English Lyrics {Your thoughts}

[evolutionricky]

Originally posted by Phantoma101
... Its nice to know there are open-minded people in the world unlike this country

yeah I know.

[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..