I grew up a HUGE vocaloid fan, and that included listening to a lot of youtaite English covers that were ….. hit or miss on their translyrics. Like they sounded wrong, but I was never really able to identify what set hits and misses apart other than thinking “this is clunky and sorta stupid sounding”. When I made the jump to Kpop I felt similarly abt the English versions and it seems contentious among fans. Given how much bigger Kpop is and the fact that the companies themselves release the tracks, I feel like I finally have the chance to throw a wider net to the audience: what do you think makes a song sound good in English?
Let’s actually set aside whether the translations communicated the original meaning of the songs, because while I think that’s an important quality, I don’t think non-speakers can judge it very properly. Translation is not very straightforward, and everyone has a slightly different interpretation or might make different choices when communicating into English, which is why you might see a lot of conflicting fan translations. Often even the official English translations released by the companies will be judged as not completely accurate or missing nuance if you’re in translator spaces or watch breakdowns from KR speakers. Which nuances are “most correct” are subjective, but even if they weren’t that wouldn’t save a song from sounding odd in the translyrics. Let’s only talk about sound for a second!
I think the biggest or most common criticism is “it sounds clunky.” What makes a song’s lyrics “sound clunky?” Is it juvenile rhyme scheme? Rhythm feeling off, like they’re trying to cram more syllables than the melody can hold or feeling like they’re dragging out words over notes that want their own phoneme? Is there a “natural” melody, like when you sing a song from memory and find yourself adding/dropping words to fit your memory and then you hear the original and think it sounds wrong. Does it have to do with which version you heard first? Often Japanese versions of originally Korean songs (and vice versa) are discussed as “not sounding right” by fans who speak neither language(lol). It might be that being used to hearing the Korean makes the English jar against your memory, but I feel like Le Sserafim’s English versions all have been acclaimed, plus I’ve seen mentioned Cupid FIFTYFIFTY, Sweet Venom Enhypen, etc.
It could also be that the phonemes in English and the word-stresses sound ill-suited when compared to the original track…. but then again, Racing into the Night by YOASOBI’s English version (and a lot of their other Eng versions) is specifically engineered to sound similar to how it’s sung in Japanese, and I think it also sounds super awkward, sorta word salady and it doesn’t make any sense to a distracting degree. It’s a common criticism for English versions to have weird turns of phrase , after all, so syntax definitely matters (although, I feel like kpop fandoms can be a bit too strict about songs “not making sense.” No one is on Max Martin’s ass for his creative choices.) Do you think when you can actually understand the lyrics, you’re more honed in on the “cheese” factor?
Maybe the question is actually more along the lines of “what makes a song sound natural in any language”. Recently I was listening to quite a bit of old pop punk songs, and quite a few of them (particularly Face Down from Red Jumpsuit Apparatus) triggered the “these are some rough translyrics” thought despite the song being written originally in English! Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” is notable for sounding like American English while also not being literally any language, and I think it sounds… like it could be words that are good. 😅 Maybe this thought is way more complicated than initially posed lol.
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