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Excellent quote. While the effect of American music is huge without a doubt let me go off on a personal tangent because it's related. I have immigrated from my

by chx 2y ago

Excellent quote. While the effect of American music is huge without a doubt let me go off on a personal tangent because it's related. I have immigrated from my homeland (first to Canada and then Malta) and I usually say "I had the bad luck to be born in Hungary but I fixed that when I could". In other words, I am not particularly fond of the country / people living in there. But it being my mother tongue, growing up there has an interesting effect: some Hungarian songs have a much stronger emotional effect than any in say English. These are not even songs I knew as a child. I am actually quite curious whether there has been scientific research in this.

axus 2y ago
I'd bet the culture that produced the singers and songwriters mattered more than the language, but how could I measure those independently
tirant 2y ago
Nelson Mandela had a famous quote about the power of speaking someone's native language: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." The idea here is pretty straightforward: speaking to someone in a language they merely understand reaches them intellectually, but speaking in their mother tongue resonates on a deeper, emotional level. You can imagine now why songs in Hungarian resonate more to you than the ones in English.
bigiain 2y ago
I shall follow you down your personal/Hungarian tangent... There was a guy called Jackie Orszaczky who was a Hungarian jazz/funk musician - bass player, bandleader, and singer - here (in Sydney, Australia) who made some of my most loved jazz/funk music. This is one of his bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hydb0dyB9GQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hydb0dyB9GQ Sadly, he died about 15 years back, way too early. Fuck Cancer. Apparently he was "a big deal" in Hungary, at least amongst music circles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Orszaczky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Orszaczky
chx 2y ago
Update: https://reddit.com/r/cogsci/comments/1fjo6f7/song_lyrics_in_mother_tongue_vs_learned_has/lnuydpz/ https://reddit.com/r/cogsci/comments/1fjo6f7/song_lyrics_in_... this is a very helpful comment pointing out there is, indeed research on the subject.

by chx 2y ago

axus 2y ago

I'd bet the culture that produced the singers and songwriters mattered more than the language, but how could I measure those independently

tirant 2y ago

Nelson Mandela had a famous quote about the power of speaking someone's native language: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." The idea here is pretty straightforward: speaking to someone in a language they merely understand reaches them intellectually, but speaking in their mother tongue resonates on a deeper, emotional level. You can imagine now why songs in Hungarian resonate more to you than the ones in English.

bigiain 2y ago

I shall follow you down your personal/Hungarian tangent... There was a guy called Jackie Orszaczky who was a Hungarian jazz/funk musician - bass player, bandleader, and singer - here (in Sydney, Australia) who made some of my most loved jazz/funk music. This is one of his bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hydb0dyB9GQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hydb0dyB9GQ Sadly, he died about 15 years back, way too early. Fuck Cancer. Apparently he was "a big deal" in Hungary, at least amongst music circles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Orszaczky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Orszaczky

chx 2y ago

Update: https://reddit.com/r/cogsci/comments/1fjo6f7/song_lyrics_in_mother_tongue_vs_learned_has/lnuydpz/ https://reddit.com/r/cogsci/comments/1fjo6f7/song_lyrics_in_... this is a very helpful comment pointing out there is, indeed research on the subject.