OMG, I don’t understand what they’re saying~
I just don’t care what the song is trying to tell me as long as it sounds good, and damn~ pop does sound so good.
Now, you’re probably thinking I’m ridiculous, that you think I should care about what a song tells me… but I don’t- and I never had before. It’s not like I grew up magically understanding English~ So what did I freaking do to like music in English? Like Crush would say, “dude!” I just felt the music and rode the wave of life (or current).
Music, to me, should go beyond language (unless it’s rap, but that’s another story). You should be able to be eavesdropping and say “OMG, who sings this song?” That to me is the beauty of not understanding multiple languages…
Ignorance is bliss some say, and indeed it is when it comes to enjoying a song. However, I have been cursed with my understanding of the English language. I can’t fully enjoy a song in the language any longer! It’s horrible whenever I’m trying to listen to a new song and my brain starts telling me what the lyrics are about. For the last couple of years, songs that I had previously enjoyed have been dissected by my brain like a buzz-kill.
Isn’t it beautiful to like a song for its rhythms to then discover the song also carries multilayered meanings in the way a song uses its words or even the way it’s written? It doesn’t have to be as complex or as eclectic as a Shiina Ringo or Bjork song… or a electronic sutra by Sa Dingding or Faye Wong [1]~ words can be as earth-bound as Hebe Tien’s Love! lyrics [1] and its simple love polygon written by Aki Huang Shuhui (黃淑惠), where she simply uses the characters of the third person in its male (他) and female (她) forms, which sound the same in spoken Mandarin~
Mandarin 101! You can actually LEARN from listening to music in a foreign language, so why would anyone in their right mind even question listening to a song just because of its language? Next time you listen to a song that’s not… completely… in English, please~ refrain from complaining about not understanding, and ask yourself what language that might be.
kamsamnida~~~
I agree with you 10.000%!!! If a voice or piece of music is truly beautiful, language is irrelevant. In fact, not exactly knowing a language can make the music that much more transcendent… you can literally paint meaning onto something if you don’t know what’s being said. The complexity of a voice can make lyrics almost superfluous.
@Camiele, music speaks louder than words. The quality of the voice has very little to do with what they’re saying, but how they say it. That’s why I love Bibi so much. xD
I have been trying to correct myself with English (correcting my Spanish seems a little bit impossible to me), but now my brain seems to shut off with English even with movies! LOL So sometimes I’m watching a movie, and my brain stops listening to the words and I have to re-focus to let it know that it’s okay to understand this time around. xD
@amy, HaHa. That’s officially the most awesome thing I’ve heard today… HaHa. I have that issue with Spanish.. knowing full well I know what’s being said, but my brain’s just like, “mmmmm…. shutting off now. Work.” But, yeah, it’s fine because the words themselves sometimes don’t even matter… it just SOUNDS good, you know what I mean?
I totally agree! I don’t even catch all the lyrics in my first language (English), so it’s always the sound of a song that appeals to me first.
You’d be surprised to find most people don’t think like us. I don’t know if it’s because of being in a bilingual house or something else, but a lot of people just can’t take their music in a foreign language they can’t speak. I will always remember that comment on Amazon saying that they liked the group, but they couldn’t take on a whole album that’s not in English. A little bit of foreign was okay, but not EVERYTHING. LOL
For me it’s all about the sound of the words. Sure, some songs are amazing because you understand what is being said and you can give the lyrics your own interpretation. I’m pretty sure I would’ve loved “Someone Like You” in any other language then just English. In that song there’s something about the melody and the way it’s being sung that kind of makes your heart ache.
As the linguistic nerd that I am, I love songs depending of how they tickle my ears, as in how the words are being pronounced. It’s always so great when you find a song that sounds great, then you go and find the translated lyrics and understand that the song also means something. But yet, I always find that the what the lyrics mean are of not that great importance to me.