Best & Worst lyricist
 

Well, let's discuss about Jpop/kpop/Cpop lyrics here!

Of course Ayu is one of the best lyricist that the World ever had. She is creative and amazing, even if sometimes when I read the lyrics of the new songs they sound quite familiar

But the most amazing lyric writer is Abe Mao. Im just amazed by how good she is describing the daily feelings and emotions. Her song "Don't Leave Me" is just epic

Miliyah Kato has also good lyrics, especially "Yuusatachi" ones. Kana Nishino also does ("Thinking of you" is lyrically amazing) but sometimes they are too typical love stories.

With Hikki I never know what to expect. They are amazing sometimes and kind of weird other times (especially when the lyrics don't match the music at all)

An artist that has been a little bit disappointing when it comes to lyrics is YUI. I usually get the idea that she wants to show, but the way this idea is developed is weird sometimes. Other times the songs don't have as epic lyrics as it seems for the music.

And AKB48 also has great lyrics, and lots of times it isn't what you would expect from an idol group

Miliyah Kato, Chihiro Onitsuka, Ayumi Hamasaki

Most flawless lyricists out there

/end topic

To be honest, I don't really care what the lyrics are half the time; I'll just understand whatever through the Japanese I know (which means I probably get about 15% of the song). All that matters to me is how good the song as a whole is: melody, production, etc.

But from one the ones I have actually looked up, Shiina Ringo's are really amazing. Ayu also has written some very deep, meaningful lyrics. Some of them that I've read give me the impression that she's written so many lyrics that she's just run out of ideas/topics, but there are definitely some gems in there.

And she's not an Asian artist, but Katy Perry is easily the worst lyricist of our generation.

Utada, Miho Fukuhara and ayumi hamasaki's lyrics are amazing, very inspiring.
I don't know asian bad lyricist... there must be, but I cannot say since I don't really know.

Katy Perry isnt great at all in terms of lyrics, but the worst is LADY GAGA... so overrated that is such a shame that many people consider her lyrics any good, totally crap.

Wei Ru Xuan! Also known as Waa Wei. I mean, she wrote songs about how menstruation kicks girls asses every damn month, how is that not the greatest thing ever? Plus her song titles are like, "You will not work well as a tree" and "I'm not a mathematician." Flawless.

Oldschool Ayu, Hikki and Otsuka Ai are pretty good too.

Best: Ayu (by a long shot), Inaba Koshi (especially his angsty songs! :laugh), Koda Kumi, YUI
(I can't think of anybody that writes terrible lyrics! X_X)

I've seen some terrible lyrics written by Koda Kumi, but she's also written some nice ones...

omg lol she sounds amazing. "You will not work well as a tree" seriously cracked me up :roflmao

Ayu's lyrics are the best imo :) .. I think her songs were the only ones that I was actually able to relate to, they're always beautiful and honest.

That's true! :laugh

how much I love kana, I dont think I can say her songs has some outstanding lyrics,
they are teen(youthful), girly and often fun, its like a diary of a girl, nothing much there but good to listen to and very relate-able

I would say ivana wong has some interesting and meaningful lyrics,
sherman chung in some songs, but those are canto artists

in jpop Ive only admired miliyah's, ayu's and alan's lyrics.

Aside from Ayu, I absolutely love Taka (from ONE OK ROCK) as a lyricist. I can relate to his/their lyrics a lot more than Ayu's current lyrics.

I know people are going to disagree with me, but I think OLIVIA is so bad as a lyricist. It's like, with her English songs, she tries to use the Japanese lyric style but writes in English so the lyrics just sound really dumb and unnatural and totally awkward.

I also hate Shakira's English lyrics. I love her Spanish music, and while I want to love more of her English music than I do, I just can't because the lyrics to her English songs are so bad and embarrassingly corny/cheesy. I feel embarrassed for her a lot of the time. >_>

honestly...I have a lot of friends that love OLIVIA...but I think her lyrics are weird and awkward as well...

I love...MAA's crazy lyrics the most atm.

Of course Ayu has amazing lyrics, and hikki too. Shiina Ringo is amazing.


And I def agree that Katy Perry is the one of the worst lyricists ever. Even brighter than the moon? Seriously? Idiot.

um In Jpop though, I really don't know since I don't really read anyone's lyrics unless I really care, and the only people I really care about are like, Ayu, hikki, and MAA...and sometimes the koda...

I think the best are... Ayu and Gackt, I honestly don't pay attention to anyone else's lyrics besides maybe Dir en grey. I might check out some of the artists you guys listed.

Oh, I kind of find Utada's English lyrics to be the worst I've ever come across. Maybe I just don't get them.

^lol no, they're pretty bad.

Usually I think she's purposely joking....cause hikki's actually extremely academically intelligent lol

But I also see it as, you know, a lot of people can write some, metaphorical poem with all kinds of pretty imagery and words and...you know, it's just, that kind of writing.

And I think hikki wants to be a lot more quirky and unique with her lyrics. So she does things that are generally the opposite of that type of writing, which, for the average person, is also the opposite of good writing.

That's just my personal conjecture though.

^ Yeah, she comes across as so intelligent and English is her first language, right? I just never understood why they were all so bad... I like them more on TITO than Exodus.

The worst is Koda Kumi, I swear she only writes the songs that she has because she feels she needs to compete with Ayu and Utada because they have that going for them. At least Namie has the decent-y to leave it to the professionals.

I don't pay much attention to lyrics unless I really like the song and to sing along and/or learn the subject matter but of the few artists who's lyrics I have paid attention to:

Ayumi Hamasaki: Easily one of the best not only in J-pop but in music period. Her pre-(miss) understand era lyrics were absolute poetry.

Hikaru Utada: This is awkward because I would actually put down Hikki in both the worst and best categories. Her Japanese lyrics as so beautiful, human, and have actually made me cry while her English ones are simplistic, awkward, and plain don't make sense. :laugh

Yasushi Akimoto: I don't know about any work he's done outside of AKB48 but he's done some bold and terrific work writing for this group with songs like Keibetsu Shiteita Aijō, Skirt, Hirari and Beginner touching subjects most idol producers wouldn't think of.

Yuki Kajuira: As well as being a brilliant composer, she writes some very beautiful, soothing, and powerful lyrics. And I love her Kajiuran language that though confusing, adds a unique touch and beauty to her songs.

Oh and Francis Lee's lyrics for alan's RED CLIFF made an already perfect song sung by a flawless vocalist into audio nirvana.

I honestly can't think of any "worst" out there for Asian artists. There's been some unimpressive, meh, or things intentionally meant to be hilarious and wacky but nothing I would consider the worst ever but again, that's probably due to me not paying too much attention. For Western artists though... yeah, I can name a few. One of which has already been mentioned.

Best:
1. Utada Hikaru
2. Ayumi Hamasaki (pre-2009)
3. AKB48 (mostly stage stuff I would say)

I'd marry A Song for XX but Deep River already stole my heart.

Worst:
1. Ayumi Hamasaki (post-2009)
2. Utada (EXODUS)

The best lyricist for me is Onitsuka Chihiro, hands down! All of her lyrics are deep, meaningful and pure poetry.

Ayu comes in second place.
And I also like Sakamoto Maaya's and Kalafina's (Kajiura Yuki's) lyrics a lot. Some Arashi songs have decent lyrics too, especially the ones that the members wrote themselves (like "Niji" and "5x10").
Ringo Shiina, Every Little Thing and Do As Infinity are GREAT too!!


I could not name any worst lyricist now (well, I could, but the list would be far too long to post here! :rolleyes), but I totally HATE standard Pop lyrics, like: "I love you...no wait, I actually hate...let's break up...why are you looking at her/him and not me."
All these lovey dovey stuff with no meaning behind just makes me crazy. I only listen to this music, when I need to take my mind off things!

The sad thing is that a lot of JPop-/KPop-lyrics are like that. Therefore I only really support (= buy) stuff from very few Asian artists, because lyrics are VERY important for me.

1. Shiina Ringo - No one writes songs as complex and just down right thought provoking as she does. Period.
2. Utada Hikaru - She writes some of the most interesting lyrics I've seen from any artist
3. Hyde (L'arc~en~Ciel) - He writes some of the best lyrics I've ever seen from a male. His bands older works (pre 2004) are his best work in my humble opinion. He's even won awards for his lyrics.

4. There's too many others to list at the moment...

I can't think of any 'terrible' lyricist at the top of my head personally. But I will say this, whomever wrote Namie Amuro's "Want Me, Want Me" needs to be thrown into the dark abyss never to be found again. That song is utter trash.