Language of Music

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(CHEESY POST TITLE ALERT!)
Nah, I wanted to talk today about bands whose lyrics are in a language you can't understand. I have no problem admitting that 90% of the bands I regularly listen to are in English. Not so much because I have a problem with music in other languages, rather living in America and reading in English I far more often run across bands of the same language.

But everything, including art including music, travels so quickly these days that I run into all sorts of music. Korean bands were insanely popular at my previous high school, Japanese rock is growing in popularity and on a more alternative level: Goth is a worldwide subculture so it makes sense that there are goth bands of many languages.

Apart from what I randomly stumble into, awhile ago I downloaded "Unquiet Grave- The Ultimate Goth Collection" to give me the opportunity of  hearing different bands and there are a few songs of various languages (Eventually I'll do a review of album but I haven't finished sorting through what I like and what doesn't fit my tastes.) Also, reading/ listening to Bats and Bunnies "Tuesday Tunes" has introduced me to a few German bands, (Xmal Deutschland, whom I really like and Welle: Erdball).

I want to know what you guys think of bands whose lyrics you can't understand. It is true that music is a universal language, but do you miss out by not getting the lyrics? Does it not matter if the melody is good? Do you look up the lyrics?

Lyrics are something I pay close attention to in songs and that is important to me but it's not something that keeps me from liking a band with good melodies and harmonies. (Well, shallow lyrics sometimes turns me off of a band). I love how different languages flow... differently but I also usually end up looking for some sort of translation out of curiosity. But translations are very open to different interpretations as far as syntax and word choices are concerned, so how can you really get the full artistic picture of a song without understanding the language?

The nice thing about music or most art in general is the ability for the viewer/reader/listener to come up with their own meaning and perspective within the piece, so on the other hand, you could argue that it doesn't matter if you understand the language or not.

I haven't really explored non-English music a terrible amount, but I'd like to brush of the boundry in the future so I'm curious to other perspectives. Any non-English bands you absolutely love?

In other news, my father got fancy new camera that sits on his shelf, free for my personal usage. I love it, (I love photography.) I've also settled in nicely to the new school year so I'm able to post more frequently AND keep up with the posts of the blogs I follow. (and I do honestly go through and read all the posts when I'm keeping up.)

Source: Me! ^^ Yay for mirrors.