Singapore Expats

I have just read about Forever 21 playing some songs with lyrics that would seem at odds with their target audience.

Having experienced this in Anchorpoint stationary shop where they were blasting a song "Put your mutha fkin hands up" ad nauseum I often wonder if folks who play songs in what is probably their 2nd or maybe 3rd language understand what the lyrics mean and know whether they are offensive to some folk?

I used get this now and again in France where some lunchtime f-bombs used to be dropped in songs on lunchtime radio...It was quite a surprise I can tell you.

You of all people should know that they only have a rudimentary grasp of words that are sung. You've ready enough bad lyrics on Karaoke screens I reckon. They normally don't have a clue. Even those who are English educated here have problem with the sung word, let along if it's been garbbled up in hip hop crap noise. Some of the stuff that just waltzes by the TV censors is mindboggling as well on occasion.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:You of all people should know that they only have a rudimentary grasp of words that are sung. You've ready enough bad lyrics on Karaoke screens I reckon. They normally don't have a clue. Even those who are English educated here have problem with the sung word, let along if it's been garbbled up in hip hop crap noise. Some of the stuff that just waltzes by the TV censors is mindboggling as well on occasion.

Sh*t, ar*e and b*stard will get censored, but CU Next Tuesday has been known on numerous occasions to escape the censors!

They have no friggen idea.

Clueless, witless, dumb as dishwater each and every single one of them. Half of them never listen to the songs going over and over and over again through the day and I doubt one in a hundred even listened the first time.

Stick with radio, much safer.

At my previous job the girls in the employee café used to play a song with VERY "normally censored" lyrics. I cant remember the song but I remember hearing it the first time and thinking I heard it wrong.

Also on the radio the other day I heard a great song, about a guy who met a girl and wanted to see her again. The song went "if you see Kay"

I think a lot of shops just play something from the Internet and don't really think of the words in them.

In a branch of Cedeles I once pointed out to the staff that their music was being played at the wrong speed. They pointed out that it was Alvin and his damned Chipmunks.

http://youtu.be/mVCh6Xp_VD8

...but they don't claim everyone speaks English.

What also irks me is all the friggin songs sound happy in a plastic kind of way, how about some anger or hate or aggression or depression or repression?

I'm also sick and mentally tired of hearing that I'm happy again song. Someone asked me don't you like this song? I said I'd rather gouge my eyes out with an Ebola infected spoon.

If the music is bad, chances are that the music video is ten times worse.

If you think Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby's Got Back is bad, Nicki Minaj's cover version titled Anaconda can make your ears bleed. Everything about it is catastrophic. Unless you want to porno fix, don't even bother to watch her music video.

rajagainstthemachine wrote:
I'm also sick and mentally tired of hearing that I'm happy again song. Someone asked me don't you like this song? I said I'd rather gouge my eyes out with an Ebola infected spoon.

Because you're happy?

the lynx wrote:If the music is bad, chances are that the music video is ten times worse.

If you think Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby's Got Back is bad, Nicki Minaj's cover version titled Anaconda can make your ears bleed. Everything about it is catastrophic. Unless you want to porno fix, don't even bother to watch her music video.

my back, my back ... lick my .. isn't too bad I guess

rajagainstthemachine wrote:What also irks me is all the friggin songs sound happy in a plastic kind of way, how about some anger or hate or aggression or depression or repression?

I'm also sick and mentally tired of hearing that I'm happy again song. Someone asked me don't you like this song? I said I'd rather gouge my eyes out with an Ebola infected spoon.

I don't care for those either, a bunch of false angst.

But are you talking about the Pharrell Williams song?

I heard his after I heard this, which is pretty cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxODzxY6AvI

Brah wrote:

rajagainstthemachine wrote:What also irks me is all the friggin songs sound happy in a plastic kind of way, how about some anger or hate or aggression or depression or repression?

I'm also sick and mentally tired of hearing that I'm happy again song. Someone asked me don't you like this song? I said I'd rather gouge my eyes out with an Ebola infected spoon.

I don't care for those either, a bunch of false angst.

But are you talking about the Pharrell Williams song?

I heard his after I heard this, which is pretty cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxODzxY6AvI

yes that song and uggh come on guys, please lets move along shall we? yes that song's catchy, but there are literally hundreds of other songs to play to break this monotony.

Agree re the song itself, it was more about the looping tech the guy used to make that clip. Plus he's a great player.

I was surprised how many others did similar things with that song on YT, looping is really taking off these days though it's nothing new.

For example, this from 1979:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HHjJG7yWBE#t=4m10s

TBH, that trombone clip was the first time I heard the song, about a month ago, and I only hear the original once and after that.....