Once again, yes and no, in my opinion. From a classical music perspective, being a great musician is like being a great gymnast. You learn routines, which are performed as well as possible. All sorts of considerations are relevant in judging who is great, but essentially people are sizing each other up and comparing each other, to see who is the best.

This is also notably relevant in the jazz scene, where there is a grand pecking order or “food chain” that each musician tries to work his or her way up.

Additionally, from a commercial point of view, music can be about promoting self. You perform and promote in order to sell products and remain viable.

However I think it’s just too big a statement to say that being a great musician is essentially about promoting self. Music is first and foremost a form of art. We can and do use it as a communication vehicle, but this is primarily because of the way it appeals to the human soul at a deep level.

A person who engages deeply and powerfully with art is not necessarily promoting him or herself. In a true unfallen (or redeemed) sense, people may be rejoicing in and praising the creator! That is of course what art is meant to do: display the beauty of God. Music is not just a means to an end, where it is either exploited for self or for service. It is a place in which a person can dwell, a place that is so easily affected by corruption, as people worship the art form instead of the great artist himself!

Yes and no, in my opinion. The reasons why music must be good are different from the reasons why lyrics must be good. It’s a bit like comparing apples with oranges, I think. In one sense, the answer must be yes, because we’re talking about the gospel, the word of God. That is the thing that makes lyrics especially important, and means we must get them right. One of the risks of not getting them right is that we will misrepresent God, which we mustn’t do (E.g. we could slip into heresy or idolatry, or just plain old shallow, ill-informed theology). The other thing that we can do wrong with lyrics of course (often not mentioned much in my circles, since we tend to focus more on “correctness”) is just make them unpoetic, or unengaging. All the best songs in the world have gripping lyrics. So yes, lyrics are critical. They carry the message, explicitly.

But I would argue that the musical side in a sense is just as important, but its importance is measured in different ways. The tune carries the message, perhaps implicitly, or indirectly (as distinct from explicitly or directly as in lyrics)

If a song has a brilliant tune and harmony, then regardless of how good or bad the lyrics are, people will quite likely want to sing it! If it doesn’t, they won’t. You then do the lyrics either a service or a dis-service, but how important therefore is the tune, if it can make people either sing or not sing the lyrics!

Think of what happens when the melody is good and the lyrics are poor… people sing bad (or shallow) theology. And you can’t stop people getting into it because they love the music. The music has a power over people that ‘correct theology’ doesn’t have. I’m not denying the power of the Spirit to work through poor tunes! I’m just saying they’re operating in different realms, pulling on different heart strings.

In summary, I don’t think it’s a good idea to put lyrics and tunes up against each other, since both need to be good for a song to be considered good. Perhaps it’s better to focus on the consequences of doing each poorly. The consequences of doing lyrics poorly are far greater than the consequences of doing tunes poorly. With one, you can commit heresy or idolatry. With the other, people simply won’t sing the songs.