How important is language for you to dig a song?

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #1 01-04-2007, 05:39 PM

Hi everybody. My apologies in advance if this has been discussed before.

Of course, this thread is about songs' lyrics. I'm REALLY BAD at trying to understand sung words from a recording, but I've never been interested about it, anyway (sometimes I can't even understand Spanish lyrics). I like latin musical genres a lot, but I'm a rocker at heart. I also can tell that I feel sort of apathy towards rock songs sung in Spanish since I compare them with colombian songs sung in English and that doesn't sound appealing to me.

Anyway, my point is that many people I know in my town say that they dislike rock music because they can't understand the lyrics. Even musicians! Again, that has never been a barrier for me to enjoy that music. Unless I know that a song has really meaningful (or really funny) lyrics, I've never cared about them, so the language barrier is not reason enough to me for liking/disliking a song. I'd just like to know your thoughts about this subject. Thank you in advance!

Spector_Ray · #2 01-04-2007, 05:57 PM

I picked "music is what matters" because there wasn't any other choice that accurately describes how I look at it. Of course, I listen to the music first but more specifically, the melody and arrangement. Then I listen to the bass tone, playing style and fluency. After I've finished analyzing the music, I listen to the lyrics so I don't totally dismiss them in a song. That's generally how I hear a song.

ARCtrooper225 · #3 01-04-2007, 06:05 PM

Wait...can you speak english or is there a forum translator?
But language is somewhat important IMO

**Josh Ryan** · #4 01-04-2007, 06:36 PM

If it has vocals, the melody is the most important. If I can figure out the lyrics that's cool, but it's not all that key to my enjoyment of the track.

Demon · #5 01-04-2007, 06:38 PM

Depends on how the language sounds. Idont neccesarily need to understand it, but icant stand french singing. It makes ME WANNA PUKE. Pentagram (metal band) made a song in turkish. Love that song. Very cool language^^

emils · #6 01-04-2007, 07:37 PM

In my CD collection you can find stuff from all over the world. At the moment I am really into Bona and he sings in Douala but his phrasing is so melodic that it wouldn't bother me even if he was singing in Martian.
I guess it has to do with me growing up in Croatia where we had music from all over the place played on the radio, you could be listening an Italian song followed by a French one followed by something from Asia... I love the diversity and the opportunity to find something new that different music offers.

bongomania · #7 01-04-2007, 07:51 PM

I listen to music from all over the world, and I find that for the most part, lyrics are crap. Most songs worldwide are like "yes baby, come dance with me, I'm awesome". I love the sound of really good vocals, but I honestly prefer when I can't understand the words (most of the time).

Of course the exceptions, when the lyrics are beautifully written and expressed, are wonderful. But they are few and far between IMO. Whereas there is an endless supply of rocking, stirring, booty-shaking, and otherwise fantastic music out there which is seriously marred by the lyrics if you can understand them.

GaryM · #8 01-04-2007, 08:02 PM

I don't need to understand the lyrics to enjoy a piece of music. I've been in local clubs and seen people singing along with Rammstein songs, and I bet very few of them speak German. "99 Luftballons" by Nena got to number 2 in the US charts and I doubt everyone who bought that single spoke German either.

Dash Rantic · #9 01-04-2007, 08:02 PM

It depends. Really good lyrics that I can understand can help offset an otherwise bad vocalist, and a really good vocalist... Who really cares *what* they're singing?

-Dash

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #10 01-04-2007, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ARCtrooper225

Wait...can you speak english or is there a forum translator?

I consider myself to have decent skills in reading, writing and speaking English (although lack of conversational practice makes my tongue to twist relatively often), so fortunately I don't need a translator, but listening is a big weakness for me. The weird thing is: I haven't had problems listening a native speaker in person, so I don't understand why most of the times it's so hard for me to get what a recorded voice is saying.

Poop-Loops · #11 01-04-2007, 08:16 PM

Music is what matters, but the lyrics are a huge bonus. If I don't understand the words to a song, I'll look them up or try to find a translation.

Passinwind · #12 01-04-2007, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

I listen to music from all over the world, and I find that for the most part, lyrics are crap. Most songs worldwide are like "yes baby, come dance with me, I'm awesome".

LOL, but a big +1!

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #13 01-04-2007, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryM

"99 Luftballons" by Nena got to number 2 in the US charts and I doubt everyone who bought that single spoke German either.

It was a big hit at the time here as well, but I'm pretty sure that the German version was never aired on radio.

BassGod · #14 01-04-2007, 09:42 PM

I don't know why, but good lyrics have always been a big thing for me when listening to music. A lot of my favourite bands tend to have excellent lyricists. So I vote for option number one. That said, if the music is awesome, I can overlook the language barrier.

Graeme

Depth_Charge · #15 01-04-2007, 10:08 PM

I speak English. I listen to lots of metal. According to some lyrics sheets on hand, they apparantly use English for their lyrics. Enough said

ric1312 · #16 01-04-2007, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alvaro Martín Gómez A.

Hi everybody. My apologies in advance if this has been discussed before.

Of course, this thread is about songs' lyrics. I'm REALLY BAD at trying to understand sung words from a recording, but I've never been interested about it, anyway (sometimes I can't even understand Spanish lyrics). I like latin musical genres a lot, but I'm a rocker at heart. I also can tell that I feel sort of apathy towards rock songs sung in Spanish since I compare them with colombian songs sung in English and that doesn't sound appealing to me.

Anyway, my point is that many people I know in my town say that they dislike rock music because they can't understand the lyrics. Even musicians! Again, that has never been a barrier for me to enjoy that music. Unless I know that a song has really meaningful (or really funny) lyrics, I've never cared about them, so the language barrier is not reason enough to me for liking/disliking a song. I'd just like to know your thoughts about this subject. Thank you in advance!

This has always been epidemic in rock songs, especially the heavier stuff and the quicker stuff, why?

1. Crappy vocal skills.
2. Singers not careing about enunciation.

3. Singing from the throat instead using diction and head/mouth resonance. When you sing from the throat it involves the muscles used swallow and then the muscles end up in tug of war between making pitch/tone and enunciating the words and then you sound like a sloppy drunk screaming

4. singers who care more about tonal quality and think of that over the words, when if they just enunciated the tone would come easily.

5. being sloppy on purpose because they think it sound hip.

6. Singers who want to sing with power but when they do so they lose all sense of diction. This is the same reason some singers practically whisper, simply because it's easy to enunciate. Watch some singers sometimes that are not that great, they look like they are struggleing just to enunciate and get the tone/pitch out at the same time.

To me if you can make out the words the singer is singing and they still can sing on pitch with good tone, that is a sign of a very good singer. Good singers make it look so easy that it seems effortless.

You want to hear some really good singers:
Queensryche, Dreamtheater, Dio/Dio with Sabbath. You can make out just about every lyric with these singers. I've seen every one of them live and their voices practically fly out of them as if they weren't even trying. I can't stand singers that sound like they are getting strangled, screaming, or sound like they are squeezing it out through their nose.

Poop-Loops · #17 01-04-2007, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ric1312

You want to hear some really good singers:
Queensryche, Dreamtheater, Dio/Dio with Sabbath. You can make out just about every lyric with these singers. I've seen every one of them live and their voices practically fly out of them as if they weren't even trying. I can't stand singers that sound like they are getting strangled, screaming, or sound like they are squeezing it out through their nose.

Agreed.

You might also want to look into Iron Maiden. Some songs the guy just flies off with the operatic vocals, but usually you can make out what he is saying. The Number of the Beast is esepcially good.

bongomania · #18 01-05-2007, 12:07 AM

Enunciation really is key, I can't stand singers and actors who don't enunciate clearly. Going a bit OT, but I am floored (in a bad way) when I watch a big-budget movie and the actors are mumbling their lines. Who allows that?

Bard2dbone · #19 01-05-2007, 01:16 AM

I listen to a lot of world music and much of it would possibly be less cool if I knew what they were saying.But the stuff I listen to most in English is often becuase of the lyrics.

Try Angelique Kidjo's 'Meleka'. It's incredible. I'd be very disappointed if it actually means " Come dance with me. I'm awesome."

The BurgerMeister · #20 01-05-2007, 01:22 AM

if the song is good, i don't really care what language it's in. case in point: "Hooch," by MELVINS, is comprised of made-up words... and yet it rocks very, very hard.

if the song is good, i'll sometimes try to find out what they're saying... other times, i'll let it remain a mystery.