# Do you like/listen to music in languages you don't speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511 "2008-12-17T02:59:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/61 "2008-12-20T19:40:51Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > And despite what it may appear if you don’t understand Spanish, it is actually a positive song. 😉 Conversely, [here is a song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6GypZF7bw) in French that sounds like a positive song, but it’s actually about someone killing herself. 😮 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/62 "2008-12-20T20:36:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I have a lot of music in Gaelic, but that’s about it, unless Latin chants count. Irish or Scots? ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/63 "2008-12-21T00:03:46Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Of the 12,000 tunes in my Rhapsody library, there is a significant amount of Salsa by far too many groups to mention - don’t speak Spanish but love the brass sections. Also have some latin pop & Tejano. Brazilian BossaNova Whatever language is is that the Gipsy Kings sing in, African Jazz (Richard Bona), French (Edith Piaf) > > Music is, after all, the universal language Was thinking about this today and had to give myself a headslap - I left out one of the most common non-english in my library - Acadian - thanks to groups like Beausoleil. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/64 "2008-12-21T06:29:35Z")
Definitely. I won’t count all the spanish music I have since I can understand a little spanish and for my favorite songs I’ve translated the lyrics. A lot of ambient new agey type music like Enigma has foreign lyrics. There’s a Sting song with some kind of middle eastern sounding language. There’s a track on the Children of Dune soundtrack in _Fremen_ 🙂 One or two J-pop songs. The numa numa thing whatever that is. 99 luftbalons. etc… If you don’t understand the language, the voice becomes just another instrument, which can work out really well. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/65 "2008-12-21T06:40:41Z")
About half my music collection is Russian (which I read/write a bit but can’t really speak). I also have a bunch of Ukrainian songs, mostly from the kickass band Okean Elzy. Apart from those, I’ve got a fair number of songs in other languages too. I like foreign music because most song lyrics are… bad. Sometimes they have good ideas behind them, but are written incredibly ham-handedly, or have totally unrelated words inserted to make a rhyme, or whatever. If you can know what a song is about (I ALWAYS have to find out, sooner or later) without directly understanding the words, or understanding them but not having the the awkwardness detection abilities of a native speaker, then you can pretend the lyrics are awesome. Hah 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/66 "2008-12-21T16:53:26Z")
One of my current favorite CDs is Pink Martini’s [Sympathique](http://www.amazon.com/Sympathique-Pink-Martini/dp/B000005IQ6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1229877823&sr=8-1). A few of the songs are in English, but many are in other languages; Spanish and Italian are two I recognize. I’m also a big fan of [Ladysmith Black Mombazo](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002LBQ/$%7B0%7D). They have many English songs, but much of their music is also in their native Zulu. Cool stuff. And who doesn’t love [Edith Piaf](http://www.amazon.com/Voice-Sparrow-Very-Best-Edith/dp/B000002UYD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1229878251&sr=1-2)? I listen to a lot of music in Danish because that’s my husband’s native language. Some of the pop stuff I like, but most of it, to be honest, is kind of crap (sorry, honey. :)). ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511/67 "2008-12-22T00:02:36Z")
I’ve got modern music in Scots Gaelic (Runrig and others), Irish Gaelic (Clannad and others), and lots of folk recordings in Scots, which some argue is a separate language instead of a dialect of English. I’ve also got opera and choral recordings in the usual opera languages (French, German, Italian, Russian) plus Latin and Welsh. James MacMillan’s “Seven Last Words from the Cross” has a section in Aramaic. My CD pairs it with the Spanish “Cantos Sagrados”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-listen-to-music-in-languages-you-dont-speak/477511.md?page=3)