Do you listen to music containing lyrics in a language you don't understand?

If it flows, it's music, even if I can't understand it. Hell, tons of songs supposely in ENGLISH are incomprehensible, and I like them anyway. "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"

98% of my music is in English, which I understand.
German (Rammstein, Kraftwerk) I understand as well.
The only CD I don't understand is a CD by Björk which is in Icelandic, but is very beautiful.

yes
Rammstein...They are German....

I forgot Bjork!!
I love her music.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - his voice is (was) beautiful. I imagine Dead Can Dance doesn't really count since it's mostly nonsense.

Severance....

Some of my favorite songs on the Ricky Martin CD are the ones in Spanish.

I don´t understand all but a part. So I get used to the sound of the language, which makes it possible to get a good pronunciation.
The language is used by a part of my family.

Do "sound shapes" count?

Sometimes I know what the words mean. Sometimes they are just a pleasant sound to musical accompaniment. Sometimes I know enough of the words to guess what the song is about and it is funny.

I find that the English versions of Spanish songs usually suck, so I tend not to listen to the English version.

I used to not understand Japanese, but now I understand about 50% of what I hear. I think I own more Japanese music than any other kind.

only if it is in a song I like. For example in the Lion King soundtrack (on the broadway version) ther is lots of songs in african.

We have a bunch of CD's by Enya that we really like.

German and Italian operas and some English songs that are too 'slang' for me.

Lots. Gaelic, Latin, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Tuvan, etc.

bill & jen: From my understanding, shape music is more a specialized style of notation and singing than it is a particular "language" with the usual nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

Because Tiro de Gracia rocks.

No

Of course. I think I would pass on oriental music though, just not my taste. It is just too strange of a language for me. If I could understand it in the slightest I would though.

Bjork's "Gling-Glo" album is absolutely amazing.

ILJ: That's the one I was talking about as well!

jonathan - "sound shapes" was a made-up phrase that the female half of Dead Can Dance (Lisa Gerrard) used to describe the lyrics she used in songs (that sound like some other language, but are in fact gibberish). We saw some interview with her - she's a wicked space cadet.

along with cheese shapes and sausage shapes

bill - I was confuzed with "sound shapes" and "shape note music." And yes, Lisa Gerrard is a space cadet, but I still like her.

bill: is she the Wicked Space Cadet of the East or the Wicked Space Cadet of the West?

And Celine Dion is Space Cadet Dorothy? Or is she one of the flying monkeys?

Elizabeth Fraser (of the Cocteau Twins) also talks about "sound shapes", at least she used to, when the lyrics were impossible to understand. Mind you, Phil Collins talks about them too.... ugh!

natsim - yeah, I first ran across the phrase "sound shapes" in an article about Lisa Gerrard and Elizabeth Fraser. I'm going to forget altogether that you said anything about Phi Collins, though.

Yeah, I'm embarrassed that I knew that.

ANYONE? I have some of Bjorks music but I still don't know which language it is that she speaks, can anyone tell me?

mary: Icelandic

vos: thanks

mary: If you want a copy, just send me a CD-R!

vos, mary: Not to criticize anyone, but if you want a somewhat more ethical means of acquiring the album, Amazon has it here. It's a bit pricey, but it's well worth the money.

The CD Divine Rites by Vox... because it is beautiful.

I like cultural variety, but I can't understand much even in languages I read almost fluently.

Bjork, Kraftwerk, Yea. Mahler. Tuva monks. I'll check out Lisa Gerrard.

Drop a chicken!

Sometimes, the artist is singing to fast and it is hard too understand. Also, when I am listening a cd for the first time, I can not always understand all the words

I have recordings from: Egypt, Libya, Syria, Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, France, Japan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mauritania, Sudan, China, and Inuit recordings from here in Canada. It is nice to know what the words mean, but it isn't necessary to enjoy the music. Sometimes I even sing along and I don't have a clue what the words mean.

cool

I listen to Bjork (Icelandic), KMFDM (German), Dead can Dance (made up words and weird languages), and Cocteau Twins (very hard to understand english).

KMFDM: Kill Mother Fudgein' Depeche Mode

Hey!!!!!!
*pokes Brian in the eye*

*Excellent*
You do write surveys I like, nihon.

Twist: Ow!!!!!! That hurt you *long continuous string of beeps and boops*!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Kristal_Rose.

Actually you've written quite a few that I had enjoyed not realizing they were yours, even though all the ones I had no interest in visiting were all yours too. The cost of being prolific I guess.

Yes, but not often. I listen to it because it's beautiful. I find myself wanting to understand the language, though.

romkey - DCD may not count but what about the Cocteau Twins? As if it wasn't bad enough already that they're Scottish, they actually try to be MORE incomprehensible on top of it!

I listen to opera despite having little or no knowledge of Italian or German. I started listening to a lot of welsh bands (like "Gorky's Zygotic Mynci") before I picked up the language. Most foreign music I listen to is in either French or Spanish, which I can understand.

PS - The Eurovision Song Contest was on last weekend (13th May). The Latvian entry was wearing white bell-bottoms. yikes

Sometimes

"Il m'a prete, beaucoup de la nuit..."

or something like that which was playing on the Caen stations in '86

Speaking of music;

Twist: Guess what I order form CDNOW just a few hours ago.

THE NEW JILL SOBULE CD!

Weeeeeeeeeeee
I haven't heard it yet

I'll let you know what I think as soon I get it. If it's even half as good as Things Here Are Different or the self-titled one, it'll be great!

All the time.