Someone posted about language barriers in music yesterday, and it reminded me of a time I experienced the opposite.
I bought a compilation CD released by the record label Avex when I visited Japan in 2006 with no knowledge of the language. It included the song Yatsu Revolution (don’t watch it in public or in front of other people BTW) by the A-BOYS. It’s obvious from the video that the song is very strange, but with YouTube being less than 2 years old at the time, the music video wasn’t easily available online, so I just thought is was supposed to be tongue in cheek. There was also a dance group that has worked with Avex and are called A-Boys, so I assumed the song was by them.
I started studying Japanese a few years later and eventually went to a language school full-time. I found the album it was on along with a bunch of others buried in my hard drive around 2020. My understanding of it going from 0 to 100 all at once was a surreal experience. I’d assumed it was just a silly song by some dancers with no professional singing experience, but it was actually a bawdy song about Japanese geek culture.
After learning more Spanish I came to an understanding that much of the Mexican music my coworkers played on the radio has the same type of lyrics as American country music. They’re all songs about about drinking beer, driving cars, and having a dead wife. This is specifically Ranchera and Norteña music.
A lot of American country vibes were pretty much lifted wholesale from ranchero culture tbh, I remember a lot of old country songs from the 60s or so my grandma would listen to dabbled in putting that influence a bit more in the fore front
Macarena for sure lol
This is pretty basic, but I felt that way about 99 red balloons when I first heard it translated
What did you think it was about?
Idk, a kid with some balloons? I just knew it was catchy
Just last night. The song True Love by Fumiya Fujii Broke my damn heart
Still one of my favorite songs.
I have auditory processing problems so I often have language barriers to songs in my native language. This happens to me all the time.
If some Brazillian was in the Netherlands in the mid-tens and heard a white dude singing slurs in Portuguese, I’m sorry I didn’t know that preta was offensive.
I found YouTube links in your post. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
