I've been thinking about music and languages and, since you've mentioned your love for opera and you've been going to so many kpop concerts (I'm so jealous omg) I was wondering if you've had a similar experience for what I'm about to explain, but from the point of view of a native Korean speaker, of couse.
I've come to realize that I have strong preferences for certain types of music in some languages over others. For example, in French I'm strongly biased towads Edith Piaf's type of music (I think the correct term is modern chanson??), while Italian is the only language in which I would enjoy whatever genre Pinguini Tattici Nucleari are (yes, that's the real name of a real band, and yes, I like music in a lot of different languages which I do not speak).
In particular, since this is after all a blog focused on a kpop group, I find that I really really really enjoy rap in Korean, or at least the rap parts of kpop songs. Now, since I don't know nearly enough korean to understand the lyrics I'm obviously forced to pay more attention to the phonetics, which might explain my bias, but hear me out. To me, korean sounds like an incredibly onomatopoeic language, or at least much more than my native spanish (english is much more onomatopoeic than spanish, and to me korean seems even more onomatopoeic than english. take a shot every time i say onomatopoeic, lol). And so, it seems to me that korean rappers are able to make much better use of alliteration than rappers in other languages which makes raps much more rythmic and percussive, which I love.
So, do you have any preference in music based more on language phonetics rather than just "it's in another language that I do/don't know"??
You are absolutely correct that Korean is very onomatopoeic. I've had it on my list to eventually see how the translators of Korean books into English who win awards for their work cope with this aspect of our language, but I just haven't had the time, and I dunno, I feel like if I'm going to do that I should earn another degree or something, because it just would be a lot of work.
What you say about Korean rap is making me want to listen to more closely to Korean rap. I am very touch and go about whether I can 'hear' the lyrics in any rap song, by the way. From Stray Kids, I find Changbin really easy to understand, but I think that's because he can probably crack walnuts with his tongue and his voice really delivers words right into your brain. For some reason, I find Han incomprehensible, by contrast. I have no idea what he said, ever. I tend to hear most of what Song Mingi says, but not all of it, and I often have no idea what Kim Hongjoong is saying, without the lyric sheet. I can understand everything Cardi B says, but I find that there's a critical 0.5 second delay for Megan Thee Stallion in th esame song in terms of catching her words.
Thank you for turning me on to Pinguini Tattici Nucleari. The way they speak Italian in these songs makes it sound like Italian tastes really good on the tongue (why do I sound crazy? lol). They're really appealing.
I also like listening to songs in languages I don't speak, so shaking hands with you on that one!
My favorite languages to listen to songs I do not understand in are Hindi, Bulgarian, Swahili, Latin, and songs I only know by nationality rather than the languages - South African and Zimbabwean choir music is always incredibly arresting. I just looked it up - it's Shona or Ndebele for the Zimbabwean songs and the Xulu or Xhosa for the South African ones. I have zero idea how to distinguish between any of the African languages. I made a Bulgarian friend on Tumblr a few years ago who told me about Bulgarian folk music, and I urge you to give it a listen if you haven't. It's fascinating. And I love listening to Catholic hymns and different masses in Latin.
I'm sure people who are bilingual Hindi and Swahili speakers will have a lot of corrections for me, as well as speakers of the five African languages I can't tell apart, but in song these languages all have this wonderful rounded softness, where they don't seem to have harsh gutteral sounds, and you have to move your lips and tongue rather than activate the back of your throat to make the sounds. The vowels float. These languages all sound really refined and melodic to me, so it's soothing to hear them. I frankly don't understand why Hindi/ Bollywood music isn't the most popular international music in the world, because it's so emotionally accessible, and Hindi is so elegant as a language.
Random personal anecdote: When I was in L.A, a sitar player who goes by Flash Sitar (he's on spotify) was playing on the Santa Monica pIer. His music was so lovely that my friend and I stopped to just listen, and then he sang a song just for us - Kabhi Kabhi. I burst into tears, on the pier, in the L.A sunshine, because for some reason that song that I'd never heard before and did not understand made me remember all my dead people who loved me a lot when they were living. The singer put down his sitar and came around to hug me, and said people did that a lot, burst into tears when he sings Kabhi Kabhi, even though they have no idea what he's saying.
