In vocal works,it is common to set the same line of lyrics with different melodies to create variations in the relationship between lyrics and melody.This article uses a visualization approach to present the frequency peak contour lines of both intonation of lyrics and pitches of melody,categorizing their relationships into two types: “consistent”and“inconsistent”.When the lyrics-melody relationship is consistent,the phrases convey the semantic information of the lyrics in a similar manner to spoken statement,while the lyrics-melody relationship is inconsistent,phrases primarily bear the functions of emotional expression and development.62 college students were selected to participate in the experiment with 31 music majors and another 31 non-music majors.All the participants were asked to listen to two types of lyrics-melody relationship phrases repeatedly and after each listening, they were asked to judge which phrase they could memorize more impressively and which phrase they prefer more.The results showed that all participants had significantly better memory for lyrics-melody consistent phrases than inconsistent ones,and the music students had apparently better memory for consistent phrases than non-music students. More interestingly, participants all preferred those inconsistent lyrics-melody contour phrases.It could be seen that the two types of lyrics- melody relationships bear different structural functions and expressive meanings,and the lyrics-melody relationship that conforms to the listener's perceptual rules is the key factor for the listeners to obtain aesthetic pleasure in songs.