There is nothing more annoying than having to read song lyrics within a story. Sure, it’s great that you love so-and-so’s music or a particular song, but not everyone else does. Besides, it distracts readers from the plot- and personally for me it’s definitely an instant turn-off for a book. I drop it like a bad habit if it has song lyrics in it. I won’t even read the rest.
Honestly, the best thing to do is omit it. Yes, music is awesome, as is knowing all the lyrics, but honestly, no one wants to read it. Besides, from experience I have learned that while the song is awesome in your head at the time of writing the lyrics into the story, later it’ll be phased out and you’ll be asking yourself “why?” or saying “Ugh, that song is so old”.
If you really want to incorporate songs/music into the story, make it a bit lesser detailed. You could say “On the radio, my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song is playing.” or “I started to listen to one of my favorite bands.” It’s a lot less distracting and won’t strike as many nerves with readers—especially if they aren’t fans (or if they are even haters) of whatever you wrote in. You don’t always have to name them.
Here’s another thing you can do: put just parts of lyrics in (if you must absolutely have them) at a minimal level, but don’t name the song or who sings it or type out the entire song. Leave it to the reader’s imaginations- and if they know, then they’ll realize that, and if they don’t know it- well then, it saves them reading hassle. I understand that in some stories, lyrics are very important, so you have to be careful about labeling things so generously.
Try it out, I guarantee it’ll work a lot better in your favor. Besides, when you leave out the band names or song names, it lets readers pick their own tune, or imagine something different. This will allow them to interpret the story in their own way- which always leads to more reading- especially if you allow readers that sort of creativity.
