Jpop Lyrics: Retarded or Not

[Kusoyaro]

Ok, I have recently been thinking, why the hell are japanese lyrics so thoroughly retarded to me? Not the Japanese, it's rather prosaic and all that balderdash, but I'm atlking about the english they use. I just heard this on some song but I can't remember what, sorry. Girl dressed in white singing on a cloud or something. "Everybody live is great and beautiful thing! Surpass the cold feelings and make it yours tonight!"
WHAT THE FUCK? Is it just me?
Perhaps, when i sift through my music, i'll find some songs with lots of enlgish lyrics, and i'll paste up the text. Meanwhile PLEASE let me know whether or not my grasp of English is poorer than i had always thought.

[Azrael]

J-Pop English lyrics are pretty bad. You have to consider, most J-Pop singers don't actually speak English, and are just throwing English in because it's considered to be cool.

I heard that Utada Hikaru actually started this trend when she came out, but I don't exactly trust the source I got that info from. Her English is always good, but she does speak it fluently which goes a long way.

[Citizen]

I've heard a lot of Japanese songs with English thrown in for no real reason. They seem to like it. And yeah, a lot of the time it makes no sense. Oh well, I can't stand any music genre that stats with J- anyways. Especially J-Rock. I group it with the indie, emo, new punk, new alt., and pop "rock" genres as crap rock.

[Kusoyaro]

Hmm, I was just listening to this sex machineguns song about ramen i think, which is always wierd.
hikki is different, i guess, the only other fluent english artist i know is that rapper versus, he's pretty neato too.
they should just stop putting bad english into their music, it only serves to piss of peiople who speak it, and forces people like me to assume a lower opinion of the artist. i mean, if they're not bothered with proper english, it leads to the conclusion that the aren't trying very hard, or soething like that, i dont know.
im listeniong to a song where they are talking about not succumbing to peer pressure to use makeup and talk on phones. oh jesus christ why.
citizen, i see ur hatred for j music persists. i have to introduce you to sakamoto, the best composer on earth. lets see how you fare against him

[Citizen]

BOC > Anything

Thus, he cannot be the greatest. :D

I'll give some of his music a shot though. What genre would that be? Also, I want to make it clear that my bias towards J- music isn't irrational. I've heard a lot of J- music, and truely haven't liked it. It's not just some "Oh, I hate that!(while never having tried it)" thing.

[skate_mate]

Girl dressed in white singing on a cloud or something.
Hmm, could be BoA at the end of 'the love bug' by m-flo feat. BoA. I'm not sure she has any lyrics that wacky though...
She's amazing that girl. Practically fluent in Japanese, learning English, learning Chinese, home toungue is Korean.

GLAY is one of the first rock bands to really start the trend of songs that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, although they still sound cool (coyote, colored darkness <-- see?).

[Myrsilus]

I don't know if this counts as J-Pop... but anyone ever hear the intro for Hellsing? Now THAT is incoherant gibberish.

[deepbluevibes]

I remember seeing a video of some J-Pop star (someone associated with Gackt i think) screaming out "FUCK!!!" and nothing but that after a performance.

for like a minute straight.

and all of the girls were going wild. lmao

[Seigified]

I heard that Utada Hikaru actually started this trend when she came out, but I don't exactly trust the source I got that info from. Her English is always good, but she does speak it fluently which goes a long way.

I think that problem was there way before Hikaru hit scene. One that really bothered me when I started listening to japanese music was Namie Amuro's "Body Feels Exit". I could probably dig into my box of old jpop cd's and backed-up mp3's and quote alot more.

[ChronoSphere]

I just fail to understand how throwing words of a language you don't undrstand into something that doesn't make sense be "cool".

[silentplummet]

J-pop is reliable in terms of its very limited and redundant vocabulary. To say, you could listen to J-pop for a few years and feel reasonably confident that you had mastered most of the words in Japanese, of which I will provide a cursory list:

yume - dream(s)
mirai - future
namida - tears
suki - quality of something being liked or loved
umi - sea
hitomi - pupils of the eyes
koe - voice
sora - sky (Akino Arai, granted one of my favorite Japanese musicians, is particularly bad about this word. On her collection album RGB, I'm pretty sure "sora" is in every song at least once.)
kurushi(i/mi) - sad / sadness
tanoshi(i/mi) - happy / happiness
ai - love
mune - chest

There are plenty other "forbidden words" which I encourage you to find.

[Kustom]

Here is my favorite anime song, in case you haven't yet come across... It's got english lyrics too :D

Let's fighting love (http://www.southparkstudios.com/downloads/display_video.php?vid=http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/801/song.mov&vid_name=Let's%20fighting%20LOVE!%20Let's%20fighti ng%20love!&tab=30)

[edit]Yes, I know it's from South Park... Not that stupid... :p

[Puchu]

....uuum, let's fighting love isn't actually an anime song, since it is from southpark, and a parody of how crappy j-pop english is....

hmm... *tries to think of favourite non-sense j-pop english*

"she stays so gold in her solo, she's so number nine
she's incredibly math, just incredible math" - Lithium Flower (Scott Matthew), GitS SAC ED. the whole thing is in crappy english. but it's a cool song, though. the crappy english just makes it... funnier...

"a crew sees cring knees
wanna need, not betray" - y'all know this one. Good ol' Gackt, this is from Vanilla, although "papa lapped a pap lopped" is a pretty freaky song title...

"how come I must know where obsession needs to go?
how come I must know the direction of relieving?" Obsession, .hack//SIGN opening theme. I thought it was in russian the first time I hear it.... ^^;

"fish. flash. fresh. yo, that's fresh" Changin' (even the bandnames are horrible: Nona Reeves(not a person), feat. You the rock), GetBackers last ending theme

I don't know why they have this horrible fascination for english, when they can't even use it. but it's the same for french. if you ever buy cakes in Japan, you can be PRETTY sure that the wrapping will have some french bullshit about deliciousness, or something like that. found a cake store where pretty much all the cakes' names where in french (written in katakana as well. oh, the horrible combination of french and katakana...), but the store's name was in Spanish. El Mundo, or something like that, I think it was... I forget...<-clueless in Spanish

Japanese are so weird (as we all know).... but the guys are hot, though, and that's what matters. *nikkori*

[Henjin]

You could say the same about all the Americans that are so infatuated w/ anime. It's just as silly...

That said, my favorite band, The Brilliant Green sings about half their songs in English. Thankfully, Tomoko is pretty good. There are only a few errors in the songs. One I like is on "Call My Name" where she says she's "just not a pretty face." Unless she means she's kinda homely, I think she meant "not just a pretty face."

[hanacker]

they should just stop putting bad english into their music, it only serves to piss of peiople who speak it, and forces people like me to assume a lower opinion of the artist. i mean, if they're not bothered with proper english, it leads to the conclusion that the aren't trying very hard, or soething like that, i dont know.

I know it might be hard for you to believe but Japanese artists are making music for people who speak Japanese and don't especially care what you think.

I just fail to understand how throwing words of a language you don't undrstand into something that doesn't make sense be "cool".

Exotic has always been cool.
U2, Vertigo: "Uno, dos, tres, catorce" (1,2,3,14. WTF?)

How many Americans have kanji tatoos that they don't really understand the meaning to just because they look cool? I was with my Japanese girlfriend and we saw a guy with the kanji for "water" tatooed on his back. She said "ocean" or something like that would be cool if the guy went to the beach a lot, but Japanese people would consider a "water" tatoo to be lame. I said he probably just thought it looked cool and was at least close to what he meant. Much like you can get the general impression from the phrase "Everybody live is great and beautiful thing" but the actual words sound really goofy to a native speaker.

[Henjin]

http://hanzismatter.com/

[hapacheese]

Yes, it is only done because English "sounds cool" to a lot of Japanese people. It gives it a bit of an exotic feeling and considering that a lot of j-pop is heavily influenced by the West, it's not that much of an extrapolation, really.

However, it started back in the 80's, not Utada Hikaru, like has been pointed out. Hikki is one of the few stars that actually uses proper English (95% of the time) in her songs. Verbal from m-flo is the second best. The worst culprit *has* to be Tetsuya Komuro.

As for the actual Japanese lyrics, j-pop is equally influenced by traditional Japanese music, which tends to be more poetic than, say, Western pop. It is what lends the more unusual beats and note/chord progressions in j-pop, which creates its distinctive sound. If you look at j-pop as a whole, you will notice that there is an inordinate amount of songs about the seasons, a common theme in classical Japanese poetry and music. In addition, the Japanese used in a lot of songs is not normal Japanese. In music, you often hear them say "hitomi" instead of "me" for "eyes," "setsunai" instead of "kanashii" for "sadness," etc. It's all due to early influences of enka, waka, and general culture.

[Henjin]

It's all due to early influences of enka, waka, and general culture.

I didn't realize Fozzy the Bear had sucn an influence on Ancient Japanese culture...

[hapacheese]

Bah dum tsh!!!

Henjin will be here all night, ladies and gentlemen. This is the "A" stuff! ;)


(Waka is traditional Japanese poetry... btw)

[Henjin]

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ajtaylor/2005/04/02/fozzie_copy.jpg

So then I says to him, I says...

[Kusoyaro]

yes, hanacker, i know..
god, wtf, man.
i know this may be difficult for YOU to understand, but i was subtly commenting on the underlying superficiality of most japanese musucians. its not really superficial, in the sense that they are always forced to give up any integrity to appeal to the mass market, which is the only way to get noticed. to do this, in any nation, though, despite whatever philosophies one has, is still a debasement of all artistic endeavour. using something that you do not understand at all is fine, but when you are using music, a medium universal in its breadth, to communicate, one must be clear and succinct in order to get your message across. in this area tmany japanese "artists" fail, because they merely add english gibberish to attract more customers who would potentially buy their product. shit.

[Henjin]

I think you need to relax... Why take it so seriously? If you find it silly, you can either laugh at it, or if it really bugs you, ignore it. Why get all riled up?

[Kusoyaro]

i have a reason, i take meds for this shit (my anger problem), but my point remains valid. jibberish english is stupid. might as well not put it in.

[hapacheese]

It's particularly embarassing as a Japanese-American, so I agree with Kusoyaro (not as angrily, though :P)

However, most of it is simply entertainment. If it accomplishes that goal for the intended audience, then so be it. It was not intended for native English speakers, so I just ignore it whenever I can.

However, when I hear good mixing of Japanese and English (like Hikki... the way she switches between English and Japanese is the way my friends and I actually talk), it makes more sense to me, culturally.

[hanacker]

Kusoyaro:

Japanese artists aren't adding English to "communicate". They're adding it for flair. Pop music is supposed to be fun and foreign words and phrases are fun. Whoever wrote the song liked the way those English words sounded together so maybe the audience will too. And when 95% of your audience doesn't know it's gibberish, the sound is much more important than the meaning. There aren't quite as many American songs that use foreign gibberish just because it sounds cool but I could pull up quite a few examples if I felt like it.

[hapacheese]

The closest I can think of, though it's admittedly not quite the same, is Gwen Stefani and her new found Japanese fetish. Anyone who has been to Harajuku will attest to the fact that it's not the fashion mecca that she makes it out to be. Yeah, there's a lot of cool stores there, but the majority of the people in Harajuku are simply freaks. Yet, she goes on and on about Harajuku because she can make it "sound cool."

Again, not a perfect example, but it gets the point across.

[koku]

I think it's worth noting/laughing at...lightheardetly.

but yeah You do have to understand it's Pop Music. Already not taken too seriously. And also, it's a second langauge. Kind of mean to go, "how dare you not speak a second language perfectlyi!!?!?"

I agree with Kusoyaro that as an artist, you have a certian responsibility when so many people are subjected to your music/art/movie whatever that you should have expectations I think to get things right. For example if steve spielberg made a movie set in modern day Japan and he got ALOT of things wrong...I think people would be at the least talking about it.

Ah, no sense in getting riled up about it. With me...i understand. It's pop music, it's a second language, doesn't need to be perfect. but MAN, if i was an artist...I would go ask someone fluent in english.."does this sound right??" before I release it.

Mabye it's the small population of english fluent people In Japan but since I don't know much about that I won't assume that's what it is.

laugh enjoy, but I can sympathise with both sides.

[Henjin]

I listen to a Korean band called Loveholic, and some of the English in their songs is a little off... That, and they have trouble w/ pronunciation. They say 'bress you' instead of 'bless you.' I just wonder why they don't just pay a native English speaker 20bucks an hour to coach them on the 10 or so words in their songs. I'd do it. Heh.

[h2orowe]

Haha, it's funny in my oppinion. If it sounds cool to them, don't let it get you mad. Like someone pointed out. "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!" I mean, it's so easy to get someone that speaks spanish to help you in America. Ask like 4 people and more than likely they'll all tell you "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro."

Haha, there's this one Pillows song called "Sub-Human", it goes "So, I wanna be a bat, and I want, to touch the sun, now I will try to force a smile.", the same song, but another verse type thing is "I woke up at midnight again,Oh baby,I did not know what to do next. I can't see,But I can feel, all the time." the whole time, it's spoken in Engrish.

I've heard worse, but this song actually is good, it has nice guitar and stuff. I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY DON'T SIMPLY PAY SOMEONE TO HELP THEM!

[koku]

because it's a second langauge and they have enough things to worry about then something very little of their listenres would notice.

Then again, all those hot little highschool jpop singers that you know get homeschooled, all they would even have to do is pay atteniton when it's english time.

*peh* oh well I still like it.

[givemestarseeds]

J-Pop English lyrics are pretty bad. You have to consider, most J-Pop singers don't actually speak English, and are just throwing English in because it's considered to be cool.

I heard that Utada Hikaru actually started this trend when she came out, but I don't exactly trust the source I got that info from. Her English is always good, but she does speak it fluently which goes a long way.

I read that she was born and raised in New York. I'm not sure where i read that but i think japanese is her second language though she had been speaking both japanese and english since she was young.

[hanacker]

I read that she was born and raised in New York. I'm not sure where i read that but i think japanese is her second language though she had been speaking both japanese and english since she was young.

She was born in New York and moved to Tokyo at 12. I knew someone in college who went to high school with her and thought that the yearbook was from a school in New York, but the internet says she went to high school in Tokyo, so maybe that was it. Either way it was a school with a lot of non-Japanese people.

[BluZytrix]

Crystal Kay grew up on an American Military base in Japan. Her native tongue is English and as a result, she tends to use proper English in her songs with good pronunciation. For some reason, I really dig her song "Boyfriend Part II". The words seem to role off the tongue and the lyrics aren't terribly hard to understand. I also recall listening to Hyde singing in English quite well. He has a song called "Angle's Tale" that I have always tried to mimic because of the smooth low tones this guy is able to produce. Also, I was wondering if anyone has heard of Misia. I love this woman. She has a voice that sends chills up my spine. I would put her in the realm of people like Whitney Houston or Mariah. Her vocals are incredible. Check out that song "忘れない日々(Wasurenai Hibi)".

For those of you who wish to listen some of these songs, there is a great site called Bugs. http://bugs.co.kr Yes, the site is in korean, but all you need to know is that the big white bar is where you search. You can listen and make playlists of artists from all over the world in many languages. The site's main intention was to sell you a cd, but I just use it to queue up like 20 songs at a time and jam out while at work.

Blu

[Kustom]

I can't make sense of a single Red Hot Chilly Peppers song, but I still love them...

You could think about a zillion examples of bad English use in Japan, but this one is the best: a friend living in Okinawa took a picture of an 8 year old, with a T-shirt reading "Too drunk to fuck". I had to write it somewhere. :D

[Henjin]

Haha, it's funny in my oppinion. If it sounds cool to them, don't let it get you mad. Like someone pointed out. "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!" I mean, it's so easy to get someone that speaks spanish to help you in America. Ask like 4 people and more than likely they'll all tell you "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro."

Bono knows how to count. He did that on purpose for whatever reason. It's not the same thing.

[hapacheese]

Crystal Kay is actually half-Korean, not that it means anything. Well, Japan-born Korean.

Utada Hikaru went to an international high school in Japan, hence the presence of all the non-Japanese. She actually spent a lot of her youth going back and forth, so yeah... her English and Japanese skills are about equal.

[koku]

i wonder how good some of these non japanese jpop singers japanese is and at what age they learned it and all.

example Crystal Kay and Boa. I wonder how well they speak korean and japanese. I'm sure their fluent but how perfect is their pronuncation in each language ya know? Would kick ass to find out Crystal Kay started learning Japanese late or soemthing and speaks it almost untracable.

[Henjin]

i wonder how good some of these non japanese jpop singers japanese is and at what age they learned it and all.

example Crystal Kay and Boa. I wonder how well they speak korean and japanese. I'm sure their fluent but how perfect is their pronuncation in each language ya know? Would kick ass to find out Crystal Kay started learning Japanese late or soemthing and speaks it almost untracable.

I remember Boa on Heyx3 talking about when she first came to Japan and was trying to speak Japanese... She had trouble w/ an ATM or something. That might give you an idea of when she started.
And if she was able to converse w/ 'Downtown,' she must not be bad. I can't understand anything those guys say. :p

[hapacheese]

BoA's Japanese has noticeably improved over the years. I saw her on スマスマ a few months ago and was completely surprised at how fluent she had become. (and was equally surprised at how different she looked... プチ整形 anyone?)

However, she still has an accent. I think Korean accents in Japanese are cute, though :P But, Koreans have the advantage that the phoneme sets are relatively similar, and grammatically, the two languages are nearly identical.

Not sure how Crystal Kay learned Japanese, but I assume she's native. Utada Hikaru is completely native. Lisa (previously of m-flo fame) is half-Brazillian, and I believe she is native. Becky (idol) is native as well. Let's see who else... Marc Panther of Globe is *not* native (Komuro Tetsuya tries to pass him off as speaking English, but the dude is half-French).

[akitaka]

Would kick ass to find out Crystal Kay started learning Japanese late or soemthing and speaks it almost untracable.

Hmm. I think even having the language in your immediate environment, whether you try to learn it or not, factors in how well you can pronounce it. I know a student from my JPN classes who was born in Yokohama but moved here at 4 or so; he's got a notable accent. However when I uttered a sentence my JPN teacher wondered if I spoke it often at home; I don't. In fact, my Japanese sucks. But since my mother spoke it on the phone, made expressions, had friends over, etc. when my sisters and I were really little, we've always had a 'sense' in how to enunciate and put stuff together.

[Henjin]

I guess kinda like I can fake a Spanish accent though I don't speak it...

[Kaji]

I know the Zeta Gundam theme has Engrish in it, so the trend is at least 20 years old as far as J-pop goes...

[hapacheese]

Oh, it's been around for a looooong time. The Fist of the North Star's main theme song's recurring line was "YOU ARE SHOCK!!!"

[hanacker]

On the subject of Japanese artists who can speak English, Dreams Come True have a couple albums entirely in English. The lyrics tend to be a bit inane and/or ridiculous but the pronunciation and grammar are pretty good. I don't know if they're still popular, though.

[hapacheese]

DCT is still pretty durn popular. The lead singer's English is relatively decent, but yeah, not native. The lyrics are actually pretty good translations of the original Japanese, modified to fit the rhythm of the songs, but the meaning is often lost in the translation, unfortunately, which makes them sound weird.

[Nancy]

its miracle, so miracle.

[Roxie]

Crystal Kay grew up on an American Military base in Japan. Her native tongue is English and as a result, she tends to use proper English in her songs
NO she doesn't and this drives me absolutely bonkers.

She often talks like Tarzan leaving out prepositions or skipping the -ing in words and WHY!? She's fluent, I mean come on! Are they that deseperate to make her seem American urban?

[Henjin]

Well, if you don't speak the language much for an extended period, you're going to have some trouble... But that might not be the case here.

[hapacheese]

I'm pretty sure it's simply to fit the beat or whatever. Even Hikki does it on occasion, as does Verbal. When your audience has no idea what you're saying anyway, how hard are you going to try to make sure everything is perfect?

Candy wanna be lady 君の好みのLady
Candy loves you baby 気づいてあげてよ baby

/Not proper English, but fits the rhythm.

[Roxie]

I'm pretty sure it's simply to fit the beat or whatever. Even Hikki does it on occasion, as does Verbal. When your audience has no idea what you're saying anyway, how hard are you going to try to make sure everything is perfect?

Candy wanna be lady 君の好みのLady
Candy loves you baby 気づいてあげてよ baby

/Not proper English, but fits the rhythm.

Yes, but she does this ALL THE TIME. It's more often than not, it drives me nuts.

[Henjin]

Then don't listen to her. That's what I do. :D

[Roxie]

Then don't listen to her. That's what I do. :D
But I like her stuff. :(

[Henjin]

残念だ。

Find instrumentals. :D

[koku]

or stop complaining and just enjoy it. it's for a japanese based audience her english doesn't have to be perfect.

mabye she forgot alot

mabye she doesn't care becuase she doesn't need to

i have a mean idea but mabye it get's dumbed down so the audience can sing along??

*bah* that's going to sound mean but oh well, i don't mean it that way.

anything could be possible, i like her stuff though so i'll listen.

[h2orowe]

I just got done listening to the Please Mr. Lostman CD from The Pillows. It's awesome.
I just wanted to share.
Note: Yes, I know its like a play off of Please Mr. Postman, but they were influenced heavily by The Beatles, and The Pixies.

[hapacheese]

But, then there's Verbal:

3 pe-ji me hiraki Rorschach, blood, sweat & tears
I've spilled in the past kioku toubou
Itsuka ichinichi ga hyakuman nen no you just listen
therefore ichibyou ga yaku 11 nen to hantoshi
I be the paraclete mathematically ran kiryuu no you na kanjou
Kakemeguru zanzou mo keshite kureru
Te no hira no kanshoku shanson wo dansou
mellifluent verbiage de getsumen hodou

Ano toki ano basho no dekigoto ga nokoshita mono wa tangible
so setsumei fuyou for you, I'd give an arm and a leg
Denshi MEERU from me predominantly
Kikoete kuru hazu my voice kasuka ni
Kono chikyuu jou minus you, ain't got no kajitsu
your whole style's like a taiyou
no denial, so yume kanaeyou
KYANTANKARASU onslaught of ronsou to houshin
the most minimal, indivisible wakari kirenai
you & I, that's the quotient

That is just a awesome/bizarre mix of English and Japanese. And who the hell says "cantankerous" in katakana-nihongo???

[Roxie]

or stop complaining and just enjoy it. it's for a japanese based audience her english doesn't have to be perfect.

mabye she forgot alot

mabye she doesn't care becuase she doesn't need to

i have a mean idea but mabye it get's dumbed down so the audience can sing along??

*bah* that's going to sound mean but oh well, i don't mean it that way.

anything could be possible, i like her stuff though so i'll listen.

I do listen and enjoy, but that doesn't mean I can't complian, damnit.
Utada did it just fine, I doubt it's so hard.

Did I say I'd be starting a petition aganist it or something? Writting her angry e-mails? No. It's not like I expect she'll change it, it just puzzles me. Loosen up, you'll live longer.

[koku]

I do listen and enjoy, but that doesn't mean I can't complian, damnit.
Utada did it just fine, I doubt it's so hard.

Did I say I'd be starting a petition aganist it or something? Writting her angry e-mails? No. It's not like I expect she'll change it, it just puzzles me. Loosen up, you'll live longer.


dude, calm down. It's just music, you don't have to listen to it if it boils you up so bad.

relax...it's just a forum.

[BluZytrix]

Better yet, put on Morning Musume's Ai Araba It's All Right! and let it all go! MM Rulz!

[Roxie]

dude, calm down. It's just music, you don't have to listen to it if it boils you up so bad.

relax...it's just a forum.

Huh?
I could've sworn I said I listen and enjoy. :confused:

oh wait, I did!
I do listen and enjoyyou're the one getting upset that I dare complain about something I don't like. How dare I!

[hapacheese]

Roxie: Yeah, but even Hikki says stupid stuff. "I am Japanese-y." *shudders*

[koku]

Huh?
I could've sworn I said I listen and enjoy. :confused:

oh wait, I did!
you're the one getting upset that I dare complain about something I don't like. How dare I!



relax man, no need to blow a fuse over things.

like i said before you're not listening, it's just a forum.

use the advice, listen to some Morning Musume, or mabye some Otsuka Ai's "Happy Days."

mabye that will help you not be angry anymore.

what is it with people and getting angry?? I don't understand.

[akitaka]

I just got done listening to the Please Mr. Lostman CD from The Pillows. It's awesome.

Hmm. Do you know of The Predators? They are band compiled of Shinpei from Straightener, Jiro from Glay, and Sawao from the Pillows. Sawao is doing the vocals; the result is quite nice. Some fans made a myspace (http://www.myspace.com/thepredators) site where you can get some samples from their first album.

[h2orowe]

O ok, cool, I'll check it out later.

[Henjin]

relax man, no need to blow a fuse over things.

like i said before you're not listening, it's just a forum.

use the advice, listen to some Morning Musume, or mabye some Otsuka Ai's "Happy Days."

mabye that will help you not be angry anymore.

what is it with people and getting angry?? I don't understand.

Of course tone doesn't come across the interweb very well, but I didn't read Roxie as being all that angry... You, mabye, but not so much Roxie...

[koku]

Of course tone doesn't come across the interweb very well, but I didn't read Roxie as being all that angry... You, mabye, but not so much Roxie...


bah you suck, you have ruined it all. you dumb person,

LEAVE FOR JAPAN NOW!!

[Henjin]

I want to insult you, but I'd feel bad using any derogatory comments w/ your screen name. :p

[Roxie]

Roxie: Yeah, but even Hikki says stupid stuff. "I am Japanese-y." *shudders*
:p hahaha, yeah, but according to Az (we had a long disscussion about it on another forum) the characters translate to something like she's easy...like sunday morning.

I found it more cute than horrid, but at least she doesn't talk like Tarzan!

[akitaka]

Words tend to be more sharp when written. That, and the sarcasm never really helps.

Silly thing is, Morning Musume has a tendency to make me furious. I remember eating dinner with relatives in Sendai and the T.V. was flipped on; HeyX3 was on, and bam the sunny, flowery, bright performance came on and burned my ears off. I had to leave quickly after finishing.

[Henjin]

I mean, do you really need that many little girls in a band? That's just excessive.

[akitaka]

That, and new ones get manufactured to replace the ones that start getting old and dingy.

[koku]

they have 14 fudjgin people!

i dont get it still!

i never will.

i dont think they are all "little girls" alot of them seem our ageish.

[Henjin]

i dont think they are all "little girls" alot of them seem our ageish.

Eh... I don't know about that. It seems like they send 'em off when they get beyond a certain age...

And what exactly does Morning Daughter mean anyway? :confused:

[h2orowe]

Morning Wood?
Morning Glory?

[hapacheese]

Funniest two things ever involving Morning Musume。 (sorry, had to include the maru)

- The Ring video clip (ever seen it?)
- On Utaban, they made them all sit in a classroom and gave them a geography test. Man, that was hilarious. I swear, they share one brain between the 14 of them, and it seems like Yosshi has about 50% of it.

[akitaka]

A lot of the J-pop group's names don't make much sense. Boy's Style...MAX...SPEED...."W"....it's like a limped effort to sounding cool.

[Henjin]

That's why I prefer American band names like "Hoobastank" or "Fountains of Wayne" or "Deer Hoof" or "Finger Eleven." :D

[akitaka]

Hey at least you can ask them or google it, and still find out how they came up with the names. These pop groups...they have no birth.

[skate_mate]

Wow, Henjin, you know Deer Hoof? They're awesome! No one I know knows Deer Hoof.

[KujiInRetsu]

You do have to admit, Japan's pop music is pretty much the only observable phenomenon of a country's pop music parodying another language on the basis that it sounds cool to them. It happens in other countries, but never to the extent that it does in Japan. Imagine trying to explain these lyrics to a Japanese kid who doesn't know English, when you're not sure yourself what the songwriters were smoking when they wrote the lyrics.

[h2orowe]

I think when I get in a band, I'm going to sing half Japanese, and half English. Yeah, I'm that cool. It'll be like the Clash, but instead of Spanish Bombs, it'd be the A-Bomb >.< that was pretty mean I was just kidding, anyways, yeah, I'd sing in Japanese and be like Watashi wa warui because you left me baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaby. Than there will be threads dedicated to my band's lyrics on some Outpost Kuu(kyu? I forgot haha) Thread.

[hanacker]

It's not Moaning Musume?

[Ketay]

Hey, hey get it up
You try this
Gonna make you hot
Yeah, yeah pump it up
Do you wanna rock with me?

Hey, hey get it up
You try this
Taste my rock and roll
Stand up get it up
Uh-huh

BoA rocks...

And yes... J-Pop songs are very wierd. xD Especially anime songs...

I WANNA ROCKS. むねにROCKS!

[h2orowe]

Stand up, Get it up?
Either someone messed up covering Bob Marley, or they are in the pr0n biz.

[KujiInRetsu]

BoA rocks...

And yes... J-Pop songs are very wierd. xD Especially anime songs...

I WANNA ROCKS. むねにROCKS!Aah... Naruto. Never understood why people thought the first opening theme was good, because it's not really all that.

Well, I suppose those of us outside the Land of Complete Disregard for Proper English can flaunt our superiority over those Japanese nerds that learned English entirely from J-pop songs. :rolleyes:

[h2orowe]

Man, I wish I was born in Japan, just so I can come to America, go up to a chick, think I'm saying something cool and be like "You want to Rocks, Rocks?" and get my ass kicked.

[Roxie]

Man, I wish I was born in Japan, just so I can come to America, go up to a chick, think I'm saying something cool and be like "You want to Rocks, Rocks?" and get my ass kicked.
Nah, she'd probably think it was cute. Girls love the "distressed forgiener". Especially if English, Italian, or Brazlian..

[hapacheese]

Heh... h2orowe: Speaking of which, the picture I posted of me and my brother in the introductions thread (not there anymore) was part of a joke that started. We said we would go to Japan and start a band and call ourselves Half & Half...

(except it would be spelled: ハーフ＆はーふ)

Yes. I live up to my handle name.

[Henjin]

Wow, Henjin, you know Deer Hoof? They're awesome! No one I know knows Deer Hoof.

Yeah, I found their website through a fark.com photoshop thread, IIRC. Heh. Downloaded some mp3s. (from their site) I don't listen to some of the more amelodic stuff, but I do like quite a few of their songs. Like "Milk Man" and some others. And yeah, I've never run into anyone who's heard of them. Not that anyone I know would be even remotely interested in that kind of 'indie rock.' They were at a recent indie rock festival in Chicago (read about it in the Trib), but they didn't get a very good review. :(

@Hapa: That was good... but not タコ屋 good... :cool:

And I already walk around singing in Japanese... I sing it very opera-like, but I use lyrics like:
「なんて言ったんだよ…このやろう。
お前はきっと馬鹿だろう。
何見てんだよ。こら！
お前はきっと阿呆だな…」

Yeah.

[Ketay]

「なんて言ったんだよ…このやろう。
お前はきっと馬鹿だろう。
何見てんだよ。こら！
お前はきっと阿呆だな…」

Lmao. I have to say I do like Japanese songs for their rhyming... Since theres like a 20% chance that anything will rhyme. =P And just keep verbs in their base 3 forms, and they all rhyme. xD!

@KujiInRetsu: I personally hate the first Naruto opening song... But I'm deeply in love with the first ending song... Still makes absolutely no sense to me... But I like the music... And his total accent makes me laugh every time... "A man ran at me twice but I didn't care, waiting is wasting for people like me" and when he said "NEVER FAWRING DOWN". =D Speaking of which... I still have another 29 episodes of Naruto I have yet to watch. ._.

[Henjin]

I could totally become a Japanese rapper...

Speaking of lyrics, it's 3am and I've spend the last 2.5hrs searching for the lyrics to 'Butterfly Kiss' by 'Art-School.' It's become somewhat of an obsession, it seems. (It's so late, I'm really having trouble typing).

Anyway, I managed to find a lot of them... but man, I just can't get some of it. If anyone thinks they could help, I'll email an mp3 and what I have so far... I'm willing to give you no money... That's right, no money... Be sure to snatch this offer up while it lasts! Seriously, though, help me so I can sleep at night.

[Sector]

Hmm, could be BoA at the end of 'the love bug' by m-flo feat. BoA. I'm not sure she has any lyrics that wacky though...
She's amazing that girl. Practically fluent in Japanese, learning English, learning Chinese, home toungue is Korean.


Trust me, BoA got A LOT of wacky lyrics. That girl is having a big downfall with her recent "Girls On Top" Korean album.

Here are some examples of her horrible English in her Japanese/Korean songs and some of these songs were written by her.

Shine We Are - "Shine we are" (I'm utterly confused.)
Miracle/Kiseki - "Destiny is shine or not" (Of course it shines..or not.)
Amazing Kiss - "Precious in my love...this is only shooting star" (I wish there was a translator for this.)
Rock With You - "hey hey get it up you try this gonna make you hot" (What is it that will make me hot anyways?)
BIO - "Brave it out"
Besides You ~boku wo yobu koe~ - "True shining place"

Somebody shoot me for listening to all these songs in the past.

These are just a few of her songs. There are many more and I am utterly dumbfound by her english after all these years. Five years of English in her Korean/Japanese music, yet she doesn't learn from her old mistakes. The worst would be her "Shine We Are" song. The title itself doesn't even make a dang sense. She's probably one of the worst Asian singer with the worst English lyrics in her songs. The list can be longer, but these are some of the lyrics I can pull off of my head.

Another one is Utada Hikaru's Easy breezy song whatever it was. For heaven's sake, what kind of verse is this, "You're easy breezy and I'm Japanesezy" or whatever you spell it. Ridiculous I tell you, ridiculous.
________
VERMONT DISPENSARIES (http://vermont.dispensaries.org/)

[Arilou]

Aah... Naruto. Never understood why people thought the first opening theme was good, because it's not really all that.

First intro is pretty bad. Second intro totally rocks :p

That said, for weird lyrics I'd suggest "Macarthur Park" (probably mostly famous because Weird Al spoofed it as "Jurassic Park".)

[akitaka]

Henjin: I'm asking around Soulseek's Jindie room for the lyrics. I've found a fanatic who might have it but is away right now; I'll get to you on it when I manage to get them.

[Dae_Dae]

Has anyone noticed that japanese music videos have nothing to do with the songs. All Gackt's music videos have NOTHING to do with the song! :confused:

[akitaka]

And I suppose most/all of American videos do?

I have a few JP PV examples that DO seem to make sense: Mad Capsule Market videos (especially Chaos Step), AKFG's Loop and Loop, Polysics's Mr. Roboto remake, etc...

[Henjin]

Henjin: I'm asking around Soulseek's Jindie room for the lyrics. I've found a fanatic who might have it but is away right now; I'll get to you on it when I manage to get them.

I appreciate it!
This is what I've been able to piece together:

氷を砕いて歩こう
何も話さなくていい
何より澄んでいるから
冷たく乾いた朝に
彼女は優しく死んだ。
何(ひてつかな)…得られずに
誰一人知らない場所で
恋にもならない声で
光の中へ君は
触らない(?)こと…手を伸ばしたさ
僕は思い出すんだ
永遠に触らなかった事
Tonight
Tonight

氷を砕いて歩こう　
何も話さなくていい
もうすぐ感覚は消える　
冷たく乾いた朝に


僕は思い出すんだ
永遠に触らなかった事

[akitaka]

Got em.

氷を砕いて歩こう　何も話さなくていい
何より　澄んでいるから　冷たく乾いた朝に
彼女は優しく死んだ　何一つかなえられずに
誰一人知らない場所で　声にもならない声で

光の中へ君は　触ろうと手を伸ばしたのさ
僕は思い出すんだ　永遠に触れなかった事を
Tonight Tonight

氷を砕いて歩こう　何も話さなくていい
もうすぐ感覚は消える　冷たく乾いた朝に

光を浴びて君は　ずっと子供みたいさ
僕は思い出すんだ　永遠に触れなかった事を
Tonight Tonight

光の中へ君は　触ろうと手を伸ばしたのさ
僕は思い出すんだ　永遠に触れなかった事を
永遠に触れなかった事を　永遠に触れなかった事を
Tonight Tonight

From here (http://home.arcor.de/suspended/butterflyk.htm).

[Henjin]

You rock... so much... Thank you... so very very much... Hahah!

I wasn't too far off... I can't believe I couldn't find that site. I was searching in English and Japanese using google.com, google.co.jp, yahoo.co.jp and excite.co.jp.

[akitaka]

No joke, huh. But I heard from the cool dude who posted it that their later stuff isn't so hot due to band member swapping. Scarlet, I think it was.

[Henjin]

I read something about a new guitarist and bassist on one site... *shrug* I don't even know if I have any of their new stuff.

[akitaka]

That reminds me of Fujifabric changing their sound when they got a new drummer. The original made the band's name, borrowed from his father's textile company. Needles too say the lead singer had a dispute, since they were getting big, meaning more commericalization to their sound. It still think they are ok, though.

[Henjin]

I rarely even follow American band's stories... I just listen to the music. heh.

[koku]

go get the ai otsuka cd please...both of them.

no?

[Henjin]

no?

No. I don't even have enough money to afford the CDs of band I like.

[h2orowe]

I need to get new CDs but the nearest import CD store is in friggin Hollywood, and I live in Garden Grove -.- I can't even get a ride, let alone pay for a friggin 40 dollar CD with 10 songs.... -.- I hate imports
DUDE THIS IS THE CD WITH ALL THE SONGS I WANT ^.^
O_O 40 dollars!
|_| (Note: supposed to be dropped Jaw)

[Panicked]

Haha, it's funny in my oppinion. If it sounds cool to them, don't let it get you mad. Like someone pointed out. "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!" I mean, it's so easy to get someone that speaks spanish to help you in America. Ask like 4 people and more than likely they'll all tell you "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro."

Haha, there's this one Pillows song called "Sub-Human", it goes "So, I wanna be a bat, and I want, to touch the sun, now I will try to force a smile.", the same song, but another verse type thing is "I woke up at midnight again,Oh baby,I did not know what to do next. I can't see,But I can feel, all the time." the whole time, it's spoken in Engrish.

I've heard worse, but this song actually is good, it has nice guitar and stuff. I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY DON'T SIMPLY PAY SOMEONE TO HELP THEM!

Had to post about this since I'm a huge pillows fanboy.

The lyrics go "So, I wanna be a bat, and I want to touch the sun, and I will try to force a smile." The song isn't that bad for engrish. I just assume they mean something behind what they're saying, because the grammar and everything's correct. I guess the lyrics are a bit more "cryptic" than most other lyrics. At least that's what I understand from it.

[h2orowe]

Woo! Another Pillows wo/man.
I missed the delicious tour or w/e in the US, because I didn't have a comp at the time.
It was 8 bucks and I could have gone!

[Roxie]

That's why I prefer American band names like "Hoobastank" or "Fountains of Wayne" or "Deer Hoof" or "Finger Eleven." :D
Ah, Squirrel Nut Zippers?

which, suprisingly, is actually a candy.

[Henjin]

I need to get new CDs but the nearest import CD store is in friggin Hollywood, and I live in Garden Grove -.- I can't even get a ride, let alone pay for a friggin 40 dollar CD with 10 songs.... -.- I hate imports
DUDE THIS IS THE CD WITH ALL THE SONGS I WANT ^.^
O_O 40 dollars!
|_| (Note: supposed to be dropped Jaw)

Can't buy online? I've gotten good deals on Ebay... And even on sites like yesasia.com you can get them for under $40.

[Nancy]

How about...

"Wicked Hamburger"
&
"Its miracle, so miracle to me"

[h2orowe]

I usually only spend 8 bucks on CDs used at our local record store, only if it's a new CD (and this is rarely) I'll buy one for around 15 sometimes 20, but I'm only 15 so I don't have access to a credit card, a job, or a car, so it's hard for me to get import CDs.

[Henjin]

Yeah, I know how that is. I only recently got a debit and credit card... Still don't have much money, though. Heh.

[skate_mate]

Aah... Naruto. Never understood why people thought the first opening theme was good, because it's not really all that.

Meh, I think it is OK. Nothing special. I absolutely love the third (or is it second? fourth) OP to Naruto, the one by AKFG. Awesome-ness.

Yeah, I found their website through a fark.com photoshop thread, IIRC. Heh. Downloaded some mp3s. (from their site) I don't listen to some of the more amelodic stuff, but I do like quite a few of their songs. Like "Milk Man" and some others. And yeah, I've never run into anyone who's heard of them. Not that anyone I know would be even remotely interested in that kind of 'indie rock.' They were at a recent indie rock festival in Chicago (read about it in the Trib), but they didn't get a very good review

I was linked to a few of their MP3s through some random indie rock webcomic ("Questionable Content"). I like 'em :-). They're differen't to most other stuff (duh).

Trust me, BoA got A LOT of wacky lyrics. That girl is having a big downfall with her recent "Girls On Top" Korean album.


Ack, I don't like the sounds of that "Rock With You" song. Turns me off when girls go around singing stuff like that. Example: "The Workout" By Utada.

"I was dancing with a dirty blonde Texan, charming accent but the music's playing too loud for talking. So I showed him how people from the far east get down. Push it up, push it down, pull it up, pull it down. Keep it up! Shhhh, keep it down. Now put me down, what a workout! If you want you can come (come) get it (get it). If you talk you may really regret it (regret it). Up and down 'til your knees start shaking (shaking). Ain't it good to be alive? Tonight!... One time, two dimes, three girls, four guys, five ripples running up and down my spine"

[spaik]

hikaru utada needs to go back to her hiphop/jazz roots, cause she still has the most amazing jazz voice ever.

crystal kay raps better in english, verbal raps better in japanese, and both are 'the truth'.

man, why are halfer women the best in hiphop? i mean, crystal kay is half and she's hella good. lisa is half, and she's amazing. baby tasha is half, and she's CRAZY good.

[Sayaka]

Ack, I don't like the sounds of that "Rock With You" song. Turns me off when girls go around singing stuff like that. Example: "The Workout" By Utada.

"I was dancing with a dirty blonde Texan, charming accent but the music's playing too loud for talking. So I showed him how people from the far east get down. Push it up, push it down, pull it up, pull it down. Keep it up! Shhhh, keep it down. Now put me down, what a workout! If you want you can come (come) get it (get it). If you talk you may really regret it (regret it). Up and down 'til your knees start shaking (shaking). Ain't it good to be alive? Tonight!... One time, two dimes, three girls, four guys, five ripples running up and down my spine"

Why did Utada sink so low and play up the fact that she's Asian just so that the American audience could like her? No wonder she flopped in America. Boa is an overrated slut and the person who said she was amazing is an idiot. So what at her knowing different languages? It's not like she's one of the few people who can. As for Jpop lyrics being stupid or not, most of them are about love, so yes they are. It's the person singing the songs that makes the difference :o .

[ESPayne]

Crystal Kay grew up on an American Military base in Japan. Her native tongue is English and as a result, she tends to use proper English in her songs with good pronunciation. For some reason, I really dig her song "Boyfriend Part II". The words seem to role off the tongue and the lyrics aren't terribly hard to understand.
Blu

Crystal Kay went to Kinnick High School on Yokosuka Naval Base. Mark Hamil (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars) also went to Kinnick, but it was in Yokohama back then. I've HEARD that Christina Aguilera went to Kinnick too, but I haven't seen her in a Yearbook or anything.

[hapacheese]

Yamazaki Masayoshi is one of my favorite Japanese lyric writers. His voice is really nasal, but if you like folksy kind of stuff (he's kind of like a Japanese folk/country/etc singer), his lyrics are really poetic. He'll write about anything from the moon to seasons to love to Chinese food (I'm serious...).

[Henjin]

It's nearing 2am and I feel the urge to write some Jpop lyrics:

悲しい闇の果てに走った
まぶしい光へ手を伸ばした
おいしいすしを食べた
まだせつなくなった

*bow*