...well actually it depends on the song and the artist.
For example, Mogwai are almost only instrumental and they are sooo awesome even though they don't have vocals and they are not a typical band. And if someone heard the song When I was in My Prime from The Pentangle-that is a song where there are ONLY vocals..even no music! but it is still a very very beautiful song, because the vocals sound like an instrument and that is what is so great about vocals.
But if the music is only instrumental it is very important that it isn't boring...that is the worst thing that could happen while listening to an instrumental song..

Well for me... I prefer lyrics.

in lyrics, you find words... voices... effects with voices (some) >.> and I could understand what the song is bout... lol
instead instrumentals, its just beats XD

Hmm, I'd say instrumental.

Overall, my favorite artist is Yuki Kajiura, because I find her instrumental music simply beautiful. And then some of her songs with lyrics... There aren't even official lyrics written. I still haven't been able to find lyrics for "Margaret" and "Mezame."

Often, I'll ignore the lyrics if the song has a good beat or something. One of my favorite examples right now is "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne, which... Well, IMO, the lyrics are kind of shallow and not really that great, but the song is addicting. xD;

If I'm studying I like to put some instrumental music on from anime or video games osts, or japanese songs instrumentals especially from Do As Infinity.
Other than that I prefer lyrics.

I love both instrument and lyric. When I like an artist that bcause of his or her voice more than his/her music. And when I love a song, I don't care who performer is.

Think I rather both..... well it depends on how I feel. I don't mind if they're Instrumental or Lyrical... they just have to be good songs, not boring songs

Intrumental is the best! I like songs without words so that i can feel the soul of the song better! It is calming for me as well.

I really don't care for the words in lyrics themselves, however voice in songs isn't always bad. It really depends on the singer and how it is incorparated into the song. Yes, usually the instumental melodies die down while someone is singing but if the singer is making good music themselves then it doesn't detract from the song. They're sort of just like another instrument themselves.
So either way for me, other factors determine whether a song is good or not

I prefer music that has lyrics, but I also tend to like songs with lyrics that are more in depth than being riddled with cliches that get stuck in your head for hours. Not that those cliches aren't catchy and I won't listen to them sometimes, but most of the songs I like tend to have a little something more than that. It's not really so much that I dislike instrumental pieces, but it's that there's less I can do with them. A song with good lyrics has another level of reading it where you can read both the actual music and the mood of it as well as read how the words applied to it relate.

Instrumental pieces can be very useful for a mood or description of feeling since they are sound itself and more ambiguous, but for me personally, I find it a little more difficult to relate to sometimes. I'm not exactly sure why this is the case, but unless I can really pinpoint a more concrete association with it such as it was being used for the background music at such and such a location for such and such a purpose, I don't tend to have much interest in it.

For game music, I tend to really love instrumental pieces since it's the music that really drives most of the game and much more so before voices were added to video games. This is probably one of the few occasions when I would get really excited about an instrumental. A lot of things in game music are distinctly discernable. For instance, anyone can pick up on a Final Fantasy Chocobo theme. Despite its many incarnations, it has a distinctly memorable melody that's enjoyable.

For some reason though, for anime, dramas, movies and so on though I find most instrumentals to be comparatively more lackluster, so I don't tend to care for them as much. Unless what I'm watching really makes a point at a particular song, most of the instrumentals in those circumstances are pretty strongly forgettable. The one notable example I can think of that is an exception to this would be the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme that they kept using for the Olympics and other movies. I'm not even sure of the title because I never bothered to check, but I know I really like that song. I also distinctly remember some symphonies of classical composers even if I don't know the titles although I do know Pachelbel's Canon simply because "My Sassy Girl" made a point of using it. But outside of using these pieces, most BGMs on soundtracks that I get are forgettable to me. Perhaps this helps to pinpoint a problem with BGMs or maybe this is done purposefully so that the music does not overshine the actual lines being said by the actors. Either way though, it all adds up to me becoming more of a lover of lyrical music than instrumental.

I think there is a lot of good, intricate, music with lyrics but its just rarer than the pop music with lyrics that is not as good composition-wise. I prefer music with lyrics, but I also like instrumentals as well. Lyrical music I can listen to most of the time since you get to follow along with the lyrics and it is harder to do so with instrumental music. Then, instrumental music I typically listen to when I'm doing something like drawing or working on something where I have to divide my attention and would not be really paying attention to lyrics anyway. Not that I only listen to instrumental music when i'm busy, but it is one of the times where I listen to it more than lyrical music.

I love both.I the melody of instrumental songs and the sound of musical instruments like piano and violin.At the same time I appreciate the lyric.

I have to go with both of the two. I love instrumental music like some of the the Final Fantasy music that are instrumental, but can have lyrics or better yet acapella voices which I turly love to listen to. Yes, I have to agree the most popular songs out there, now- a- days, gets boring after a while. You can hear the same thing in about three different kind of song artists. The beat isn't too bad, but the lyrics feel like they can improve a bit more than what they have. I don't really listen to a lot of lyric song, but I listen to japanese songs. I have no idea why I like to listen to asian music more than american music. Probably I don't know that lyircs or what they are saying half the time. Which I think is good because you might concentrate on the song even more. But that is just my opinion.

But all-in-all I love the listen to instrumental music and acapella too. Lyrical songs I seldom listen to, but listen to because I want something new every once in a while.

I would prefer them both lyrical and instrumental. The important part of music would make me happy at least than nothing. Mixing of these two would be great.

I'm into both, though I admit, I have more lyric songs in my playlist than instrumental. I played an instrument at one stage and a few people in my household plays instruments so through that I have a appreacitation of that type of music.

Both if the song and the instrumental version is nice to hear