Does language matter in music?

Many of us know the band Rammstein and have always enjoyed their music without understanding any of their Lyrics. Rammestein have almost all of their tracks sang in German and most of the topics they talk about are… Lets say “R-rated”. Their big hit and fan’s favorite “Mutter” insults a mother savagely.

“The song was confirmed by Till Lindemann and Richard Kruspe to be a reference to their unhappy childhood relationships with their own mothers. The lyrics tell the story of a child not born from a womb but in an experiment, thus having no true father or mother. The decidedly depressing lyrics describe his plan to kill both the mother “who never gave birth to him” and himself, a plan which he proceeds to carry out. However, he still fails to kill himself, instead ending up mutilated and no better off than before. The child begs, possibly prays, for strength, but his dead mother does not answer. The narrative of the song is similar to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in that the character takes revenge for his misfortunes on his ‘parent’, and then ends up no different than he was before the ‘parent’ died.” (from Wikipedia ) (P.S: Till is Rammstein’s vocalist).

“Oliver Riedel commented that, “German language suits heavy metal music. French might be the language of love, but German is the language of anger” ( From Wikipedia ) (P.S.: Oliver is the bass player)

“This is, among other things that are often very controversial, and taboo subjects such as sadomasochism (“Bück dich”, “Rein Raus” and “Bestrafe mich”), homosexuality (“Mann gegen Mann”), intersexuality (“Zwitter”), incest (“Laichzeit” and “Spiel mit mir”), pedophilia (“Weißes Fleisch” and “Halleluja”), incestuous pedophilia (“Tier”), necrophilia (“Heirate mich”), pyromania (“Benzin” and “Hilf mir”), cannibalism (“Mein Teil”), religious images (“Asche zu Asche”, “Engel”) having sex and violence (“Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen?”, “Rein Raus). Rammstein also uses lyrics of classical German literature, e.g. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous poems Der Erlkönig (1778) and Das Heidenröslein (1771) for the songs “Dalai Lama” and “Rosenrot”, respectively” (From Wikipedia )

I would say that Rammstein members are perverts with multi psychologic problems and traumas! 😛

Other bands have achieved huge success, still fans don’t understand the lyrics and don’t want to know what it talks about… Many of the metalheads enjoy the music alone and don’t give much attention to the lyrics; others enjoy the mix of both and some just enjoy the lyrics with the “Metal” background.

Lumsk is another band that achieved international success with all albums only sang in their Norwegian native language.

For example: Album Åsmund Frægdegjevar “The songs make up a narrative about the saga of Åsmund, who in Lumsk’s interpretation sails from Ireland to rescue a king’s daughter from a group of trolls.” (From Wikipedia)

One more example is Arkona selling thousands of albums internationally although all tracks were sang in Russian… Arkona is a growing band with a unique style of Folk/Death mixture.

“Their lyrics are heavily influenced by Russian folklore, and Slavic mythology, and their music incorporates several traditional Russian musical instruments” (From Wikipedia)