MH FEATURED POLL #16: What do you think of 'Engrish' in Japanese music?

[CAT5 9075]

What do you think of 'Engrish' in Japanese music?
Poll suggested by the eternally fabulous @beni   
 
To submit a poll for the MH POLL OF THE WEEK, P.M. @CAT5 with your poll question, choices, and state whether it's multiple choice or not.

[JukaForever 758]

It's part of the charm listening to Japanese music

[Seimeisen 4406]

Stuck between options four and five, but ultimately, I'd prefer to hear Japanese people singing in Japanese, unless they're actually good at speaking English. There are times when you can't really tell that it's Engrish and not English (you can easily hear RUKI singing "all I want is your face" when he's actually singing "oh, I want to the your face"), and I'm just so used to hearing stuff like "JISSS IZZU" that I shrug it off.

I'm very used to hearing Engrish that it doesn't always ruin the song for me, but I do think Japanese singers' voices sound better when they're singing in Japanese, for example, RUKI. I love his voice...... when he's singing Japanese; when he's trying to sing in English (increasingly as the years go by), it just sounds... a little weird to me.

It's also why I've been avoiding Japanese metalcore. Most of it is in Engrish. There seems to be an extremely low level of Japanese core and metal with Japanese vocals. What is this?!

[nick 10212]

I don't pay much attention to it unless it's sung in Engrish an entire song. lol

Sometimes Engrish could ruin a masterpiece.

[Bear 1817]

I don't really mind it. In some extreme cases it may give me a laugh or two, but that's all. Doesn't ruin my experience.

[eiheartx 1310]

it's bad. If you can't sing properly in english then don't do it.

[Mabuta 76]

I usually don't pay much attention to the lyrics, so it's OK whether it's Engrish or whatever

Unless it doesn't match with the entire song

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I have a kind of conflicting relationship with Engrish lyrics, so I chose "nice to hear from time to time." Somehow when VK bands do it it's so hilarious, and I always love to look up whether a song has any Engrish in it, cuz it somehow adds to the charm (and you can find some ridiculous linguistic mindfucks, lol). In more 'serious' sounding music like metalcore, however, I tolerate it less. I guess because the pronounciation itself can be a bit more intelligible, so I hear the horrible grammar and phrasing even if I didn't want to, haha. Also their lyrics tend to be 100% in English, and not just a handful of songs or song-bites.

[Des 289]

I can't vote on this poll. There are two kinds of Engrish. The "good kind" is when English lyrics are sung with a heavy accent and/or mediocre/bad pronunciation. I don't mind much. The bad kind is when it looks someone threw some Japanese words through an online translator to create nonsensical and ungrammatical English lyrics or song titles that could be the names of Dali's paintings except the words are lined up in a random order. This is just lazy.

[yakihiko 1480]

Depends on the singer the song can become great without a good pronunciation and bad with a good.

A song that become great and funny to me is PreDatoR from MBHI. 点々 mixed jap and engrish he only says "Preda" when he need say Predator.

[indigo 389]

I don't mind if there's some engrish in songs. However it's very rare that I would enjoy entire songs with just engrish. I voted for 4th option.

[yawn 3]

engrish is just wrong.

[DogManX 179]

It's this type of typical japanese craziness I actually can't go along with. I don't even think it's a very grown-up thing to do. Getting the grammar wrong is bad enough, but you have to be self-aware to the point where you get that RRWWARRWAWARRAWWAA (kyo in "garbage") is NOT the way to do english.

 

Can someone point to a band besides Galneryus that has good english vocals?

[nattliga_toner 240]

Engrish =

 

 

[beni 2149]

omg, you did my one. ;w;

I personally love it. I can never tell if the vocalist is good or bad at it. My first 'Engrish' I heard was Ruki, and I thought he was perfect. ^^; Now having heard more, I find it difficult to be picky or dislike most music, so 'Engrish' never bothered me, it's actually become something I'm very fond of. For example, ONE OK ROCK and PLASTICZOOMS (these guys are very great!). There's just a certain kind of charm and pull they have with them singing in 'Engrish' most of the time. I much prefer Japanese over English though, so, while I love it, I wouldn't want more than what I already hear so, I'm going to go with the second option but, with an exaggeration on 'nice.' (pretend it say it's god damn brilliant on this one for me) : 3

[Pretsy 1343]

I am somewhere in between the second and the third option due to many factors - to avoid walls of text, I will put out some examples of what I approve in terms of English in J-music and what I on the other hand...disapprove:

 

- nonsensical lyrics w/ (almost/completely) unintelligible singing (early Gackt, Kiyoharu etc.) = OK

- nonsensical lyrics w/ completely intelligible singing = 50/50

 

- cheesy, simple lyrics w/ (almost/completely) unintelligible singing = OK

- cheesy, simple lyrics w/ completely intelligible singing (e.g. current Japanese Simp...I mean, OOR) = NO

 

Sometimes it's better when you don't understand "too much"

[Mihenno 4195]

I'm into it whether it's good or bad sounding. More than half the time I think it adds to the song and makes it sound hotter if its a really good song. I have to say tho, sukekiyo's "foster mother" is really funny to me because of the english/engrish. I view it as bad sounding but, it doesn't kill the song for me at all, just makes it more unique I guess. Also I want to point out Shounenki's REVIVA song, All was lost but... You gave me the light of Rebirth. <-- even though it sounds like demons growling at me and you can barely make it out, it adds to the song and I can appreciate it more because hot English lyrics are hot English lyrics no matter the delivery. 

[violetchain 912]

I went with option 2. I find it really charming for certain artists. Especially bands that are a bit more on the silly side, like the telephones, the pillows, pop punk bands, etc. There are certain songs that just wouldn't be anywhere near as fun to sing along to in Japanese.

 

This one, for example:

 

It gets a bit harder to make it work for more serious songs, but some singers pull it off.

[Visutox 188]

I pay attention to it and I find it somewhat funny at times, but I enjoy music sung in engrish and it does not bother me at all.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

idk I love broken English that doesn't make any sense in the context of the Japanese.

 

GOT FOR GIMMICK

[nattliga_toner 240]

I can't help but wonder how people can be into japanese music and NOT deal with the engrish (unless they're super-next level and are into 50:s enka and Yukio Mishima and shit).

[PsychoΔelica 648]

I think it's hilarious to sing along to Though in order to avoid the embarrasment I'd rather not.

 

 

 

Can someone point to a band besides Galneryus that has good english vocals?

 

There you go

 

[Ito 2438]

I think Engrish is kind of luck the uncanny valley for me. It's fine if it is so bad I can barely recognize it as English, and it's fine if it is clear and understandable, but that middle ground where it sounds like they are trying so hard and failing miserably is the part that drives me nuts.

[JRD 5156]

I don't mind the engrish at all. I don't think I can imagine putting in the Japanese equivalent of the word they're using, replacing the lyric at all. Like if Panic Channel Re-Recorded Pink Cherry or SPARKING into entirely Japanese. Like I replay different variants of what they could be saying in Japanese, in my head, trying to fit it into the melody of the song and it doesn't work out at all. Though it does get weird when they combine the words into one non-existent weird.

[anakuro 847]

The bad kind is when it looks someone threw some Japanese words through an online translator to create nonsensical and ungrammatical English lyrics or song titles that could be the names of Dali's paintings except the words are lined up in a random order. 

 

To be honest, after talking to vocalists, I know that is exactly what many do. I tell them "don't do that. It's so bad" but short of translating for them it won't get any better.

 

 

Anyway, I'm indifferent towards Engrish in songs tbh. Sometimes it's just really fun and sometimes it just makes you want to facepalm. And of course sometimes it's refreshing when a band rarely has any at all.

 

But simply put I don't particularly mind it.

(edit: speaking of engrish lol at my original typo.)