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| kagewa |
 Posted: Nov 22, 2007 12:34 am |
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桃ノ花ビラ
Joined: 22 Nov 2007
Posts: 4
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I... actually think that Rie Fu pulls the English off really well. It flows, really, like she's not even switching languages.
Really, though, I would prefer not having English in Japanese songs, mostly because people tend to mangle the pronunciation, or the sense-making just happens to be completely gone, or because then you get lyrics like "I'm a beautiful mermaid" or "all right scare little boy". I think in the latter example, though, I tend just to pretend she's singing Japanese and I don't really think about it. |
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| october |
| Posted: Nov 22, 2007 3:29 am |
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大好きだよ。
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 266
Location: America
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| ^ "I'm a beautiful mermaid" actually makes sense being there, so I don't have a problem with it, or any other English like that. I've never heard Rie fu's English use but I assume it makes sense? It's not as bad as song about food (or something) that has "SAY! EVERYBODY! DO A GOOD TIME!" somewhere in the bridge. But even that doesn't bother me... too much (again). In case of NEWS's "Why" however, I hate it. It would have been so much better without the English...or, at least without half of the English. |
Last edited by october on Apr 07, 2008 5:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| mangomalte |
| Posted: Nov 22, 2007 9:22 am |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 3579
Location: Sweden
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heh, i've been complaining on Matsuura Aya's cover of Norah Jones' hit Don't Know Why over at Hello! Online.  i love her music and her jazzier album Naked Songs, but i really can't stand that song. her english isn't that bad, but since i've heard the song in perfect english many, many times it just sounds wrong with that pronounciation.
and yeah, YUI and english... "scare little boy" and "happy birthday to you you". and it took me very long time to hear that she sang "punk is not dead" in JAM. |
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| Bii-Da-Man |
| Posted: Jan 07, 2008 1:55 pm |
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さくらんぼ
Joined: 04 Jan 2008
Posts: 32
Location: Indonesia
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hmm,,for me,,it's funny to listen japanese singer singin' with english...
their pronounciation is so funny... |
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| someone or oher |
| Posted: Jan 22, 2008 7:16 pm |
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桃ノ花ビラ
Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 25
Location: Under the floorboards
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Hmmm... the language used by a music/band is usually directly tied to the market they're attempting to reach. Almost all Japanese metal bands' lyrics are in English (except for a few songs or phrases where there aren't English words that work). For example, early on, X-Japan was mostly in (very poor) English. This is simply because the Japanese domestic appetite for heavy metal is nowhere near as big as compared to the rest of the world.
As for random insertions of English or the mis-use of it, the majority of non-English speaking acts are guilty of it, not just the Japanese.
I think a Japanese artist will sing predominantly in Japanese if they have no real overseas ambitions. Ai will never be big in the west for this reason - she's not marketable.
Seperately from music, the Japanese are almost unique in their habit of printing slogans on shirts like "Boy Beats Girl" which, without any context whatsoever, doesn't look good when worn here. |
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| bumble.bee |
| Posted: Mar 13, 2008 10:17 am |
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金魚花火
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 159
Location: Vienna
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i think most of the english songs are not as good as the japanese version, but for example real emotion had to be translated in english for the people in the rest of the world, except for japan because nobody from america would buy a game wizh jap. songs.... 
and songs which are in jap. and just with english words sound very funny, because the english sounds a little bit like jap. and if I can hear that , everyone else can hear it too  ...you see: my english is awful  |
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| Rodri |
| Posted: Apr 05, 2008 10:25 pm |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 13480
Location: Quito, Ecuador
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I actually got used to english in japanese songs...
Sometimes I think the engrish accent is cute...for example in Ai's songs.
But i think that japanese shouldn't put english in their songs....mixing languages on a song sounds a bit odd....
It always makes me mad that japanese people try to be more occidental...and they're losing their traditions and culture....for exaple..all of YUI's song titles are in english...and she doesn't even know how to speak english 
It's really weird when she says " PUNK IS NOT DEAD", "THANK YOU MY TEENS" or "I WANT TO FLY WELL" (It sounds like she's saying I WANT TO FRY WELL  ) |
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| sljinu |
| Posted: Apr 06, 2008 12:31 am |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 1203
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^ I so agree with that!! I kinda wish the Japanese would focus on how good and unique their own culture is as well, and that they shouldn't try to westernize everything. Otherwise they're gonna forget their roots one day and the only difference may be the skin colour.
In the Excite interview with Otsuka Ai, she says she doesn't like saying good things in Japanese so she wanted a stance where she could sing and not know what she was saying. It was slightly depressing to hear that from her actually, because it sounded like she was saying "It's better to say good things in another language, but it's ok to say anything else in Japanese". Of course I know she wasn't implying that but it still didn't have a good ring to it. |
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| kawai-no |
| Posted: Apr 06, 2008 7:30 am |
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Planetarium
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 655
Location: Finrando
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Uuh...changing your personal style/sound
for anything other than musical
progression truly resembles of being a sell out.
I have nothing against musicians using a language that is not their native one,
as long as they deem it necessary for musical
progression,.. and do not do it just for the sake of more widespread acclaim and fame.
Once again imo, using a language has nothing to do with loosing your rootes or
what so ever.
If the world can't accept someones native language that's their loss,
and for the sake of that you should never change your touch of who you
are in the first place.
And if you do, i call that a sell out, in another words
a person that has no really that much talent as people praise ot think,
not a one who looses his roots.
I think, in real sense loosing your rootes needs a little bit more then just that.
Besides there are lots of japanese artistest that speak, or write their lyrics fluently in english, and they dont seem to me as sell outs, but then there's those who write one line of something in very bad engrish and then hey look at it, as it would be cool to have it there.
There's a fine fine line, between everything...but as said long as it is not done for the sake of being cool it's okay for me  |
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| october |
| Posted: Apr 06, 2008 1:48 pm |
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大好きだよ。
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 266
Location: America
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Rodri, I understand your post and some I agree with, but other parts sort of confuse me.
They're just songs... They're modern pop songs. Seeing as English is sort of like the lingua franca of modern pop music, or how English sounds "cool" to a lot of Japanese, or seeing as the Japanese language already has a ton of English loanwords, I thought someone would expect a least a little English here and there in a lot of modern pop songs. If someone wanted music or songs overflowing with Japanese "culture", I would expect them to mostly listen to stuff like enka, or anything folk or traditional.
Rodri wrote: It always makes me mad that japanese people try to be more occidental...and they're losing their traditions and culture....for exaple..all of YUI's song titles are in english...and she doesn't even know how to speak english
Bolded first, do you mean more occidental in just music, or did you have something else in mind, too?
Bolded second, does it make you mad when non-Japanese try to be more Japanese...? A lot of non-Japanese change their names to something Japanese, or use Japanese with their English sentences, etc. and most don't know how to speak more than a few sentences of Japanese, like how some Japanese, even though they can't speak more than a few sentences of English, give their things English names and etc.
Honestly, I don't see why most of her songs have to have English titles (or English letters -- Namidairo comes to mind), but I don't see why not, either. |
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| Rodri |
| Posted: Apr 06, 2008 4:09 pm |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 13480
Location: Quito, Ecuador
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october wrote:
Bolded second, does it make you mad when non-Japanese try to be more Japanese...? A lot of non-Japanese change their names to something Japanese, or use Japanese with their English sentences, etc. and most don't know how to speak more than a few sentences of Japanese, like how some Japanese, even though they can't speak more than a few sentences of English, give their things English names and etc.
You're right october....xD...and I'm afraid I can't say anything for my defense .....I think it makes me mad to see japanese trying to be occidental because I love japanese culture. For me is the best culture in the world and I don't want to see it disappear.....
I thik that one of the problems of humanity is that we are never happy with the things we have.....I was born in Ecuador, but I would love to live in Japan....
The same way..people that were born in Japan would love to live in other countries....
I'm not saying that YUI shouldn't have English song titles...but it would be nice if she had some titles in japanese...
When my friends listen to my japanse songs they thik it's weird that they mix english with japanese.....
here, songs in spanish are never mixed with english and i think it sounds terrible when mixing english and spanish in a song. |
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| october |
| Posted: Apr 06, 2008 4:57 pm |
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大好きだよ。
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 266
Location: America
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Long post, sorry!
Rodri wrote: I think it makes me mad to see japanese trying to be occidental because I love japanese culture. For me is the best culture in the world and I don't want to see it disappear.....
Oh... Wow, I think I misunderstood you before, then. My apologies.
Rodri wrote: I'm not saying that YUI shouldn't have English song titles...but it would be nice if she had some titles in japanese...
That was one of the parts that I was agreeing with before, too. Sometimes it happens the other way around, too, with me anyway.
Rodri wrote: When my friends listen to my japanse songs they thik it's weird that they mix english with japanese.....
here, songs in spanish are never mixed with english and i think it sounds terrible when mixing english and spanish in a song.
Wow, I guess what I thought was widespread isn't really widespread at all, then? It's pretty popular here, with certain artists, to mix Spanish with English. Off the top of my head I can't think of that many (I'm sort of way behind with the current music here), but I know one song called "Obsession (No Es Amor)" that reminds me a of what some Japanese artists do with English. There are other songs where the artists (let's say a rapper) would rap half a line in English and then end in Spanish, also. This is a line from "Lean Like a Cholo":
Quote: I'm so hood, gotta stay clean if you know what I mean
Pockets full of feria, mucho dinero
Look me in my eyes, tell me, "Papi, te quiero"
It's one of those songs. 
Songs like these sort of bother me, and I don't really know why, because as I think I've said before, I sort of like how Japanese songs mix English into them. |
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| cascade gonpory |
| Posted: May 31, 2008 8:42 pm |
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甘えんぼ
Joined: 09 Apr 2008
Posts: 50
Location: Australia, Melbourne
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it's alot like us learning Japanese or another language isn't? How do you think the Japanese react when us WESTERNERS come over to japan? They have as much right to learn English and apply to their songs as we do of adding lyrics from other languages may it be french or german to our music! And it has been done.
I think it sounds really fun when they try and pronounce words in english. For example, SHANADOO, some of the songs are completely sung in english, and like, if i didn't have the lyrics in front of me, i;d not be able to understand a word they are saying |
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| octocoffee |
| Posted: Jun 01, 2008 12:35 am |
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ポケット
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 2485
Location: USA
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Hmm...I think it definitely depends on the situation. While in many cases I believe that language doesn't matter in music, I do feel that poorly spoken English in a Japanese song can ruin it. It's fine in upbeat, ridiculous songs because they're just silly songs you can have fun with. However, in emotional songs, Engrish tends to ruin it for me because I think that makes their voice sound awkward and the emotion of the song is lost.
In general though, it'd be nice to see the Japanese using less English. Sometimes it's fun, but I'm sure they'd find an even better word in their own language. After all, who knows Japanese better than the Japanese? |
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| akuma_tsubasa |
| Posted: Aug 16, 2008 3:11 am |
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金魚花火
Joined: 13 Aug 2008
Posts: 187
Location: NyAPPY! LOVE~WorLd
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i dun rly mind it juz as long as its good  |
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