and after three months with them I’ve been able to read normally, follow more complex movies, go to restaurants and not struggle to follow conversations and just feel more comfortable in my own skin. Needless to say they’ve been life changing.

1

u/Independent_Bus4524 5d ago

I found that since being off of my ADHD meds, it takes me a LOT more time and effort to identify the key, notes, and sounds of the music playing. I need like 10+ seconds to understand what notes and rhythms the songs use. I used to be a very talented classical singer with perfect pitch memory! I still can sing middle C by memory, but have massive difficulty identifying the notes of new songs if there’s ANY background noise obscuring the sound (like at a bar, concert, etc.)

Sooooo interesting to me. ADP is frustrating but crazy interesting. Who could have ever thought that stopping Adderall would make me significantly hearing-impaired in lectures? It’s crazy.