English Lyrics {Your thoughts}

[DA1SUK1DAY01691]

Originally Posted by tl1029530921

i got dissapointed when AAyu started singing english(RAINBOW and forward)...i thought dats wut set her apart from a lot of other ppl

Well, she has sung a majority of her songs after that in full japanese... e.g. I think the whole Memorial Address Album, I think every song except Humming 7/4 on MY STORY.... so she hasn't gone fully blown on her partial english yet.... I heard from other posts that in one interview, she "disliked english"... if anyone could bring proof, that'd be great....

I find it degrading to the Japanese Language that English is bombarding upon songs.... That's one reason why I really like Ayu, because she keeps her songs in straight-up Japanese... Like, you see all these other countried try some English in thier songs, yet America hasn't budged language-wise!All they have put is Spanish, but look at all the other immigrants! Japanese, Chinese, Korean... If America is a melting pot, then they should show it! the only time a Japanese song made it on the Billboard Charts is Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki. Sukiyaki. That must have been at least the 1960's when that came out... I find it odd that at least Hikaru Utada isn't on, or even PUFFY amiyumi.... Considering that PUFFY has a cartoon that showcases some of thier music, and Hikaru Utada released "EXODUS" in the American music stores...

[AyuGAME]

i don't really like english in japanese song

I don't hate it, but I'm not crazy about it either. If the English is correct and clever - like someone said, if it serves a purpose to achieve something that pure Japanese can't - then I'm okay with it. For example, I really really like Ayu's "Real me." People are mostly irked by the "a woman could be like a nun" line, and I was too until I actually listened to the song. Just listen to the way she sings it - it's tongue-in-cheek and she's having fun. She's being silly, and while that would be clumsy in most songs, it works in "Real me" because it's a fun dance track. (She's not speaking literally about being a nun, but that a woman could be wild and crazy [fun] or prim and proper [nun] if she has to be). And the English serves a purpose because of the format of the chorus.

English example 1
English example 2
"in order to survive"
Japanese explanation
And embellishment

Her English isn't nearly as bad as some people complain. In fact, the complexity and correctness of some of her English lyrics, particularly on RAINBOW, really impress me.

m-flo is also great with English, he's so creative with it. And I believe he's fluent in it, or at least his pronunciation is amazing. However a lot of J-Pop singers don't have that skill, nor do their songwriters. BoA, although she does have strong English conversational skill (now, but not always in the past), is a victim -- namely to Watanabe Natsumi. Watanabe Natsumi writes the worst English lyrics, I feel -- they're just horrible, and I just don't understand why BoA (who must see the poor quality) doesn't offer to change them. Amuro Namie's English lyrics have their good and bad spots. Hikki is probably the best with using English among Japanese lyrics (for obvious reasons), but yet her English-only songs suffer.

It's something that happens all over the world, too. It's just as common in Korea these days to use English. I'm not sure about China so much, the C-Pop I've heard doesn't really use it. My favorite French singer, Calogero, has a song called "Safe Sex" where he (to my embarassment) sings the English title-lyric several times in the chorus. Another French song by Stress (from Switzerland, actually), "Tu Me Manques," has an entirely English-sung chorus.

Just a side note to Phantoma: The song "Duvet" isn't actually J-Pop. It's not our "BoA" (being Kwon Bo-Ah from Korea), but rather "Boa", a band from the UK. I know, it's kind of a pain in the neck sometimes. Finding a Boa song and thinking BoA released something new without your knowing it... and then realizing the mixup. Ughh..