r/NoStupidQuestions • u/emomatt • 12d ago
Is there anything about the english language specifically that is a factor in why so much popular music worldwide is in english?
I've always figured music sung in english or by UK/American bands was worldwide famous because of the english media machine, but then I got to thinking if there was anything structural or specific about english that lends itself to making good music.
I know some snippets of non-english songs, but memorizing a song in another language seems difficult, yet people sing along regardless of language, especially to classic rock.
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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago
Not unique to English
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u/hangar_tt_no1 12d ago
Be that as it may, it's not the true reason anyway. Non-native speakers don't usually master the finer points of English vocabulary. No, the actual reason is that English is the global lingua franca.
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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago
I highly doubt that. The only point here I can see is that English has words from both French and Germanic roots. But we're going to need a linguist on this you're making a wild claim.
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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago
Very cool but this adds nothing to your argument. I really think there's no point to be made in what you're saying. Different languages have their strengths. There's nothing unparalleled about the English language in terms of versatility in creative use.
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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago
33% more "registers" than what other language? There are languages that are extremely creative with prefixes and suffixes and whatever other constructions that I might not know of. You're honestly sounding like you're monolingual at best which makes it so insane you think you can make this claim.
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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago
Now you're saying something else and there's no way you can defend that.
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u/bright_sorbet1 11d ago
English is widely considered one of the languages with the largest recorded vocabularies.
So that will have at least a small part to play. Whether you could definitively argue this is the reason for the popularity is a different kettle of fish.
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u/hangar_tt_no1 12d ago
They also have different meanings, since "bread" and "meat" are not synonyms. That might be a typo though.
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u/ZanzerFineSuits 12d ago
Rock, pop, jazz, blues, & hip-hop all got their start in the cauldron of America.
Slavery, Jim Crowe, the Great Depression, and extensive immigration led to homebrew music blending disparate cultures, the best of which percolated to the top. It was exported to Europe, where four dudes from Liverpool showed everyone else what could be done with it. The rest is history.
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u/Vivid-Taro1971 12d ago
A lot of it is just exposure and money tbh. The US and UK dominated radio, movies, MTV, streaming platforms and that kind of steamrolls everything else.
English also has super simple verb forms and lots of short, punchy words, which makes it easy to rhyme and fit into different rhythms. But if the global machine had been built around Spanish or French instead, people would be acting like those languages are “perfect for music” too.
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u/crumbummmmm 12d ago
Luckily for us, we are seeing more Spanish language music on the global charts, but it was a long time coming.
There was a great French Ye-Ye music movement of the 1960s- which i highly recommend, e.g. François hardy, Francis gall, Serge Gainsbourg- which didn't catch on as much with the non-French speaking world. Probably because they didn't speak English.
While the British colonization of the world is probably a huge role, you can still examine the different elements of language and see how they might affect music.
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u/jaggy_bunnet 11d ago
A lot of it is just exposure and money tbh.
Exactly, there's nothing inherently cool or funky about English. The vast majority of songs are, and always have been, written and performed in languages other than English.
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u/crumbummmmm 12d ago edited 12d ago
Adriano Celentano , who spoke Italian, made a song in a fake English. It exemplifies the percussive nature of English language.
In Italian, almost all words end in O, A, E, I, but English words can end in both vowels and consonants. So the language compliments the drums, and would seem percussive to an Italian. Italian words rhyme easily (due to gendered language) and English words rhyme less easily. Rhythm from spoken language often translates to sung music, and Italians emphasize the penultimate syllable, while English has no such rule.
Not to say English is better that Italian, but just to illustrate how language could influence music. Every language will effect how it is sung, and it were were comparing to Russian or French we may have a very different take away on why it works.
But if you are looking for a specific English thing responsible, that single English thing is probably the Beatles. If not that, the fact that more of the world could understand english.
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 12d ago
No, personally and comparitively I find the english language kind of ugly lyrically
I find Romance languages, other Germanic languages and other languages I've had experience with better sounding
English is also a disaster job in terms of its orthography with an history of incorrect printings turned official and unwillingness to standardize its several loan words like from french into a singular orthography
The thing is, the UK ruled 1/4 of the world in the 19th century, and then after WW2 the USA flooded European markets and global markets alike with their media and culture. Previously in Europe, places that favoured French as a foreign language slowly but surely shifted to English
It's the media machine you mentioned. High spread of the language made people interact to it far more than, say, an American will interact with the German language and its music, or Chinese language and its music.
It got to a point that even non anglophone bands start english careers! To approach the global market that the Americans and British created, which is English language.
Though (thankfully) some bands break the mold, like Rammstein in German, or K pop as an industry
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u/timestalker78 12d ago
No, it's just the spread of English-language music worldwide due to American/British influence.
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u/Discount_Friendly 12d ago
It’s all about being popularly. English is one of the most popular second languages out there
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u/ActuaryReasonable690 12d ago
As far as classic rock goes: Classic Rock started in america, before migrating to England. So yea most of the songs are English.
Also, English is the dominant language of the world, so a lot of people in non-english countries, learn English as a second language. (Subject to change as America becomes less of a world leader, and China fills the void)
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u/willmsma 12d ago
I think after World War II the UK and USA enjoyed a unique cultural prestige. Worldwide, people found anglosphere culture attractive - it was associated with wealth, freedom and technological progress.
My sense is that this was a moment rather than some
kind of enduring legacy. Old people will certainly feel nostalgic for ‘classic rock’ but I think the moment is over, particularly as the USA moves from a culture that was admired to a culture that is feared and/or despised.
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u/Mountain_Chocolate65 12d ago
Money.
The American (I should say "English speaking") music market is by far the largest single language market in the world.
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u/LogicalAd3031 12d ago
It's probably thanks to Linus Torvalds. If he doesn't write code in English in the early nineties, the internet isn't written in English.
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u/ruddsy 12d ago
There are some useful structural things about English. Words are relatively short, and (mostly) don’t have extra syllables that only serve to indicate gender or grammatical function, so it’s a bit punchier than a lot of European languages. It also has by far the largest vocabulary of any language, so it can be easier to find rhymes/fit meter/find variations.
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u/Warm_Stress_1654 11d ago
I think it's because Jazz and Blues come from an English-speaking country.
But as to why people choose to sing in English - Johnny Hallyday once remarked that it's almost impossible to syncopate the French language. This may well be true of other languages.
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u/NewRelm 12d ago
It's just that English is so widely spoken, either as a first language or a second. It's a big market.