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| View count: | 2,620,406 |
| Likes: | 44,817 |
| Comments: | 5,642 |
| Duration: | 03:50 |
| Uploaded: | 2013-02-22 |
| Last sync: | 2024-03-28 11:00 |
Citation
| Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate. | |
| MLA Full: | "Translating Dance Songs." YouTube, uploaded by vlogbrothers, 22 February 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6zXtq1JW2U. |
| MLA Inline: | (vlogbrothers, 2013) |
| APA Full: | vlogbrothers. (2013, February 22). Translating Dance Songs [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=h6zXtq1JW2U |
| APA Inline: | (vlogbrothers, 2013) |
| Chicago Full: |
vlogbrothers, "Translating Dance Songs.", February 22, 2013, YouTube, 03:50, https://youtube.com/watch?v=h6zXtq1JW2U. |
How Many Languages does Nerdfighteria Speak? Let's find out! http://nerdfighteria.vanillaforums.com/discussion/2043/how-many-languages-does-nerdfighteria-speak
In which Hank (with the help of Irina, Amy, Florencia, Daniel, David, James, and Kensaku) translates songs that have spawned dance crazes in America, but I primarily not in English.
I learned a lot more about these songs than I was able to fit in this video, I apologize for not being able to share more. Maybe I'll put some extra stuff on hankschannel.
Thanks to Michael Aranda for the mixes: http://www.youtube.com/michaelaranda
In which Hank (with the help of Irina, Amy, Florencia, Daniel, David, James, and Kensaku) translates songs that have spawned dance crazes in America, but I primarily not in English.
I learned a lot more about these songs than I was able to fit in this video, I apologize for not being able to share more. Maybe I'll put some extra stuff on hankschannel.
Thanks to Michael Aranda for the mixes: http://www.youtube.com/michaelaranda
Good morning, John.
Last week, the consensus to my question about why we like to dance to songs we don't understand the words to, was that we can hear the passion in the words but then we can project our individual circumstances onto their, like, blank canvas, which I thought was really quite nice, and made sense. But then I got obsessed with what the words actually meant.
So I recruited some translators through Twitter, not to translate word for word, but to translate the meaning. And then, I crammed that meaning, or attempted to, into like a cover of the song in English, but with the original meaning. So yeah, I'm probably about to ruin these songs for you by eliminating your ability to project your subconscious onto the nonsense of their words. I don't care, though. Deal.
Gangnam Style
There's a girl in the day, she's warm and pretty and nice. A classy girl, drinkin' a double latte on ice. A girl who starts to heat the club up whenever the night arrives, a girl who's got that kinda spice.
You're a hottie, so let's get naughty, I say to you. You say it too. Let's just pretend that it won't end until it ends. Oppa got Gangnam Style.
Gangnam is a district in Seoul that is like, a super wealthy district, and a lot of people that don't live there try to act like they live there, and that can result in people struggling terribly to maintain that image, and we have this problem in America, too. Gangnam Style at first appears to be celebrating that culture, but then it turns out in fact that it's mocking the culture of materialism and wealth. So, that's pretty cool. D-d-dance!
Macarena
Listen to your body, listen to it, Macarena,
if it makes your body feel good then its gotta be okay now. Listen to your body, listen to it, Macarena, heeeeey, Macarena.
This was the only verse that was in the version of the Macarena that we heard, and it sounds pretty innocuous, but then, the next verse in the original version of the Macarena.. Macarena's boyfriend gets drafted into the army, and then she "listens to her body" and has sex with two of his friends, and then wants to go shopping a lot, and it turns out that she's just a terrible person. So, dance!
Numa Numa
Hello? Hello? It's me, your Picasso, just callin' again, your big strong man. No pressure from me, just callin' to see, oh, if you don't, don't, don't want to take me, you don't want to take me, no, you're leaving without me. Your face and "the love under the linden tree," they remind me of your eyes.
So this guy keeps calling this girl, who's presumably his ex or current girlfriend. She won't pick up, so he's leaving messages. He keeps talking about how cool he is, and relating himself to all these epic Romanian cultural icons, and then he's just wailing about how she's leaving him, and relating their love to a Romanian epic poem. It's very sad. So dance party!
Promise
Get down, I miss you so much that I'm shakin' and I'm dizzy, and I fall to my knees. You and me asleep as the snow falls in a winter land, my eyes only for you, your eyes only for me, for tomorrow, I promise.
I thought it was gonna be, "get down, I shake it and I shake it and I do a little dance." Instead, she appears to be singing about the eternal pledge that she made to her dead or otherwise lost lover and now is alone in the cold, cold winter, which, according to one of the translators is a Japanese symbol for a perfect thing in an imperfect setting, which I guess would be her perfect pledge to a dead guy. Get down!
Soulja Boy
I also translated Soulja Boy!
Soulja Boy has lots of sex, Soulja Boy can really dance. Soulja Boy is really great, and women are for sex. Now watch me dance!
End
Yeah. So. I never wanna dance to that song again. I apologize for ruining all these songs for you. Thank you to my Romanian and Korean and Japanese and Spanish translators, and thank you for Michael Aranda for mixing and auto-tuning those, 'cause I can't do the things that those people do.
And John, I'll see you on Tuesday.