General Music Thread

fourteenwings

Well, none of these come with karaoke tracks, talk tracks, or solo idol tracks. If you want to have a looksie to what is going on with iM@S in general, you'd buy one of these. If you like a specific idol, you'll get the originals.

For example, SideM always has a track every song series that every unit covers on the single CDs, and these are never repeated.

In Aikatsu!, Best Albums will usually have alternate versions of songs. And, again, no karaoke. Plus, you'll get a song order that's more chronologically accurate rather than one that tries to present a specific concept.

Naas_Human

Why would you use "whales" for something about economy but not gambling?

glennmagusharvey

Naas_Human wrote: »

Why would you use "whales" for something about economy but not gambling?

I forgot the term probably came from gambling, but instead was using it in the sense of "those people who would spend lots of money to get those really expensive virtual items in online games". So, by analogy, a fan who's willing to spend lots of money on their hobby.

Naas_Human

I think that particular sense is also a reference to gambling with how often it comes up regarding gacha games.

Also, music CDs work outside of the game, so it's a bit different from virtual items.

glennmagusharvey

Is there a better term for the kind of person who would, for example, faithfully buy every single iM@S CD (at least for the characters he/she likes, if not all of them)?

fourteenwings

Otaku?

Naas_Human

I think that's just idol fans except targeted at fictional ones.

fourteenwings

IIRC physical magazines are usually half the price of a normal CD.

I remember seeing a wall piled up really high with copies of a single NMB48 CD once...

I thought the term Otaku comes from train nerds and idol fans are specifically called Wota?

glennmagusharvey

Is there a term for the supercategory of super-dedicated-to-the-point-of-spending-tons-of-money fans of whatever?

lrdgck

I saw diplodocus synth, then neanderthal synth, and now this. I wonder where will it end.

fourteenwings

Between these ambiguous live performances, the futuristic, post-human themes present in her music videos, and the scarcity of candid pictures of Anzai, many have speculated as to whether or not she is real. In 2020, a reporter from Tokyo Sports met Anzai on the streets of Shibuya and confirmed that she was not a digital creation.

This got really weird.

glennmagusharvey

i have a feeling that one possible reason i enjoy j-pop/anisong is because i don't know japanese and thus can't tell when the lyrics fit the music poorly

this illusion unfortunately shatters when i listen to dubs of it specifically to look for lyrics i can sing and thus i can tell how well the lyrics do or don't flow -- depending on the choice of lyrics or other details they may do either, on a continuum

i wonder how many of the spanish fandubs i've enjoyed sound silly to someone who speaks spanish natively

fourteenwings

I think all the songs I can like, actually sing in Japanese and know the lyrics of mean a lot to me.

However, Japanese has waaaaaaaay less syllables than English which is why sometimes words can last forever or last two seconds and trying to make them singable in English is a fool's errand.

Basically, English and Japanese have entirely different cultural contexts and sayings. Trying to sing:

"Don't try to be like those fashionable girls" is definitely a literal translation of "Oshare na ano ko mane suru you ni" but it's incorrect (and possibly incoherent). However, the official-ish translation of "Don't try to be like those other girls" which is trying to connect it to a more English phrase, misses a lot of things too.

I mean even the other way round, Let it Go from Frozen became "Leave it as it is" (Ari no mama de), and How Far I Can Go from Moana became "Dokomademo" (Anywhere I Go).

And We're All in This Together from High School Musical became "Minna Star" (Everybody's a Star).

So, dubbing things properly is hard enough, trying to translate songs basically means everything is left on the cutting room floor and you write all (or mostly) new lyrics.

glennmagusharvey

The exact translation may have lots of parts left on the cutting room floor but the real point is to duplicate the feel of the song rather than the exact translation anyway.

Anyway, I was saying this less about making the translations stick to the original text, and more about making the translations fit the music.

Japanese basically has fewer phonemes per syllable on average than English does. I think this may be one reason why straight rhythms (i.e. not swung) may be somewhat less prevalent in English-language songs than in Japanese songs.

And I think Japanese may be somewhat freer with regards to the placements of accents.

But, still, there are ways to make English sound nice even with a straight melody. And the good song dubs accomplish that.

My point thought was that I can't tell how well the original Japanese lyrics fit the music. Just as there are badly-written songs in English by native English speakers, I would venture a guess that not all Japanese songs are equally good with how they set their words to music.

lrdgck

Funny thing that - we've had this notion that English is better suited to rock singing. The syllables sort of meld into each other, not like with our own shpeechch.

glennmagusharvey

And here I am opining that Spanish is a cooler language than English for singing. Again, probably because I don't actually know Spanish.

The lexicon is always better on the other side I guess.

Naas_Human

My point thought was that I can't tell how well the original Japanese lyrics fit the music.

Is this really an actual problem outside of like, really obscure things that never got translated?

glennmagusharvey

It's not really a problem, per se.

glennmagusharvey

Is it just me, or do any of you (well, the two of you who've seen Symphogear) get Symphogear vibes from these two songs?




Especially the second which seems to share a accompaniment melodic motif with "Gyakkou no Flugel".

Both songs were written by Akihiko Yamaguchi.

fourteenwings

As far as I can tell, the guy has never worked for Elements Garden, but the Elements Garden style is something that flourishes in the industry. I mean, Arte Refact also employ it a lot.

On that note, there are like, 10,000 iM@S songs, so obviously some will sound like other, more prominent music.

but the real point is to duplicate the feel of the song rather than the exact translation anyway.

What is 'The Feel' of the song if not for the lyrics that were specifically written for it?

may be somewhat freer with regards to the placements of accents.

That's what HOME MADE Kazoku is for.

I can't tell how well the original Japanese lyrics fit the music.

I mean, obviously an lol song won't be trying for the grandiosity of a yanaginagi one.

glennmagusharvey

Well that specific riff from Gyakkou no Flugel is pretty distinctive.

> What is 'The Feel' of the song if not for the lyrics that were specifically written for it?

The meaning of the lyrics; the experience they convey. That's what should be translated, the choice of words is the means to this end. That's why word-for-word translations don't always work well but tweaking it can get the point across better.

It's easier for some songs than for others. Due to English's phoneme density, it's harder to deal with a really quick succession of syllables, for example.

> That's what HOME MADE Kazoku is for.

?

> I mean, obviously an lol song won't be trying for the grandiosity of a yanaginagi one.

What I mean is I doubt that all grandiose yanaginagi songs sound equally not-cheesy-unless-intended.

fourteenwings

The meaning of the lyrics; the experience they convey.

You're being very vague.

That's what HOME MADE Kazoku is for.

Japanese rap is known for "that sure isn't how you usually say that word".

I doubt that all grandiose yanaginagi songs sound equally not-cheesy-unless-intended.

So not only do you want to objectively judge this new criteria of yours, you want to subjectively judge on a song by song basis.

glennmagusharvey

You're being very vague.

Your post highlighted how literal translations don't necessarily work well.

I'm basically saying that the focus shouldn't be on the literal translations, but on communicating the meaning. Like how the proper translation of a Chinese turn of phrase comparing a person's stupidity to that of a pig might just be translated to English as calling the person an idiot, because there's no equivalent turn of phrase in English.

(amusingly, pigs are actually rather more intelligent than they often get credit for)

So not only do you want to objectively judge this new criteria of yours, you want to subjectively judge on a song by song basis.

?

I'm saying I can't judge whether a Japanese song sounds cheesy to a native Japanese speaker the way I can feel that an English song sounds cheesy to me from being a native English speaker.

Naas_Human

I think I found a Electro-Celtic group.

Their choice of topics is a little Symphogear.

lrdgck

^ Now that's curious. I've not watched that series, but it does have a measure of anime-theme-music quality.

fourteenwings

It took me a few months, but I finally made it all the way through Shuta Sueyoshi's pret a porter. It's very basic, quite trite, and there isn't much that stands out unlike his first two albums.

I actually thought I'd misjudged it the first time round, but I guess not.

Naas_Human

There are two covers of this song by different members of Strawberry Prince.

I am not sure what I actually feel about this.

fourteenwings

Strawberry Prince had this really, really big moment last year but lately I don't think they're as relevant. I guess that tends to happen with utaite?

fourteenwings

TrySail are really coming into their own lately.

glennmagusharvey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_(Birtwistle)

Reception
Panic has been called a Succès de scandale due to the widespread negative feedback it received at its premiere.[5]
As it was part of the programme of the Last Night of the 1995 Proms season it was broadcast live on BBC television and Radio 3. Subsequently the BBC is reported to have received "thousands" of complaints.[6]
Newspaper reviews and comments were scathing. The Daily Mail branded it a "horrible cacophony", the Daily Express said it was "unmitigated rubbish" and The Independent reported saxophonist John Harle as "wandering around bellowing like a bull in a field",[6][7] although John Harle has said that he "read a nice review on the Monday [following the concert]".[8]
Since its premiere the piece has been reassessed with one music commentator saying in 2012 that it is "one of the most dazzling and dynamic pieces written in the last 20 years".[9]

ah, fun shit happened