I don’t mean singing in a foreign language, I mean if they aren’t enunciating their words.

There is a style of singing where the singer rolls one word into the next word, or just cuts a word off. I find it distracting and I tend to skip the song very quickly when I realize what they are doing.

While it is a popular way to sing, I have never enjoyed it. I heard some of it in the 1980s but it wasn’t widely used. Today I find a lot more singers doing it.

  • Vespair@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Have you considered trying to think of the vocals as another music element rather than lyrical? Like if a musician scats, can you enjoy that? And if so, can you not just consider the poor enunciation a sort of scatting and stop trying to pull words out of it?

    Not saying you’re right or wrong, just curious where the limits on this are

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Same, kinda. Not a fan of super heavy metal that employs that “demon growl” yelling kind of singing. It doesn’t sound enjoyable, even though the lyrics for a lot of those songs are dope as hell when you look them up.

    On the other hand, I am a huge fan of grunge. I can actually understand the words through the mumbling. 🤣

    • kofe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      15 days ago

      I think that just takes a lot of skill to enunciate and hold pitch. It took me a while to hear past the “noise” when I was first introduced to heavier metal and acquire the ear for it. Theres definitely vocalists that don’t do it well, but like architects’ latest song “blackhole” has incredible range and is catchy as fuuuck

  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I switched genres for this. I grew up on classic rock and I still like listening to it, but when I started going to live performances, I couldn’t understand the words. All too often bands substituted volume for the words, and i ended up in pain while not enjoying it. Then I started going to blues clubs. Similar catchy beat but I could usually understand the words, hear what they were singing about and the volume generally wasn’t as painful. Now it’s my biggest genre

  • Ricky Rigatoni@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I saw a video about a videogame that used Don’t Fear The Reaper and how the lyrics reflected in the game and I was just spending the entire video wondering what he was talking about because every time I heard that song all I heard was “huuuuuu duuu huuu muuu buuu”

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I don’t really listen to lyrics much, so no big deal to me, but I understand. Now, if they bend and twist the words to rhyme or to be different, I will cut that shit off quickly. Thankfully, it is not as popular these days as it was 10-15 years ago.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      I have a buddy who has been singing 90% vowels for Pearl Jam for years. He’s covered them, he does karaoke, and sings in the car. It’s just aeiouy make me cry.

      I think he started covering them that way back in high school in the 90s.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      I think it is.

      Personally I NEVER can understand what any of these songs are saying.

      I was very confused by the sudden populatity in the late 90s of a white rapper singing about zamboni’s. If you don’t know what a zamboni is, they’re the little truck things that drive onto ice rinks between periods at hockey games to smooth out the ice.

      Nobody had a clue what I was talking about. Apperently he wasn’t saying his name was zamboni. He was saying his name was slim shady.

      Which still makes no sense, because I thought his name was eminem. Which STILL doesn’t make sense, because his name is Marshal Mathers.

      How many names does this guy need???

  • mriswith@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    For me it heavily depends on the genre.

    If it’s supposed to be understandable and they cut off words or mumble through multiple words, it really annoys me. Although I don’t really have a problem if I don’t understand all the words of a black metal song.

  • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    So, does that mean you’re not into metal or opera? They both technically have lyrics, but a casual listener will have no idea what they say.

  • lazynooblet@lazysoci.alEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    I find language in songs has taken a turn for the worse in the last 15 years or so. It was rare and nuance to hear a swear word in songs when I was young. I know I’m being an old man here btw 😂

    But now Spotify with it’s “explicit” tag shows that most popular songs have swearing now. Music tends to influence society greatly and I find that now swearing is just common place and I think we’re worse off for it.

    Listening to the radio, with the song having the swearing muted makes it hilarious as there are so many gaps in the lyrics.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Right, swearing became too common. There’s none of the shock value many singers may expect. Usually it’s a meaningless distraction in the song, just lazy writing. I definitely appreciate the few who are still able to get impact, or find meaning in it though

  • njm1314@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    16 days ago

    I can’t say I really agree. Maybe to a certain extent sure. But there’s plenty of songs that are fantastic that you don’t really understand. Hell I don’t think anyone knows the words of Louie Louie. Still an awesome song. I mean I don’t speak German but I like the German version of 99 Red Balloons way better than the English version. I’ve always been of the opinion that lyrics are absolutely least important part of a song.

    • andrewta@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Actually most of the music I listened to in the 90s were easy to understand. There were a few bands that were hard to invested but nothing like now.