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Comment by beardyw | Hacker News Reader

I always feel weird listening to songs in a language I don't understand. I feel I should find out what it means so I know whether to approve of it or not!

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I prefer listening to songs in a language I don't understand, it makes me able to appreciate the sound of the voice, the rhythm and musical quality, without being biased by the content of the lyrics, which are often unimpressive to say the least.

Well, i'd suggest listen to songs written by musicians with great lyrical talent ;) Listening to Nas (i call him the black shakespeare) at the moment, start with the first album Illmatic [0]. The other luminary would be Chuck Shuldiner for me, IMO the most complete musician after Bach. Damn, 4_412_591 views! [1]. Whole album [2]. Or Anthony Rother, who needs only one sentence [3]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL01DA7137241FC16D

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8256VJ4hkJU [2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwbDtBfx5bnPEgadOHQYE...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBjB3o6M6Jw

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung." - Voltaire (supposedly)

For anyone who hasn't seen it before, here's a song by an Italian composer made to sound like American English, but since it only uses nonsense even English speakers can get a bit of a feel for what we sound like to others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8

Even people who understand the words of a song frequently miss the meaning of the song, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

"Which machine did you think they have been raging against? The washing machine?"

Words mean whatever meaning the person listening to them ascribes. If you do not ascribe anything, then they mean nothing.

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