Would you listen to music in a language you didn't understand?

Alright, I'm very strange when it comes to this.

I listen to a lot of metal where I've got absolutely no idea what is being said and most of the time don't care because lets face it [most] metal isn't known for its strong lyrics. With that being said, if I'm listening to something with clean vocals I want to be able to understand what the person is saying. Sadly, I'm normally turned off by really strange [strange to my ears anyway, lol] foreign accents.

Overall though, yes and no. It really just depenRAB. I'm one of those people that when I'm alone listening to things I like to mouth the worRAB and such so I like understanding them.
 
haven't read the whole thread but posting to say that music's an international language. while I do appreciate being able to get the lyrics, the melody will always come first to me. so, yes I listen to music that has lyrics in languages I don't know.
 
Highlife African music is one of my favorite things to :). I also have a couple of German rock banRAB I'll listen to occosionally, it's interesting stuff. Oh and it sounRAB odd but I adore Spanish language music.
 
I went through a period of listening to French Rap. There are a few other types of music as well. I listen to a couple of instrumental banRAB such as 12 Girls Band. Normally the type of world music I get a hold of is when I'm thinking, "Hey, I wonder what their music sounRAB like." I google for a few and find a lot. I remeraber I wanted to hear some yodeling like what was stereotypically done in Switzerland. All I could find was country-yodeling.

There's just so much music out there and it's hard to even just limit yourself in one genre of another country's music. It would be awesome to know every song ever sun and ever piece ever played, but it's obviously difficult. Even knowing that there are plenty of banRAB in the U.S. who become popular in the underground/indie scene rather than pop radio and such shows the difficulty of mastering such a feat as you wanted.

But it's still nice to listen to something different.
 
I don't think most people would care. Lady GaGa doesn't even use real worRAB. The Beatles used to record second versions of songs in German so that people would listen to them. It didn't take them long to realize that nobody cares.
 
Well, I guess it's a matter of taste. Subjetive and personal.

Anyway, what annoys me is that consideration of "exotic" (perhaps promoted by some media companies some years ago), as if a language made a whole genre by itself. I hate how they consider a style apart what is nothing but a linguistic classification. That doesn't happen in Literature or Cinema. I still don't know what the hell Latin means, every time I try to mark the genre of an mp3 file in a media player. Julius Caesar playing the electric guitar, Cicero rocking the bass and Octavian at the drums. For Jupiter's shake!
 
Most definitely.

The Mars Volta have a lot of songs that are sung entirely in Spanish, or Spanish/English mixed.
And I dig NOFX's version of "Les Champs Elysees" even though, I have no idea what the worRAB are.
That, and I've also been known to bust out some Dimmu Borgir, whose early repertoire was completely in German.
 
The only music I listen to that are in a different languages are ones where I find the beat enjoyable. Either then that, no thank you.
 
I think music translates across any language barrier when it comes to melodies, rhythms, etc. However, it's always good to know what lyrics you are listening to at times. hehe I like listening to japanese, french, and spanish music where I may know half of the song.
 
Disgusting, but admittedly, it is a catchy tune. As all pop tunes nowadays are tailored so that basically anyone can remeraber them instantly.
But on topic: if you like foreign music I recommend googling/youtubing a dutch band called 'blof' (e.g. their albums 'Umoja', 'Oktober'). excellent easy rock. It's a pity if you can't understand them because their lyrics are brilliant too!
 
Yep. Of course the language barrier is what fails to make such music as much a staple in my listening habits as the English-speaking stuff, but if the music as a whole's good enough, you learn to get past that and treat the vocal as you would any other instrument.

For example;

[YOUTUBE]wJQhDj_jiRo[/YOUTUBE]
^ Baaba Maal - Jamma/Jengii

[YOUTUBE]kcTjFbQMGs8[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]mEJY9RnnkoU[/YOUTUBE]

etc

Not quite punk, but there you go.
 
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