Weekly lyric analysis

[chemicalpictures 1888]

Hello people!

 

I've always thought japanese lyrics are under explored by us western fans. So I thought of a  little fun way of incentivizing the community on giving their 2 cents and analysis on a weekly chosen song, like:

 

The week song + lyric is posted;

people give their analysis/thoughts on its meanings and intricacies;

other people like the comments they think are more accurate, or what they think is the best interpretation;

the person with the most well received analysis gets to choose the song for the next week;

 

Of course what is described above can be changed to better fit the board or the mods, which I believe would be ideal to handle the thread creation and such (maybe the ORZ could take turns on, or smh like that)

 

one barrier I can see is that, if the song does not have a translation available, could be hard for non speakers to be part of it... what do you guys think? any thoughts?

[Zeus 7997]

I like this idea. The language barrier is something we all face, ignore, and accept because that comes with the territory of listening to Japanese music, but that doesn't mean lyrics aren't important. There's a wealth of discussion locked behind this barrier waiting to happen and I can't wait to gain added appreciation for an artist's lyrical capabilities. One potential issue I see is how touchy some artists are over proliferation of lyrics. Some don't care and others treat them like prized jewels and don't want them spread everywhere. I never understood it but it is what it is, and for some artists finding lyrics may be more difficult.

This could possibly be a cool project for ORZ to take up but I wouldn't want to take it here for 2 reasons. One is that our skill sets don't nicely overlap with what is required to make this a repeated thing - if anyone is fluent in Japanese, has access to lyrics, and wants to join and do it with us that would be great! The other reason is that this is a topic where discussion is vital - and ORZ topics have a reputation of "look but don't touch" that I'm still trying to move away from. Community participation in this is required to really make it take off and thus I'd rather leave it to the community to start it up whenever they feel the inspiration to.

[ruki11 965]

I feel nobody cares lyrics

jpopasia has a really nice lyrics system but nobody communicates

I type some lyrics which not exist, but all visitors are japanese lol

[efuru 255]

Please do this. I love this idea.

[chemicalpictures 1888]

16 hours ago, Zeus said:

IOne is that our skill sets don't nicely overlap with what is required to make this a repeated thing - if anyone is fluent in Japanese, has access to lyrics, and wants to join and do it with us that would be great!

 

yeah, I also think that is the biggest issue. it's indeed really hard to find members with all of that, specially with time to manage something like this... maybe if it was bi-weekly or monthly, I don't know... let's see if people find it interesting enough so we can find a way to circumvent it

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

I really like this idea! Since I translate lyrics myself, I always like to see what others make of the lyrics, rather than just me making my own interpretations. I think this will help others gain interest in discussing more about them, even if only a little. But as @Zeus mentioned, having someone fluent in Japanese is essential for doing something like this as there's so much to discuss about how it's written in the original language before getting into the translation. But of course, that depends on how poetic the lyrics are. I think it's even better to have two people fluent in Japanese, or at least know a decent amount of Japanese, in analyzing lyrics just because there can be so many different interpretations. I think that'll help bring up interesting discussions.

 

I am honestly interested in starting up something like this, but am afraid that I can't offer too much time as I have so many other things currently going on in my life. Bi-weekly or monthly might be manageable though. Another thing is that I'm not SUPER fluent in Japanese (but i think i know a decent enough amount), which is why I think it's a good idea to have another person take part who's also knowledgeable in Japanese. Getting access to lyrics will certainly be an issue as not everybody will be interested in the lyrics I have in hand. And not everybody who DOES have access to them is willing to share them, etc. But we can still start somewhere with what we have.

 

Thinking more about this, I can also see how a lyric analysis can go hand in hand with a PV analysis, if the song has one, which might be really interesting as well~

Edited May 3, 2017 by plastic_rainbow

[jaymee 405]

Fluent or not, sometimes Japanese is so vague it can be hard to decide the intended meaning.

 

I feel like more time consuming than the translation would be regularly finding lyrics thought provoking enough to analyze? Like so many lyricists have pretty mediocre writing skills or purely compose lyrics for shock value when you get right down to it.

 

But I do feel this is an interesting topic, and while translating myself, have often wondered how people would interpret the lyrics/translation.

Edited May 4, 2017 by jaymee

[Zeus 7997]

The one suggestion I thought of now would be to avoid sticking to a schedule of any sort. Something I've learned from running ORZ is that schedules impose pressure and pressure removes the love from the labor. Feeling pressured to keep up with the newest releases or the most popular songs is a fast way to burn out. If anyone decides to go ahead and take a stab at it, do it on your own time when you can or want. Like maybe the "Band Battles" threads that come up every so often.

 

This will take the otherwise underused Lyrics sub forum by storm, so topics there will have a longer half-life and will remain more visible as well. Link to them in your signatures too if you want some free, mod-supported advertisement.

[Original Saku 1593]

I think this is a pretty awesome idea, I would definitely be interested in checking out a weekly little lyric roundup/analysis. I personally love to find translated lyrics to my favorite songs when I can, that's one reason why anime songs are really dope, because more often than not fansubs also translate the the OP & ED themes. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a place or community  on the web (as far as i know) that is built around the idea of doing lyric translation for Jmusic...

[The Moon 989]

I'd love to do this, but I'm literally in a upper-level Japanese course that's exactly this, only with poetry. Maybe I could help out once I'm done with that? : O

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

^Yess, that'd be great!!

 

I've been thinking about this a lot while at work and I think I'm more interested in doing a lyric + PV analysis in one, mainly because it gives more room for an analysis. If no one else is gonna take a stab at it soon, or wants to join with me, I'll see if I can whip something up of my own in the next week or so.

Edited May 6, 2017 by plastic_rainbow

[gekiai 231]

I really like this idea. I'm too unsure of my Japanese skills to actually be able to actively contribute to this from the start; however, I'm always so fascinated with lyrics and also constantly searching for them. As a novice translator, I think this can help me greatly too. So yes, I am really for this idea.

Edited May 7, 2017 by gekiai
i can english

[BrenGun 2261]

can someone just start? 

[Masaki89 10]

Maybe it should be its own section

[237Q 154]

I actually tried to do this thing 5 years ago, so I have a couple of those with translations, some language remarks and my interpretations (I was very young so I can't really guarantee on the analysis quality): http://whatarevklyrics.blogspot.com

[chemicalpictures 1888]

@efuru@Original Saku@The Moon@gekiai@BrenGun@237Q@Masaki89 hey everyone, just as a head-up, @plastic_rainbowalready created the first thread for analysis, and you can check it here! We've been having a really interesting discussion, and I would love to hear your thoughts aswell!

[Himeaimichu 1535]

I could also help contribute if possible. Often, I notice VisualKei singers tend to use "archaic" phonetics, and well, I read way too much into the history of the Japanese language, so if this thing does take off, I could provide a "linguistic analysis" if there is anything interesting about the lyric in pronunciation, or how it's used. 

i.e a vocalist pronounces え as we or ye, instead of e. Making 絵の具まみれ become "Wenogu mamire" instead of "Enogu mamire". 

Of course, I won't point out when a vocalist pronounces を as wo, because that's too common. xD