Is it weird to like Japanese music, even though I don't understand 95% of what they are saying without subtitles?

[Clephas]

Not really... the Japanese language is just prettier than English.  Even now that I understand Japanese without having to think about it, I still think it is pretty.  English just sounds uglier, though it is more utilitarian in some ways.   Also, their music tends to be more likely to be designed to stimulate a wider variety of softer emotions, versus the fact that a lot of modern non-indie music in the US tends to be... harsher. 

[Decay]

Japanese music has a style of its own, so perhaps you just like that style more. Personally, I tend to dislike it, to be honest. I much prefer western music. 

This thread reminds me of a gag some local shock jocks did on their radio show. They'd construct songs with horribly offensive lyrics to soft and pleasant melodies, and then play them to old ladies. They almost always liked the music and never commented on the lyrical content, lol. When I listen to music, for the first few listens I rarely actually take in the lyrical content. Sometimes it makes for some surprises when I do some digging in order to find out what some Passion Pit song is really saying, for example. 

[sanahtlig]

I've always been curious about this, but haven't ever actually brought it up to anyone. Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked Japanese music just as much, if not more (in some cases) than English music. I think it really started with FMA's second opening, "Ready Steady Go". I mean, I liked other songs before that, but I think that's where I really started to get into it. Maybe it's because it's another language, and that in and of itself was fascinating to me as a kid, and it just stuck with me all these years? Or would it be weird to say that I can still feel the emotions put into the songs, despite not understanding what they are actually saying? It's really making me want to learn the language, and I think it would be the biggest source of my motivation, even more so than VN's. I think being able to understand a whole 'nother cultures massive library of music would be more amazing than anything I could ever read or watch.

I can't even make out English lyrics most of the time, so the language barrier is more or less irrelevant.  Singing tampers with the normal intonation and cadence of language, making it much more difficult to understand.  All the background noise doesn't help either.

Edited November 12, 2015 by sanahtlig

[BookwormOtaku]

I've always been curious about this, but haven't ever actually brought it up to anyone. Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked Japanese music just as much, if not more (in some cases) than English music. I think it really started with FMA's second opening, "Ready Steady Go". I mean, I liked other songs before that, but I think that's where I really started to get into it. Maybe it's because it's another language, and that in and of itself was fascinating to me as a kid, and it just stuck with me all these years? Or would it be weird to say that I can still feel the emotions put into the songs, despite not understanding what they are actually saying? It's really making me want to learn the language, and I think it would be the biggest source of my motivation, even more so than VN's. I think being able to understand a whole 'nother cultures massive library of music would be more amazing than anything I could ever read or watch.

Not weird at all if you ask me. What you're describing sounds very much like me back when I started watching anime back in my middle school days. I'm not sure whether it was Gundam Wing, The Slayers or Cardcaptor Sakura but one or a combination of their songs got me hooked on Japanese music even if at the time I had no idea what was being said. I'd say it's perfectly normal to enjoy it this way as liking what you like being fine aside, I must confess even with my having a better understanding of Japanese the meaning of the lyrics is still a secondary thing at best as even with music in english that I like often times I'm more into the rhythm and such than what's actually being said.

[Clephas]

An old joke my friends and I used to make during the nineties was 'Only in America could dozens of tone deaf people call themselves musicians and make millions of dollars.'

[Saya]

I've always been curious about this, but haven't ever actually brought it up to anyone. Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked Japanese music just as much, if not more (in some cases) than English music. I think it really started with FMA's second opening, "Ready Steady Go". I mean, I liked other songs before that, but I think that's where I really started to get into it. Maybe it's because it's another language, and that in and of itself was fascinating to me as a kid, and it just stuck with me all these years? Or would it be weird to say that I can still feel the emotions put into the songs, despite not understanding what they are actually saying? It's really making me want to learn the language, and I think it would be the biggest source of my motivation, even more so than VN's. I think being able to understand a whole 'nother cultures massive library of music would be more amazing than anything I could ever read or watch.

Don´t worry about that I hear japanese too and I mostly hear stuff like the Tohou remixes reason is mostly because I just LOOOOVE the female voices. I feel the emotion behind it more in japanese than in english.

[Kawasumi]

not at all, well I know it is to some people (and I fucking hate it, people focus way too much on vocals these days)

Edited November 13, 2015 by Kawasumi

[Godskrieg]

I listen to music of all languages and I only know 3. So nah, it ain't weird.

[Eclipsed]

It's weird only to people that don't like it themselves. Which applies to basically everything else in life so don't sweat it.

My sister was a big fan of KPOP starting like '06-07 when Big Bang started and I was like "Hurr durr why the hell do you like that"

Then in '09 when SNSD came out with Gee + Genie along with the birth of 2ne1 & T-ara and I saw the light.

Then Gangnam Style came out in '12 and ruined everything

[Valmore]

I'm listening to Spitz right now. No idea what the hell the singer is saying but he has a nice voice, and the music is in line with a lot of stuff I listen to.

[Kawasumi]

 

Then in '09 when SNSD came out with Gee + Genie along with the birth of 2ne1 & T-ara and I saw the light.

 

Shieet SNSD is my fucking jam!

[Rilarion]

I always liked english music, even before I actually learned proper english. And I like japanese music too, but I don't understand japanese. So no I don't think its weird.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Let me put it this way. I really love Cryptopsy's 'None So Vile' album, possibly one of the best examples of death metal out there in my opinion. Most of the time, I can't understand a fucking word Lord Worm is saying, and it's supposedly in English :L

[minuore]

My version of the topic would be, am I weird to only listen to Japanese songs?

Last time I do listen to English until I start collecting Japanese songs and 99.99% are all Japanese. Could be due to the fact I had to choose, last time when I listen to a list of songs between 2 diff languages, it ruins the experience.

[WinterfuryZX]

Personally, I can't quite empathize, but I know plenty of people who like songs they can't understand the lyrics to, so I imagine it's supposed to be pretty normal.

If it wasn't normal, R.E.M. would never have made it.

Oooooooh, any good Japanese rock bands you can recommend?

Sound Horizon (ewww... strange music remotely similar to progressibve rock)

Light Bringer( Power Metal)

 

I listen music in many languages anyway, spanish, french, swedish, norwegian, german etc. , I actually don't like english that much.

Edited November 17, 2015 by WinterfuryZX

[Cloudie]

I think it's completely fine.
I listen to it since I can understand it but it's fine if you don't. Everybody has their preference man. You can't let others tell you what to listen to.

[Ezioe]

Of course it's not weird. I have a full YT playlist of Japanese music. I love it. I also listen to Korean music from time to time. And Japanese piano instrumentals are just beautiful.

[tymmur]

Back in the 60s, plenty of people loved The Beatles. Outside the English natively speaking countries the vast majority of the fans didn't understand a word of the lyrics, but this has never been seen as weird. Based on that, I don't see why it should be weird for English speaking people to listen to non-English music without understanding it.

 

Personally I don't understand the lyrics in new songs, regardless of language due to background "noise". If I understand the lyrics, I generally don't get anything meaningful from them anyway. "I love this girl. She is wonderful....", well good for you. I generally stick to calm instrumental music. I like some traditional Japanese music (or classical sounding), not because it's Japanese, but because of how it sounds and the west never produced anything like that. The same goes for traditional Chinese music. It works very well for low/mid volume background music when I work on something, like VN scripts or programming.

 

Having said that, it's not like I don't like music with lyrics. Weird Al is great, but it's the sort of music/music videos where you have to pay attention, which mean it works much worse as background music.

[lllusion]

It is not weird at all.
I am not a english native speaker so years ago I understood nothing but some disconnected words on english songs, but I still liked them.

You sure can enjoy the song even without understand the lyrics, although you can't really absorb all the content.

[bogdankl]

I feel you, I've "recently" got into a bit of a japanese music vibe and I can't really understand anything of the lyrics but I don't think people that listen to rammstein know all that they are saying either. I'm actually a lot more worried about what people might say about the singer's voice rather than the language it's in but that's japanese culture clashing with other cultures.

 

So no, it's not weird