-by Toots

Visiting Japan, I often get the opportunity to listen to music with lyrics I don't understand. Sometimes I don't like the music. Sometimes I like it. I realized here that my taste in music with and without comprehensible lyrics is very different. For example, on the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it has the same love song in both English and Chinese (Cantonese, I think?). I like the Chinese version a lot but the English version makes me want to run screaming. There's no difference except that in one, I can understand the words. And they're not that bad, but the sentimentality of the music plus the words makes me want to gag. The English version reminds me of Celine Dion, who I detest. I started thinking about this fact. Why do I like some fluffy Japanese pop music but hate so much of American? I think it's because music can be emotional and subtle at the same time. It goes straight to the heart and does not pay any tolls to your mind. Consider a very popular song from the 1980's, Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." Now, at the time, that song gagged me with a spoon. What horrible lyrics! So trite! So underwritten! I mean, really. Wake me up before you go-go Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo Wake me up before you go-go I don't want to miss it when you hit that high Wake me up before you go-go 'Cause I'm not plannin' on going solo Wake me up before you go-go Take me dancing tonight I wanna hit that high (yeah, yeah) Not exactly poetry. But when you listen to the song and ignore the lyrics, it's not all that bad. It's catchy and makes you want to dance. And the singers are in key, which is more than I can say for some songs I've heard recently. This phenomenon could explain why Celine Dion is so popular in nations where English isn't spoken much. You listen to the song and you know that someone is sad and in love. You don't get distracted by the poorly written words. So when I listen to sappy love songs I can't understand, I don't feel bad anymore. In fact, right now I'm listening to the "image" album of Sen to Chihiro, Miyazaki's new movie, to be called "Spirited Away". The image album is an early release of some instrumental pieces and some lyrical versions of other pieces. I can't understand the lyrics. And frankly, I don't want to. It's clearly not love songs, thank god, but I know it probably won't live up to the excitement and color of the movie itself. Whereas the songs, just as music, do give you a strong impression of the movie's themes. So, if you see me bopping my head to something I don't understand, don't sneer. And please, don't translate.