I basically love city pop cus it has great groove, rhythm and usually the few English words in the lyrics reassuring me that it’s usually about love or a metaphor of it.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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Many songs if I like enough I figure out some of the words when looking for the title. Otherwise I remember them then forget them for a while. A couple famous examples I like:
Dschinghis Khan - Moskau, it's a bop, i know the melody but lyrics I only know parts of.
O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tea - this one of course I know front to back but I don't know what a single word means.
Any song that's on my playlist and not german or english ;)
Though specifically Akatsuki Records (JP), CrazyBeats (JP), several Vocaloid produces I can't remember.
historical example: Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto – released in Japan in 1961 under “Ue o Muite Arukō” – released in US in 1963 under “Sukiyaki” because that was about the only Japanese word Americans knew …
Lots of Polish music:
Sexy Doll by Republika
Mówię Ci, że by Tilt
Fajki i Alkohol by Andy
Zima by Natalia Szroeder
Gdzie jest biały węgorz ? by Cypis
I gave up trying to learn Polish because of its immense difficulty. I only speak English fluently but I've taken up an interest in Esperanto.
MONO NO AWARE - かむかもしかもにどもかも！
No clue on the lyrics but the melody along with the lyrics are excellent
The artist Lescop is great. I know some french but not enough to really 100% follow the lyrics
Brutal 6 - Todo en mis Manos.
Olivia Lufkin - Stars Shining Out.
Anna Tsuchya - Kuroi Namida
That's a solid "The entire Caramba" album.
You might've heard (of) Habba Habba Zoot Zoot; well, they made an entire album of "plausible sounding" songs in German, Japanese, Finish, American, Russian, etc. It's really quite hilarious.
Here's a Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57BijyLUDfabkaaSwZsxsS
Locutorio - Sara Socas (España)
If I like a song, I make a deliberate effort to learn the lyrics and what they mean. People wrote those lyrics for a reason.
Or do you just want to dance?
I know enough Spanish to understand the lyrics now, but loved that song before I knew what it was saying.
I like vocaloid music, but many of the songs are in Japanese which I don’t speak
Everything in Drakenier's Chaos Language.
A lot of songs come to mind, actually.
But if I had to pick just one, it would be MC Solaar's Carpe Diem.
My French is shaky at best, so back when I stumbled upon MC Solaar (maybe it was via Bearshare), I could barely understand the gist of what was said - and even with a much better understanding, many of the "retro" references in this song specifically would have made no sense to me.
But it evoked a weird sense of nostalgia in me - a longing for a time/things, that I had no connection to (so I shouldn't even feel any nostalgia):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6-YCancrrBI
PS: If I had to pick something more popular, it would be Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi (got recommended by YouTube back when it made its first comeback wave in 2011, I think).
All of Francoise Hardy's album Soleil. Absolutely lovely singing voice.
flying duck by cherryfilter. I know only enough Korean to pick out a few words here and there, but have never bothered to look it up.
That Russian song that sounds like Joy Division on MDMA. I'm told the lyrics are very depressing but it's absolute fucking fire.
J'en parlerai au diable • Johnny Hallyday
A lot of classical music
Sometimes you get helpful subtitles such as Benny Lava. (Indian.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g
A jetpack operation?
Also Yatta (Chinese)
Ay Que Doler by Los Chunguitos. Such a banger and I always sing along but no idea what they're saying
I always thought Regin Smidur by Týr captured exactly the kind of vibes I'd expect from Viking metal. But I've never known what the lyrics are about, and probably don't want to.
Pretty much the whole soundtrack to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It's all done up in French and I only know bonjor, baguette, and fromage. But it just sounds right for the mood of the game :o
Yeah!
I've had "V blbym veku" from Xindl X in a playlist for 10 years.
I don't understand a single work, but it just speaks to me for some weird reason.
I'm surprised that people can answer with only one or a few songs. I don't "discriminate" music by language at all, I listen to a ton of music from all over the world in more languages than I can say. One very good place to find good international music is the YouTube channel My Analog Journal: https://youtube.com/@myanalogjournal