Dull thoughts on a shiny, shiny world.
Or, Why English music never sounds as good
Published on March 5, 2006 By cactoblasta In Music
I realise I could be alone in this, but I really love foreign music. You know, those bands that release songs in languages other than english.

My reasoning is fairly simple. Have you ever heard a really fantastic riff only to find that some arsehole's tied insipid and totally mood-killing lyrics to it? Or that a hip-hop artist/dj with some phat beats has insisted on ruining it with some litany on the many trials faced by a rich gangsta?

In comparison to dealing with that kind of swill, foreign music has a certain charm. When, for example, I'm listening to the relaxed yet angsty rock stylings of Saez [link=http://www.damiensaez.com">Link I can be totally oblivious to the overtly political nature of his work. I don't speak French, so I don't care whether he's for or against whatever issue he's written about. All I know is that the sound is bloody awesome.

Same thing goes for bands like Superman is Dead (when they write in Indonesian). My language skills aren't up to following political punk songs, so I can sit in blissful ignorance while listening to it.

Same goes for all those awesome Israeli/Palestinian hip hop acts. God only knows what they're talking about, but Hebrew and Arabic are really great languages for rapping.

Ignorance is bliss. And through the medium of foreign music, that bliss is mine to command.

Comments
on Mar 06, 2006
I guess we tend to tune out that which we do not understand.  The Melody is what gets me with a song, usually not the lyrics.  So yea, I do enjoy foreign music.  But it can be ruined by the vocalist as well, even when you cannot understand the language.