Use of English in dance music : pourquoi?

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Most electronic music titles and a huge number of project/artist aliases are in English (even though they're generally produced in Germany by Croatians, to cut it v v short). It's not like they feature vocals or lyrics either.

blunt, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 06:33 (eighteen years ago)

so the names make sense

tremendoid, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 06:47 (eighteen years ago)

i've been wondering that myself -- actually just asked dominik eulberg about his preference for german titles, and he insisted that it wasn't any kind of agenda, simply that he speaks german better (shocker!) and likes the freedom to wordplay, etc. all i can assume is that dance music is, for better or for worse, such a globalized culture, and english is the lingua franca, no matter that berlin is nominally its capital (at least, for certain scenes).

pshrbrn, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 07:03 (eighteen years ago)

at first i thought this was going to be about english singing or samples in dance music. and throw a hissy-fit.

but yeah, it is a strange thing.

the table is the table, Thursday, 15 March 2007 00:54 (eighteen years ago)

This kind of gets my goat a bit.

jim, Thursday, 15 March 2007 01:04 (eighteen years ago)

It does boil down to dance/popular music making use of the lingua franca per se con gusto, probably. So how does that happen?

Staying with dance music and leaving out the UK, which may be a bad idea in the context of this question because that's where the '87 boom happened before hitting the continent, providing an English spoken blueprint for the genre, I can think of a few other things.

Germany is the main market (no I don't have numbers) and historical production, event etc. area -it has a well-documented infatuation with the US since the end of WW2, what with Far West theme parks filled w/visitors in full indian/cowboy garb. And such, but that one still cracks me up. It's also part of the anglo-saxon linguistic group (there's probably no such thing but y'know).

Most of Europe does this. France, Italy, Spain, Benelux (that's Belgium, Holland etc) and Scandinavia. The door to the East, Austria still shares a lot with Germany. So does Switzerland.

There's not much coming out of Japan but most of it appears to be in English too. Lots of collectors/imitators of all kinds of americana there. I know nothing of israeli goa trance but I suppose they're mostly using English as well? I actually don't want to hear about them at all.

blunt, Thursday, 15 March 2007 10:27 (eighteen years ago)

I wonder if producers in South America follow this trend because I see a lot of titles in Spanish & Portuguese coming from there. Which reminds me I forgot Polandrtugal. Who doesn't tho. Go on, name a portuguese techno artist off the top of your head.

blunt, Thursday, 15 March 2007 10:39 (eighteen years ago)

Drexciyao

Noodle Vague, Thursday, 15 March 2007 11:27 (eighteen years ago)

Here's a better question... How do people know what the name of a track is? I mean, you go out with your on-the-pulse mate and you hear a load of excellent tunes and want to know what they are... How do you find out?

"Hey this is wicked, what's this one called?"
"Oh it's called 'Rej' by Ame"
"Huh?"
"Ame - 'Rej'"
"Armrage?"
"NO! Ame - 'Rej'"
"What about this one? This is ace!"
"This is 'Fizheuer Ziheuer' by Ricardo Villalobos"
"Fizzo Zeeo? Retardo Eat A Horse?"...

Of course you could ask when you get home, but trying to hum the tune to 'Doppelwhipper' when your on a comedown is no mean feat...

the next grozart, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:14 (eighteen years ago)

"you remember, you totally remember, it's the one that went like this: 'mmp dah mmp dah dah' - remember? i came up to you and was like 'wahhhhhh'. let me try again: 'mmp mmp dah dah mmp dah', something like that, i can't believe you don't remember"

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:16 (eighteen years ago)

i once typed "ANJA SCHNEIDER RANCHO RELAXO" or some variant thereof into my phone and waved it in front of gareth's eyes

lex pretend, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

people say the 2580 thing works too but i've never found this

lex pretend, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

also, i think 'rej' is pronounced rey

lex pretend, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

REG

blueski, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:27 (eighteen years ago)

Rechhhh!

the next grozart, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago)

REX

lex pretend, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago)

the only thing i ever got 2580 to work on was "on a ragga tip" by SL2, which gives you some indication of my state at the time

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:32 (eighteen years ago)

We got it to work on that Gossip song (this was before it got played every fucking where)

the next grozart, Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:45 (eighteen years ago)

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

1) Allo, salut, sint yel, un hydook,
she teraw, youbeera mah, primesh der, vericheera,
2) Allo, Allo, sint yel, Picasso,
Tiam dat beep, she sen voynic, un dar sege ti notes cher nimeek

[Chorus]
vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa i-ay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa i-ay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

3) Desoon, set spoon, cheseet, ah kum
Allo, youbeera mah, sint yel, vericheera

4) Allo, Allo, sint yarshio, Picasso,
Tiam dat beep, she sen voynic, un dar sege ti notes cher nimeek

[Chorus]
vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa iay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa i-ay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

Mi-a-hii
Mi-a-huu
Mi-a-haa
Mi-a-ha ha

[Chorus]
vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa i-ay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

vrais a pleche dar numa numa i-ay
numa numa i-ay numa numa numa i-ay
kipul tow she dragosta din tay, ma mintesc day oki ti-ay

Geir Hongro, Thursday, 15 March 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

The Lex and Geir freestyling here is v helpful. btw phone tune ID works really well in continental EU

blunt, Thursday, 15 March 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa

sorry just trying to get blunt's goa(t).

pshrbrn, Friday, 16 March 2007 00:29 (eighteen years ago)

i nearly drove myself up a wall trying to remember a tune that tobias thomas played at nitsa... i went to bed humming to myself, in the attempt that when i woke up i could hum it to someone who could identify it for me. of course, when dawn broke (or more like midafternoon, but whatever) it was gone.

turned out it was erol alkan's mix of "boy from school." whodathunkit?

pshrbrn, Friday, 16 March 2007 00:30 (eighteen years ago)

Blunt has the right answer with lingua franca.

A moderately well-known German producer who shall remain unnamed once told me that the reason he wrote lyrics in English was that it would be more easily understandable but that it also made the lyrics feel more abstract and general and not so personal. I thought that was interesting because it was emphasizing the unemotive context of the vocals but giving the sound a more "human" feel in the context of what is machine-based music (not that there's anything wrong with the machine part). It seems like a lot of vocals are delivered in a deadpan, Nico-like fashion. Maybe it's just what I listen to though and maybe more minimal music is trying to distinguish itself from the vocal fireworks of, say, diva house.

William Selman, Friday, 16 March 2007 02:15 (eighteen years ago)


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