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More interesting question - why sing in English? There is a huge number of bands around the world who end up singing in English, as if they never considered us

More interesting question - why sing in English? There is a huge number of bands around the world who end up singing in English, as if they never considered using their native tongue. And it's not that they have anything unique to say in English! You could make something that stands out but you end up sounding like a clone of clones. This puzzles me to no end.

algebras 11y ago
Also, why do British singers (at least some of them) sing in American accent? Adele for one. Her spoken speech is so different for her singing one.
- mafribe 11y ago
  why do British singers (at least some of them) sing in American accent? To increase the probability of appealing to customers in the (currently) largest and most profitable market. Moreover, singing with a US accent does not endanger sales elsewhere, including the UK.
mafribe 11y ago
This puzzles me to no end. The answer is economics. When you want to sell a product, it makes sense to fine-tune it as much as possible to the largest, most profitable market, and then re-use the product infrastructure (e.g. production, design, marketing, delivery) to other markets. For a very long time, starting with the British empire, the largest, most affluent market has been English speaking, and since the end of WWII it was the US. This lead to the emergence of a US-focussed music industry that resells its goods in the rest of the world . A similar phenomenon is at play in other domains like films. As US customers can always easily access products tailored to their preferences, which includes a strong preference for English-language lyrics, it has become economically essentially impossible to be globally successful with (non-instrumental) pop music that is not sung in English. This is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. Interestingly, the dominance of English as voice of pop-music, evaporates as soon as instrumental music is considered: Techno, House, DnB, Dubstep etc shows no dominance of native speakers of English. For a variety of reasons, I expect that English will not be as dominant in the future: - Rise China as biggest, most affluent unified market for pop-music. This will lead to a preference of the Chinese customer for music. This market will be so large and lucrative as to compensate for the lack of Chinese as second-language, which is powerful for English. - The massive lowering of the cost of music production, marketing and (in particular) distribution. The more cheaply we can produce music, the more it makes economic sense to target niche markets.
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  In my experience, independent bands starting small tend to flock to English everywhere too, without many prospects. Most then understandably stay small. "When you want to sell a product, it makes sense to fine-tune it as much as possible to the largest, most profitable market" Not if it's totally cornered and over-saturated.
  - mafribe 11y ago
    There are plenty of independent bands singing in local languages. Few of them make it global. More imporant, humans are herd animals and often (not always) emulate others, especially others that have had success. If you've grown up in an environment saturated with English-language pop-music, like a lot of the world has, then the idea to sing in your native language might seem absurd or a fool's errand. You need to think historically. The dominance of English language pop music emerged at a time when music was distributed as vinyl records. They were very expensive to produce and distribute. Basically, to recoup the cost of producing and distributing vinyl, you had to sell an extremely large number (millions) of identical products, so you can industrialse the process. You target the most lucrative market (US), carter mercilessly to that market's demands, and homogenise (by way marketing in all forms) as much as possible the consumers, so you can sell as many copies of as few products as possible. You amplify this process by reusing production, distribution, marketing and reselling the product in less lucrative markets. While the economics of producing and distributing has changed, the change was too recent to have affected the dominance of English in this field, a dominance that was a reaction to the market forces described. Social evolution typically trails technical evolution.
- douche 11y ago
  China is already a huge factor in film - remember that awful Red Dawn remake where the North Koreans were inexplicably invading the West Coast? The original script had the antagonists being the ChiComs, which makes more sense (at least as much as the original did...). The studio decided that wouldn't play in Peking[1], and those sweet, sweet international box office dollars won out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F
jccalhoun 11y ago
Some of the responses are saying that it is about marketability and while that is certainly true for some musicians, it isn't true for all -- optimistically I would even say most. For example, I remember an interview with the German group Milky Chance where the main song writer said that he has never written a song in German http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/05/22/milky-chance-perform-in-the-current-studio http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/05/22/milky-chance-pe... In these cases I would say it is a result of the popularity of English music and people wanting to emulate the music that they like. "I like these songs and they are in English so if I write songs like these then I will write them in English."
- mafribe 11y ago
  wanting to emulate the music that they like. Yes, but the reason they like this music, is (to a substantial degree) because others (in their relevant peer group) like that music. Ultimately a lot of people like a specific form of music, because it has been mass produced, and mass marketed to them. One of the social functions of pop-music is to help form and sustain group identities. E.g. Reggae is associated by some/many with being relaxed, easy-going, liking ganja etc. For such group formation to function, it is vital that a lot people do in fact listen to this music. The best way to get a large number of people to like a small number of musical genres, is truth heavy marketing and restriction of products on offer. In the past, production and distribution of records was only economically feasible for a small number of products ...
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  The problem is, they end up with no audience since it already listens to whatever they are trying to emulate.
curtis 11y ago
I remember an interview with Klaus Meine of the Scorpions (a very successful German heavy metal band) about why he wrote songs in English. There wasn't any deep reason for it, it was just that all the rock music he listened to when growing up was in English, so it was natural that when he started writing songs he wrote them in English.

algebras 11y ago

Also, why do British singers (at least some of them) sing in American accent? Adele for one. Her spoken speech is so different for her singing one.

mafribe 11y ago
why do British singers (at least some of them) sing in American accent? To increase the probability of appealing to customers in the (currently) largest and most profitable market. Moreover, singing with a US accent does not endanger sales elsewhere, including the UK.

mafribe 11y ago

This puzzles me to no end. The answer is economics. When you want to sell a product, it makes sense to fine-tune it as much as possible to the largest, most profitable market, and then re-use the product infrastructure (e.g. production, design, marketing, delivery) to other markets. For a very long time, starting with the British empire, the largest, most affluent market has been English speaking, and since the end of WWII it was the US. This lead to the emergence of a US-focussed music industry that resells its goods in the rest of the world . A similar phenomenon is at play in other domains like films. As US customers can always easily access products tailored to their preferences, which includes a strong preference for English-language lyrics, it has become economically essentially impossible to be globally successful with (non-instrumental) pop music that is not sung in English. This is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. Interestingly, the dominance of English as voice of pop-music, evaporates as soon as instrumental music is considered: Techno, House, DnB, Dubstep etc shows no dominance of native speakers of English. For a variety of reasons, I expect that English will not be as dominant in the future: - Rise China as biggest, most affluent unified market for pop-music. This will lead to a preference of the Chinese customer for music. This market will be so large and lucrative as to compensate for the lack of Chinese as second-language, which is powerful for English. - The massive lowering of the cost of music production, marketing and (in particular) distribution. The more cheaply we can produce music, the more it makes economic sense to target niche markets.

guard-of-terra 11y ago
In my experience, independent bands starting small tend to flock to English everywhere too, without many prospects. Most then understandably stay small. "When you want to sell a product, it makes sense to fine-tune it as much as possible to the largest, most profitable market" Not if it's totally cornered and over-saturated.
- mafribe 11y ago
  There are plenty of independent bands singing in local languages. Few of them make it global. More imporant, humans are herd animals and often (not always) emulate others, especially others that have had success. If you've grown up in an environment saturated with English-language pop-music, like a lot of the world has, then the idea to sing in your native language might seem absurd or a fool's errand. You need to think historically. The dominance of English language pop music emerged at a time when music was distributed as vinyl records. They were very expensive to produce and distribute. Basically, to recoup the cost of producing and distributing vinyl, you had to sell an extremely large number (millions) of identical products, so you can industrialse the process. You target the most lucrative market (US), carter mercilessly to that market's demands, and homogenise (by way marketing in all forms) as much as possible the consumers, so you can sell as many copies of as few products as possible. You amplify this process by reusing production, distribution, marketing and reselling the product in less lucrative markets. While the economics of producing and distributing has changed, the change was too recent to have affected the dominance of English in this field, a dominance that was a reaction to the market forces described. Social evolution typically trails technical evolution.
douche 11y ago
China is already a huge factor in film - remember that awful Red Dawn remake where the North Koreans were inexplicably invading the West Coast? The original script had the antagonists being the ChiComs, which makes more sense (at least as much as the original did...). The studio decided that wouldn't play in Peking[1], and those sweet, sweet international box office dollars won out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F

jccalhoun 11y ago

Some of the responses are saying that it is about marketability and while that is certainly true for some musicians, it isn't true for all -- optimistically I would even say most. For example, I remember an interview with the German group Milky Chance where the main song writer said that he has never written a song in German http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/05/22/milky-chance-perform-in-the-current-studio http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/05/22/milky-chance-pe... In these cases I would say it is a result of the popularity of English music and people wanting to emulate the music that they like. "I like these songs and they are in English so if I write songs like these then I will write them in English."

mafribe 11y ago
wanting to emulate the music that they like. Yes, but the reason they like this music, is (to a substantial degree) because others (in their relevant peer group) like that music. Ultimately a lot of people like a specific form of music, because it has been mass produced, and mass marketed to them. One of the social functions of pop-music is to help form and sustain group identities. E.g. Reggae is associated by some/many with being relaxed, easy-going, liking ganja etc. For such group formation to function, it is vital that a lot people do in fact listen to this music. The best way to get a large number of people to like a small number of musical genres, is truth heavy marketing and restriction of products on offer. In the past, production and distribution of records was only economically feasible for a small number of products ...
guard-of-terra 11y ago
The problem is, they end up with no audience since it already listens to whatever they are trying to emulate.

curtis 11y ago

I remember an interview with Klaus Meine of the Scorpions (a very successful German heavy metal band) about why he wrote songs in English. There wasn't any deep reason for it, it was just that all the rock music he listened to when growing up was in English, so it was natural that when he started writing songs he wrote them in English.