Music in other languages - When you just can't help but enjoy the song despite not understanding a single word of the lyrics

[IbnTaymiyyah]

I'm sure the Kiwis among us can attest to loving music from bands all over the world. Certainly, I'm a fan of bands like Amon Amarth, Avatar, Rammstein, and so many more. However, those bands (with the exception of Rammstein) all make music in English. How many of us actually go out of their way to listen to stuff in other languages?

One of the most important aspects of language learning for me is to get as much exposure as possible. Generally, I watch movies for this purpose but the music's always welcome if I can find some good recommendations. Here are some of my favourites. Feel free to drop some of your own as well.

Pashto

Spoiler

Fun fact: this song also has official Farsi and Urdu versions as well!

Mongol

Spoiler

Russian

Spoiler

 

[Friendly_AI]

When music is good, it does not matter, what language it is in. It's also great to gradually understand more and more listening to songs while learning the language - though I must say, understanding the meaning of any given song depends on knowing poetic tradition of the culture.

There's another thread on a similar topic: https://kiwifarms.net/threads/songs-that-make-you-want-to-learn-a-foreign-language.62413/

 

[Rafal Gan Ganowicz]

THESE guys! There is hope for France yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBVfZ6FrZs&t=271s

 

[William Tell Underpass]

Meme dance (Truly was a different time) from the 2000s, I came back to it recently and realised how much I actually like the song.

According to translations its about her being tired of being surrounded by people with problems and basically she just wants to have a spa day away from life.
Which given how it is sung and performed if that's what its about, to me shows how radically different communication styles can be even between closely related languages and peoples.

 

[Rafal Gan Ganowicz]

THESE guys! There is hope for France yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBVfZ6FrZs&t=271s

Learn French you dumb fucking yanks.

 

[Thumb Butler]

MovieBob probably would prefer this Alizee song

 

[Battlecruiser3000ad]

(accented) russian

czech

 

[Lilly Philly Burnelli]

Boris could be singing about gassing Jews and genocide for all I know, but god damn I love their music.

 

[Medical Hawaii]

If one thinks of music as its own language and medium of communication, the other "lexical" languages in which it is created are merely accents

That being said, one could certainly argue that certain (lexical) languages lend themselves better to being sung than others. For example, I find French to be quite melodic both in the flow of its spoken words and in music due to its softer sounds. Italian words also tend to end in vowels, making it easier to connect words and string them out into a melody.

I recall reading some interesting studies comparing the rhythms inherent in different languages, specifically divided by their isochrony; I believe I also came across a study that considered the sociolinguistic factors. I will look for them again and link them here.

 

[Medulseur]

This song was the best part of the game it was in.

 

[Krystal]

My favorite song from Juanes

 

[Longjack Attack]

Just picture yourself bored out of your mind in New Mexico collecting money drop-offs paired with a no-nonsense type boomer.

 

[Medical Hawaii]

If one thinks of music as its own language and medium of communication, the other "lexical" languages in which it is created are merely accents

That being said, one could certainly argue that certain (lexical) languages lend themselves better to being sung than others. For example, I find French to be quite melodic both in the flow of its spoken words and in music due to its softer sounds. Italian words also tend to end in vowels, making it easier to connect words and string them out into a melody.

I recall reading some interesting studies comparing the rhythms inherent in different languages, specifically divided by their isochrony; I believe I also came across a study that considered the sociolinguistic factors. I will look for them again and link them here.

"An empirical comparison of rhythm in language and music"

http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Mail/xmcamail.2009_11.dir/pdfZz8vEGN9aS.pdf

"3 Rhythm in language and music - Michigan State University"

https://msu.edu/~lvh/NewFiles/Chapter%203.pdf

"Rhythm in Language and Music: Parallels and Differences"

http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~villasen/bib/annals.1284.pdf

"Comparison of Rhythmic Processing in Language and Music:
An Interdisciplinary Approach"

http://www.lma.cnrs-mrs.fr/~kronland/JMM/Rhythm.pdf

"Exaggeration of Language-Specific Rhythms in English and French Children's Songs"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914820/

 

[Inventor of the Telephone]

MovieBob probably would prefer this Alizee song

I remember that one. She was a Mylene Farmer prodigee. She didn't reach the same epic status as her mentor though, who is still pumping out decent dance pop albums at age 60.

 

[Compulsory Games]

Old Skrip is best Skrip

 

[autist_vibes]

I found this band when I was studying German. My German proficiency is still awful (partly because the language is hard af, mostly because I'm lazy), but the music is good.

 

[Empty]

 

[FaramirG]

Heard this while watching the Young Pope a couple years back

 

[Sundae]

Some personal favorites:

I don't understand a word in any of these songs, but I enjoy them anyway.

 

[tampax pearl]

I think this song is really neat!