Japanese songs - do you understand..?

All this while I never hide the fact that I like Japanese music and video game soundtracks. In fact, I always find oppurtunities to show off that interest. I'm not ashamed to let people know that my scope is not as limited as theirs, and to imply to them that I'm different. I prefer to listen to my mp3s without my earphones plugged, but since I do respect my roommate then I would. Otherwise, people will easily know that I listen to J-pop and J-rock. Not only that, there are songs from other languages too (good music does not only limit to one or two languages, no?)

[Disclaimer: Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2. For decoration purpose only]

Then one fateful day this question popped up: "Why do you like to listen to songs we don't understand?" [case 1]

And then today I was happily watching a Music Video of Complication by ROOKIEZ is PUNK'D when someone burst my bubble with "Do you even understand what they're saying?" [case 2]

It stings.

I may not show it, nor did I explode. But still, what's with those kind of questions? Condemning? Close minded? Or you just can't value a good music just because it's not English or Malay? As if your Hip hop or R&B hit songs are that amazing. I'm always open to preview songs in foreign language, regardless of how little I understand it. You can always find the lyrics translation, ne? unlike some people, I use the internet wisely (and abuse with wisdom!)

Of course I don't understand Japanese lyrics, in spite of attending Japanese Language lessons. Well, we can't complete all the syllabus for some reason, but I do have some basics. but I do like Japanese songs since I started watching anime (which was like how many centuries ago?), but have never really been much of a fan. It was difficult to find lyrics back then, nor the translation... and I used to be a n00b when it comes to downloading stuff. So I only, FINALLY, got myself some Japanese songs about 4 years ago, when I stole it from a friend.

One of the factors of my inclination to Japanese songs is that I was once tired of listening to lyrics of mainstream music (which was also about 4 years ago). Tired, disgusted, annoyed. This is also one reason why I started lurking for video game OST. Japanese songs saved my ears from that blight. Safe from those soppy romantic songwords and perverted implication of getting laid.

well then i was like "now that i got some nihon no uta, I feel like singing-along!". I started to find lyrics of the songs that I like most, then out of curiousity I wanted to know what it means. I can't remember when is the first time I came across the lyrics translation, but once I found it.... imagine my surprise.

THE LYRICS ARE BEAUTIFUL!
(this was my answer for case 1)

I know the translation may or may not be exact or direct, but once you look at it, you realize that those popular songs that you hear on the radio is not up to par with J-music. Not just in terms instruments used, or rythm or whatever u wanna call it. The lyrics are just so goddamn poetic, and it makes you wonder what it really means. Sorry, I'm the kind of person who likes to evaluate lyrics and how the message is delivered. Malay and English songs lack this writing skill, and as a result the songs sound too straightforward... repetitive and in the end becomes boring (so boring that I want to throw up). Wait... lately I notice Japanese songwords seem to have repetition too... (sometimes even without finding the translation, you can guess what they're saying cos you're already familiar with several Japanese words) but oh well, my artistic side is still in love with the metaphoras. Even if there are English songs that are this good, they don't neccessarily belong to the mainstream. :3 As for Malay.... to be honest, it's Hazami. I kinda prefer his version of Winter Sonata theme than the original Korean, cos the latter has more direct message.

Anyways, I'm not really impressed by this post of mine. I guess I'm just ranting. I'm angry about this 'attitude' towards songs-you-can't-understand. I did my best to control my anger in [case 2] but it caused me to lag a bit before I simply respond with "if you don't understand find the lyrics translation". Easy wor, got internut wor... I wanted to say more but I didn't want to show that it really affected my feelings. Before this, the same person kindly asked me to remove them Japanese songs from my WMP cos she can't understand it (eh it's not like I understood either... but if you ask me what do i not understand is WHY DO YOU LIEK J BIEBER???). If i were to judge music, it's not the language but the story behind it, the melody, the genre (and sometimes the singer).

Ah... One of these days I'll just explain it properly.

So I wonder, (if there's anyone out there who read this) have you ever got this kind of comment before?