Listening to music in another language

Same here, I love Rammstein .

 

Never heard of any of those.

Some Shakira songs are in Spanish and still sound good. And the Patea Maori Club's classic "Poi E" is in Maori.

And half of the rock songs around are sung so mumbly that you can't tell the words even though they're supposedly in English so I guess language doesn't matter a lot of the time.

 

Heh, I remember chatting with Kitrax on IRC about playing Rammsteins 'Heirate mich' (marry me) on his wedding. After I told him what the lyrics were about he decided to try something else

 

Beren,
it was with me like that for a long time, until my English improved to the point that I understood the texts. As for Rammstein, I like the music, but the texts are just bonkers. I recall that one Band member iirc remarked: I wonder what my children will say when they learn what I'm doing. He wonders with some reason, I think. Here, for instance, are the Hackfleisch lyrics:

Classic.

On the other hand, Rammstein's ... remarkable lyrics have earned them the distinction of having been declared a public enemy in Belarus.

 

I used to listen to a bunch of reggae and ska songs that are in Spanish and Portugese. I do not speak or understand these languages. Also, alot of tribute albums of bands I like will have a song in German on it. I don't mind when these songs pop up on my ipod.

 

I've been listening to music of languages I don't speak or understand for more than a decade now. Mostly Asian though, like Chinese Mandarin songs, Japanese and Koreans. Also had some Spanish, French, Italian and German songs but no artist in particular. I also am very fond of watching movies from these countries as well.

 

I listen to Rammstein, OOMPH! and Lacuna Coil (Two german bands and an italian band) Rammstein and OOMPH! I can get the general gist of the lyrics (curtesy of a mother with a sick sense of humour ) but Lacuna Coil have the occasional song in their mother tongue I don't understand.

 

I've been listening to an indie guy from Russia lately whose project is called 'Thorn1.' It's largely instrumental, but he does sing occasionally, and he has a few females do vocals for him now and then. (Clearly all vocalists should be women - so, so much better.) It's all in Russian I assume, so I have no idea what's being said, but I don't really care.

He has a nice version of Agua De Annique's 'Day After Yesterday' which he does sing in English though.

 

Hoppipola by Sigur Ros is probably my favourite song of all time, and I think it's all in some made up language. I love it though.

 

The most important thing for me is if the language sounds good to my ears and not if I understand the lyrics or not. I like the English, I love the sound of German and I have no problem with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and Hungarian. Actually, the only language, that I have had a problem with, is French. I remember the first time that I listened to metal with french lyrics (it was the album "Repression" by Trust iirc), it sounded to me alien and almost comical. Now, after listening to many other bands and albums with French lyrics, I've got used to them but from time to time I still have the feeling that the French language does not fit well with metal.

P.S. I also love it when Klaus Meine sings in Japanese .

 

Absolutely, one of my favorite pieces of music, The Carmina Burana. The translations are all over the internet though...

 

I usually wanna know what songs are about, so when I'm at home I often just Google Translate the lyrics when listening to music in another language than Dutch or English. From the bands I listen to often, the only exception is Berurier Noir really (French band), I just like the sound of it and their lyrics probably aren't that deep anyway.

I like the Swedish bands Ebba Grön and Dia Psalma. And I stumbled upon a nice Finnish band a while ago called Harmaja. Rammstein is ok as well, I'm not a huge fan but I like listening to them occasionally.

 

Beren,
you should hear me reciting love poems in my mother tongue. Curiously it always sounds like an order.

 

Does Gaelic count? I used to listen a lot to Enya before.

 

So true. I remember seeing a movie in a cinema in Germany (like most countries, they dub everything in their native language) and at some point some elderly lady was saying something while I wasn't looking at the screen and it sounded like she was really angry about something, but then I look up and she's smiling and kindly telling the other character something.

About listening music in languages I don't understand - I understand most of what I'm listening too, but mostly don't pay much attention to the lyrics. As a general rule of thumb, as long as I don't notice the lyrics, it's ok. I've had multiple instances of liking some of, for instance, Rammstein's songs, until I actually noticed what they were singing about. Usually I then tend not to want to listen to them anymore.

 

Rammsteins vocals sound even more rugged than normal german language, because vocalist Till Lindemann rolls his R's (Feuerrr Frrrei) and slightly overdoes his german. Sounds great though - I love Rammstein. Their lyrics aren't very complicated, so I understand some parts.

Kvelertak from Norway, awesome song


The Gazette. I'm not a huge j-rock fan, but I like some of their songs.


I saw this couple years back, great stuff