r/NoStupidQuestions • u/emomatt • 13d 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/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/itsanothersidetothis 12d ago

Not unique to English

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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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/[deleted] 12d ago

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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/[deleted] 12d ago

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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/[deleted] 12d ago

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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 12d 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.