Personally, I prefer things I don’t understand because I don’t have to mentally deal with whatever bullshit they are saying. I can sing it a thousand times without ever thinking too much about it because I know the sounds and not the meaning of the words.

I can belt out a ton of Japanese or Russian music, because I started listening to help my language learning (classes, not self-guided), but I don’t actually understand the songs. I “know the words”, but that’s it.

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I find the opposite works fine: I don't have to know the exact words, but I doo look up the translation to know what the song is actually about.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

You just understand them in your own way.

When this first came out, we interpreted it as:

Who? Who has? Who has fish? Who has fish from France?

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago

Who has fish from France? it’s my uncle Matt

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Works the other way around as well. When I was a teen, I though Rage Against The Machine's "Killing in the Name" was asking where their sneakers are.

And now you do what they told ya

Ey Mann, wo issen mein Turnschuh?

"Dude, where is my sneaker (just one of the pair)"

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago

That's brilliant! Are there any other songs which do similar?

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

As someone who has German as their second and English as their third language, I've never misunderstood that line like that. That's hella funny though.

[–] tostiman@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

Do hats fit my frog?
They do his is Zog!

[–] CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

I like to be able to sing along to songs when I'm alone in the car, so even if I don't understand the meaning of the words, I like to know the words.

I also enjoy word play, and Du Hast has some of that. So knowing the bit of trivia about 'Hast' and 'Hasst' being homophones in German and meaning 'have' and 'hate' respectively, and the main portion of the lyrics being wedding vows adds a layer of enjoyment to the song for me.

[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

I like to know the meaning but normally just sing the closest english words like "the genies in the food court" from one of gogol bordello's songs