English makes music sound good

[SentencedToBurn]

what do you guys think on this subject? do you think the english language is the best for writing music for. This just may be my opinion but i think music sounds stupid in any other language. it just doesnt sound as good as english. I leave on the spanish station for a couple minutes and i see a music video and just have to laugh my balls off cause it sounds so goofy (maybe because i dont speak it). Early dimmu or whatever else is in a diffrent language might not be so bad because you cant understand him anyhow. But how would you feel if a band like Opeth was in spanish or something. i dont think i would like them as much. (obvious )

 

[Elisstar]

I don't know...if bands use English lyrics, more people will understand what they are singing/growling/whatever. I think some bands pull off singing in their native language very well, such as Vintersorg and Tenhi. It doesn't sound silly, it just sounds different. Not to mention Mikael's unreleased project Sorskogen...the short sample I heard a while back was great, including the vocals, even though I had no idea what he was singing about!

 

[bleedingskeptic]

i can't understand it, but that doesn't mean it sounds stupid. just because its the language you speak doesn't make every other laughable. someone who doesn't speak english may find albums with english lyrics just as ridiculous as you find one of theirs.

 

[aegis]

it depends of what do you want to do
i think german fits perfectly to Rammstein for example (i am not a fan of Rammstein, but i have to admit this)
i prefer when Vintersorg sings in swedish as in english and i can't imagine Tenhi (even if they are not metal) using english

i like the sonority of french for songs, but most of the lyrics in french are crap (except Mass Hysteria ... it's a nu metal band, but they are far better as the americans band, i am not fan, but it find them quite good)

but for the spanish, i don't think it's a language adapted for metal, it's a language which is spoken very fast, with soft sonorities ... i think it's better for "happy music", or stuff like latina music ...
but the northern language (german, dutch (in my opinion, i have never heard a band using dutch, but have you ever heard a dutch speaking ? you have almost the impression he is growling ) and scandinavian languages can easily used for metal

 

[Lina]

SentencedtoBurn, I would imagine the spanish-language music you heard sounded funny because it was an english-language type of music. Am I right? Like, when I hear rap in Japanese, I crack up. Or, I have a techno CD in Farsi (or some Indian language).

But flamenco would obviously sound silly in english! Or salsa, or some "hot latin lover" song. Vintersorg and all those sound ok because the music is folky and fits the culture of the language used.

But I was really surprised when I read Cristina from Lacuna Coil say in an interview that writing Senzafine in Italian was really difficult, that she found english much easier to write in.

And here's a question that's always stumped me: How the hell do people like mikael, who speak english as a second language, know all those random, flowery, medieval-almost words? Granted, some things don't make sense, but much of it does. I picture him sitting there with his Swedish-English dictionary and thesaurus, searching for just the right word.

 

[aegis]

Originally posted by bleedingskeptic
i can't understand it, but that doesn't mean it sounds stupid. just because its the language you speak doesn't make every other laughable. someone who doesn't speak english may find albums with english lyrics just as ridiculous as you find one of theirs.

i agree
try to translate a song by Rhapsody or Hammerfall in your own language and sing it
i think i would be too "uneasy" to record something like that ...
and too shameful to have such crappy lyrics ...

for me, even i am know their lyrics are crap, when i am listening their songs (in fact almost never, i hate power metal), it doesn't affect me ...
but i can't stop laughing when i am listening it while reading the lyrics, or when they do french versions of their songs

 

[Demonspell]

I've always appreciated that paradox that some European bands who sing in English have difficulty speaking the language, or like Akerfeldt have better compositional skills than most native speakers.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Originally posted by bleedingskeptic
i can't understand it, but that doesn't mean it sounds stupid. just because its the language you speak doesn't make every other laughable. someone who doesn't speak english may find albums with english lyrics just as ridiculous as you find one of theirs.

I know that some people might find american music dumb too but why is american music so popular in other countrys. If a latin artist or someone from a diffrent country is popular in america, they always sing english (except for rico swavaa lol!)
but i have a feeling that if i learned another language like spanish, it would still sound kinda weird. i think it goes better with their native music. bands like vintersorg or something is fine because it fits the music. it just seems like there is alot of music out there from diffrent countrys that just doesnt fit the music at all

 

[veil the sky]

I said something along these lines somewhere on another thread, but people do often say that the English language is better for musical meter. My personal favourite is French rap, it's just one of those things that puts me in fits every time I hear it. Spanish music does seem to do it as well where certain phrases just seem to be really rushed and the syllables don't seem to rest well on the music. I'm willing to accept that it's probably just because it isn't my language, but I can't help noticing it.

Moonspell's songs in portugese always sound good, but I think that's got something to do with Fernando being such a damn good poet.

 

[BillowOfZeal]

I love the Latin in Elend.....very dark sounding...
jAY

 

[MetalManCPA]

I love hearing music spoken in other tongues, as long as the music is good. Since lyrics are not my #1, I tend to think of them as another instrument. So why not a foreign instrument? IMHO

 

[By-Tor]

Originally posted by leadfoot256
I love the Latin in Elend.....very dark sounding...
jAY

Latin doesn't count...

 

[Malaclypse]

since i try to write some lyrics for our songs, i too have noticed that for me, writing in english is MUCH easier than in german. i think it's because
1. english language has a huge vocabulary to rely on (opposing to german)
2. it just doesn't sound silly in your ears if you use a language apart from your mother tongue. i usually tend to set the stakes too high if i use german, and all i write is kinda crap. in english tis is different. also, a lot of people including myself say that some other language just sounds better than their own. english people have often told me what a cool language german is. it is even used in some pen&paper-RPGs (Warhammer for ex.), because the names used would sound boring and stupid in english. alas, of course i find them rather funny in german, but since no one understands them, they're just cool...

 

[luke]

Rap sounds bad in any language... but it's nice to hear the J-reggae
I really dig a few Chinese artists (esp. Faye Wong) and from Japan 'bird' who both make their native languages sound very sensual.

For metal I have mentioned Cthonic here before, done very creatively with alternate perspectives sung in different (Chinese/Taiwanese) languages, as well as different tones of voice/voices. If the singer does a good job it shouldn't matter what language they sing in.

 

[Opth_001]

VultureCulture

1. english language has a huge vocabulary to rely on (opposing to german)

yeah but that because the enlish language is the mutt of all languages. I mean there are latin words italian, spanish, french, german, (and roman words I think) so of course your going to have a lot of words to choose from.

I do know a band that song pretty good vocally called "brujeria," I think that's how you spell it but they speak spanish. I happend to not like the music so I don't listen to them.

metalmancpa

Since lyrics are not my #1, I tend to think of them as another instument. So why not a foreign instrumetn?

I completly agree with that, I mean some vocals just fit a certain kinda music better. . Well I've said my 2 cents I hope you enjoyed it if not who cares

 

[Misanthrope]

Writing in english has always been easier to me. I too found that MY songs sound silly if written in spanish ( however i know people who writes in spanish and it sounds great ). And english is not my main language either but its a very simple idiom yet it can be complicated: is as simple or as complicated as you make it. I was reading some lessons about old english ( old english the english most people call old its just middle english ) and it had a hell of a lot of rules, it looked almost as hard as spanish rules i do not understand why such a beautyfull language was simplified to the current state. But on the other hand maybe that is the reason why is so universal because it is so easy to learn. I mean you have your japanese boy who knows 3 languages and knows literally millions of kanjis and then you give it enlish? it laughs and learns it in no time. Same thing happens to a lot of more elaborate idioms but the beauty of english is universality. Plus if you do seldomly use the abreviations like cant dont wont havent it actually sounds very elegant. At least to my opinion

 

[Russell]

I like it. To me it is so clever how they rhyme stuff, and still have meaning - it seems less impressive in the language I know well

 

[Malaclypse]

you are right with the abbreviations (sp?), i thought about that myself. earlier i used to write quite clean, but since i type a lot during work, i don't get bothered with that anymore. it depends on the ones you correspond with. but in non-business mails and such i don't even write capital letters (in german you have a lot of them within a sentence). what for? ok, it may be easier to read, but everyone understands me nevertheless. but what i really dislike are these trendy shortcuts like c u l8er and such

 

[~Zeanra~]

Yeah, English sounds good, it's so common and people are used to it. But I think German sounds awesome too, like Rammstein or Lacrimosa. There was even a time when I prefer German better than English, I was kinda bored to English. I probably like German because I've been studying it so long (8 years now) and beginning to understand even something.

The worst what I've ever heard was Turkish black metal

 

[Jim LotFP]

Bands write in English for commercial reasons, and because in this music, all of the forerunners (and I'm talking the Beatles, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, then on down the line) wrote in English, so that's what rock/metal is SUPPOSED to sound like to the musicians because that's what they grew up on and what all the greats used.

Personally, I like it because I can understand what the songs are about.

But I feel when a musician says their own language isn't as good as English for music because they are pissing all over their own heritage. It is very sad.