8 February 2012 (Wednesday)

10 students came today, including two Americans. It was a lively discussion and I was glad that the Americans came so that the international students had a chance to talk with other Americans besides myself.

With today's class being the last one before Valentine's Day the theme was "love songs".

One of the American students suggested "Something by The Beatles". I said, "Good idea, which song?" And he said, "'Something'.  The song. By The Beatles." And that is indeed a great choice; it is considered one of the greatest love songs ever!  "Something" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info).

After this song I mentioned how in America and Britain people know almost all the Beatles songs released.  I asked if people in Asia know the entire Beatles catalog or only the hits. The answer is that people mostly only know the hit songs/singles.

Speaking of The Beatles and Asia reminded me of a song I have played in this class a few times: "Let Go" (video) by Korean band Dynamic Duo (info).  This video is a parody of a Beatles performance.  Most of the class had never seen the video before.

The next song chosen was "Mister" (video, lyrics, song info) by Kara (info).  Kara is a girl band I had never heard of before -- there are so many girl bands in Asia!!!

Seeing the video for "Mister" reminded me that a few nights previously I had been channel surfing and had seen a South Korean girl band on the famous Late Show with David Letterman (info): Girls' Generation (info) singing "The Boys" (video, lyrics, song info). This performance is clearly part of a marketing push to try and break the band in the US: it will be interesting to see if they become popular in the US.

We had a short discussion among the guys in the class about which band, Kara or Girls' Generation, is cuter. One student summed it up best by saying "Girls' Generation is cuter, because there are more of them."

Speaking of promoting Asian bands in the US, I told the class that I am helping some guys who have made a documentary about independent rock/punk bands in China get their film shown at film festivals in the US.  Ideally a tour would be set up with a couple of the bands where the film is shown, then the bands play. The film is called "Down: Indie Rock in the PRC" (intro video).

Back to the subject of love songs!  The next song chosen was "I'm Your's" (video, lyrics, song info) by Jason Mraz (info).  A good choice!  I asked the student how he came to know this song and he said it is used in a tv advertisement in Korea, but he can't remember which product it was advertising.  When I asked the other students if they like this song one said "It's ok, but it's like a snack instead of a whole meal."

Speaking of songs used in commercials, I mentioned that a hit song by Sting (info) called "We'll Be Together" (video, lyrics, song info) was written for a Kirin Beer commercial (video) in Japan. Kirin said, "Sting, if we pay you a bunch of money, will you write a song for us?  Our only requirement is that the song have the word 'together' in it."  So Sting wrote the song. And cashed a big check.

Back to love songs!: "Nothin' On You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bruno Mars (info).  Also a good choice for a love song.  I explained that the phrase in the lyrics "nothin' on you" means "no one compares to you".

Next love song: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (video, lyrics) sung by Taiwanese singer Joanna Wang (info). The original version of this song is by Frankie Valli (his version of the song, singer info).  One student remembered that Lauryn Hill (info) did a hip-hop version of this song (video).

Next up was "I Love You Always And Forever" (video, lyrics, song info) by Donna Lewis (info).

Next song:  "Thank You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Dido (info).

This class knows how to pick romantic songs!!

One student remembered that "Thank You" by Dido was used by Eminem (info) for one of his biggest hits "Stan" (video, lyrics, song info).  Dido even makes an appearance in the video.  But it's strange that such a sweet song as Dido's would be used as the basis of such an angry song as Eminem's.  I guess they wanted that contrast.

Next love song chosen was "Lovefool" (video, lyrics, song info) by the Cardigans (info).  I asked the student who picked it how she knew of such an old song and she it was covered by a Japanese girl band called Perfume (info) and used in a commercial in Japan.  (Seem's like today's theme became more like "girl bands and music used in commercials" than "love songs"!)

To see a full song by Perfume we watched "Love The World" (video, lyrics), which fit in with the Valentine's Day theme of the day.

Update 12 March 2012:  Article about taking Perfume and J-Pop global.

At this point I asked one of the two American students, both of whom have spent time in Japan, which Japanese band is his favorite.  He said he likes Pizzicato Five (info) and chose the song "Happy Sad" (video, lyrics). I think that's the first neo-soul Japanese band I've ever heard!

One of the international students hadn't yet picked a song so I asked him to pick one. He chose the song "Hello" (video, lyrics) by Heo Gak. The strange thing for me about this song is that he says the English word "Hello" to say "Goodbye"(!).  Apparently in Korean the same word is used for "hello" and "goodbye" so the singer just used "hello" like he would in Korean. This is a breakup song, so in English he is saying "goodbye" to his lover.

Many songs in Asia are sung in the local language, then have an English phrase in the chorus.  One of the international students asked the American guys who have lived in Japan if it was strange to hear that -- to hear a song in Japanese and suddenly an English word pops up.  The Americans said it was strange at first, but they got used to it.

At this point the class talked for a while about how people express romance in different languages/culture, whether men in different countries are romantic, whether women are romantic.

The last song for this year's Valentine's Day edition of The Language Of Music class was "Fly Me To The Moon" (video, lyrics) by Julie London (info).  An excellent choice to end the class!

On a different note to the class: On Friday, 24 February, there's a dance party at the Seattle Art Museum called Remix (info).  I haven't yet been to one of these parties at the museum, but everyone says they are really fun.  If you want to go to a unique event with art and music, I highly recommend SAM Remix!