Abstract
Few studies have investigated quantitatively the influence of lyrics on music impressions. These studies analyzed the semantic content of lyrics only together with the singer's voice quality and way of singing. The present study examines quantitatively whether music impressions are influenced by the semantic content of lyrics, excluding the influence of voice quality and way of singing. To this end, we conducted experiments using songs with lyrics the participants could not understand, and their written Japanese translation. 2 songs having different music impressions and semantic content of lyrics impressions were used. 3 experimental conditions were applied: 'music only', 'written lyrics only', and 'music and written lyrics', and the impressions for each condition were measured. The results showed that impressions of 'music and written lyrics' were closer to those of 'music only' condition, the logical information of semantic content being weaker as compared to the kansei information of the music itself.
