Use of English in dance music : pourquoi?

so the names make sense

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).

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.

This kind of gets my goat a bit.

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.

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.

Drexciyao

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...

"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"

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

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

also, i think 'rej' is pronounced rey

REG

Rechhhh!

REX

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

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

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

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

goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa
goa

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

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?

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.