Japanese song lyrics are better than English ones
Divisive title, I know. This is a revelation I had while listening to some top 40 Japan playlist on Spotify. Please allow me to make a brief case for my argument:
Gym music:
I’ve never been the type to use headphones at the gym since breaking my iPod with a dumbbell many moons ago.( I’ll continue to date myself at various points during this article). This means that I will passively listen to around one to two hours of popular music in English three times a week when I go to the gym.
I hear a lot of interesting lines in modern pop. Something about how bad stories make one interesting at parties, a man inviting women to procrastinate with him on the west coast, and so on.
The song lyrics these days seem so tame compared to those of yesteryear, keep in mind that I grew up in the generation of “The thong song”, “Back that thing up”, and other gems.
While certainly more family-friendly, I would hesitate to call them thought-provoking. I would speculate that since one is bound to rhyming conventions in English songs, that ultimately lyrics will come off feeling a bit contrived at some point.
On an interesting note, every gym I ever went to in Japan also played Top 40 songs in English instead of Japanese music. Therefore it’s a little hard for me to make a direct comparison of gym music.
Across the sea:
Heres a look at the lyrics to a popular song “ミュージック” Music by a popular group “サカナクション” Sakanaction.
Please excuse my rough translation:
流れ流れ
鳥は遠くの岩が懐かしくなるのか
高く空を飛んだ
知らない街を見下ろし
鳥は何を思うか
淋しい僕と同じだろうか
“Flowing flowing
Does the bird miss the far away rock
As it flies high into the sky
Looking down on the town that no one knows
What is the bird thinking
Is it lonely the same as me”?
Consider my noodle baked. I can’t imagine hearing this on modern US top 40 radio.
This is deeper than the average radio pop song, while managing not to be too pretentious. Another interesting trend is that Japanese songs tend to have different lyrics during each chorus, while English songs tend to repeat the same lyrics.
Example 2
Here are some more lyrics by a popular young pop singer called “Chanmina” who isn’t exactly known for deep material.
The song is titled “Never grow up”:
何が愛か知らない
だから二人で愛を作ったんだ
これでいいのかなんて
私に聞かないでよね
Yeah we are always high
惹かれあってた
あなたがピーターで
私がウェンディを演じた
そばにいる事にも慣れ
いない事にも慣れてた
ねぇ君が好きって again and again
また離れて again and again
また戻るの again and again
狂わせた時計と壊れたコンパスが
私たちを大人にさせない
繰り返してる最後のキス あぁ
まだここにいる we never never grow up
Roughly translating some parts:
“We didn’t know what love was, so we made it ourselves.
Don’t ask me if it’s right.
You played Peter and I played Wendy.
I got used to you being here, and got used to you being gone.
Crazy clock and broken compass, don’t let us become adults”.
I was pleasantly surprised by the subject matter of these lyrics. It’s a subject that young people can relate to and also one that adults can reflect on nostalgically.
Compare that to these Katy Perry lyrics with a similar title:
’Cause I won’t act my age
Time is just an invention man has made
No, I won’t act my age
It’s just my reflection that is out of date
’Cause it’s all in your attitude
It’s all in your point of view
I won’t act my age (c’mon)
First of all, I disagree that “time is just an invention that man has made”. Second, there’s something about the theme of the lyrics that seem a little trite to me. Maybe it’s because as I get older, I realize that becoming an adult is a good thing that shouldn’t be feared but also that age isn’t “just a number” as the platitudes would have you believe.
Get to the point
Is there a point? I realize that I’m cherry picking here, and people should listen to whatever they want to. I’m sure that there’s plenty of good english lyrics to be found these days, but next time you open Spotify don’t be afraid to check out a few songs from the land of the rising sun.
