I've been listening to Tom B's marvellous 2012 swap CD "Faca o amor e nao faca a guerra" for the last few days, and it got me thinking - I've been wondering how much my appreciation for the music would be increased or transformed if I understood the lyrics. I'm aware that there is mucho listening to music from various parts of the world on this board - not just Brazil but Turkey, various East European countries etc. How many of you regularly make the effort to translate lyrics and how worthwhile do you find it? How much of an understanding of a language/lyrics have you picked up contextually? As a "for instance", I was completley blown away by reading this translation of Jorge Ben's Zumbi.
As an aside, I find myself frequently looking up rap lyrics on Rap Genius. I'm enamoured of an Atlanta rapper called Young Thug at the moment and he makes a virtue of being hard to comprehend, with all kinds of crazy gargled intonations. Rap's different because I do share the language, if not the local slang and accents, and because rap is a music where lyric content and style is foregrounded, but I think it's a useful parallel. Thoughts?
As an aside, I find myself frequently looking up rap lyrics on Rap Genius. I'm enamoured of an Atlanta rapper called Young Thug at the moment and he makes a virtue of being hard to comprehend, with all kinds of crazy gargled intonations. Rap's different because I do share the language, if not the local slang and accents, and because rap is a music where lyric content and style is foregrounded, but I think it's a useful parallel. Thoughts?
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