I wish I understood German, because that’s totally my kind of jam…
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This song is so effortlessly cool.
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Does it really matter? The language of the lyrics doesn’t matter to me, music seems pretty universal. I have favorites that are German, Russian, French, one I suspect is an Indian language (but not really certain) and in one case the extinct language of Gaulish - (click the link - something you’d probably also like). We seem to all be humans, regardless of language barriers. The older I get, and the more that I hear, the more I believe it. It all carries over, people who speak differently aren’t really that different as people; the things that they sing about aren’t that different either. To me at least, beauty in a foreign language is still beauty.
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Music has to matter to me. It needs a story in order for me to appreciate it.
Note, that doesn’t mean it had to have lyrics that I understand. Movie soundtracks where I can match up the cues with plot points (e.g. LOTR), or instrumental songs with music videos that tell stories (e.g. Lindsey Sterling) also work.
But I’m not the kind of guy who will just sit down and listen to Beethoven’s symphonies; masterful as they are, they have no emotional resonance with me, so I don’t enjoy them.
It’s not that I disagree with anything you said; music with lyrics I can’t understand just doesn’t hit the spot for me.
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Oh that makes sense. I get most of my music from Youtube nowadays, so I get a story from the videos. Whether or not the story in my head from the video matches what was intended by what was written in the lyrics isn’t something that I’ve thought much about in most cases. But sometimes I do look up lyrics explanations (and sometimes they’re quite interesting, especially when the writers themselves write about their inspirations and thoughts! I love things like https://www.ayria.com/2010/06/song-dissection-7-blue-alice/ where I went and re-watched the movie with the song and the artist’s notes in mind.) Definitely cool to have that bigger picture.
There are also cases like Hexenpolizei by Santa Hates You - I think if you speak any Germanic-derived language you can get the gist of that one pretty clearly. I found a translation at https://www.elyrics.net/read/s/santa-hates-you-lyrics/hexenpolizei-lyrics.html, though I don’t know how accurate it is - I always hear it as “thought police” instead of “witch police”, and the 3rd verse as listed doesn’t entirely make sense to me (what’s a mental breakwater and how would that transmit the zeitgeist? I have to assume that there’s an unfamiliar German expression/idiom there.), but overall it works and is close enough to what I hear.
ETA:
Songs also gather their own stories for me. Old instrumental beach music by The Ventures is all about me being a kid learning how to play records on my dad’s giant stereo and dancing around like a goofy kid would while he watched and laughed. Green Onions is just every chill time throughout my life; I don’t know what the story was to the writer, but Booker T. seems pretty chill playing it.
My wife is the opposite - she loves songs that I don’t like at all because she likes the lyrics. Meanwhile she completely doesn’t like some songs that I love because they don’t have the lyrics to appeal to her. She doesn’t feel the sound the way I do, and I don’t feel the words the way she does. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. Always nice to find out how other people perceive the world differently.
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A great earworm that’s been getting a lot of play on the CBC lately
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While I may not share this opinion, I can certainly appreciate where you’re coming from.
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I’m not even sure where I originally heard this.
But the bass line got stuck so I had to go hunt it down and listen to the whole thing.
Now it won’t leave.
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Well you’ve successfully passed it on, so now I’m stuck with it! 
In return, take this
or if you prefer, also on theme
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I don’t see the connection between the two, but I want to.
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I think Jimmy Somerville set up house inside my head.
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hey, remember this thread? i’ve had Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s “Life on Mars” in my head all week. Anyone with me?
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I prefer this version.
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But that’s a rip-off by a failing Christian rock band.