How German sounds compared to other languages

[Dave W]

[uwe]

Just bekause vee like our konsonants ...

[lowend1]

They forgot brassiere, which translates loosely into German as "schtappenvonflappen".

[westen44]

I think it all depends on what kind of German accent you are talking about.  There are great differences, needless to say.  The people I've been around seem to have mostly been from parts of central Germany and I've always liked the way they spoke German very much.  Moving on to English, I found this some time ago--

[4stringer77]

Even at it's most idiosyncratic, the German language has a particular beauty all it's own.

[Dave W]

[Barklessdog]

There is a strictness and beauty to the German language, much like Japanese. Works great for rock music, where Spanish does not sound as good to me,

[westen44]

There is a strictness and beauty to the German language, much like Japanese. Works great for rock music, where Spanish does not sound as good to me,

I agree.  There is nothing wrong with Spanish.  I ended up taking it in high school (because it was the only thing offered.)  I also took some courses in college. But I never could really like it.  I would have much preferred something like German.  Plus, German would be more useful to me in my travels. 

[uwe]

I don't think German sounds that great, it's comparatively harsh and the grammar is overengineered with communication-stunting idiosyncracies like putting the all-decisive verb at the end of a sentence so that you have to wallow through a lot of contextless information before eventually finding out what it actually is that is happening. It's a good language for putting down complex thoughts (= see all my posts here!   ) on a piece of paper, probably the best, in an economic way. I notice how much more paper English templates of complex contracts take to get their points across than a German template would.

But unless you are hell-bent on reading Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Marx and Heidegger in their original write, there are a lot more languages that make more sense being learned today as they cover wider geographic and cultural areas. English of course, but also Spanish (gives you South America, and, eventually, the US  ), French (gives you many parts of Africa), Mandarin and Russian which both give you vast populations and geographical areas.

As a medium for rock music, German is only so-so, many German singing acts stretch and bend the German language so it actually sounds like English a bit. Jule Neigel for instance, great voice, but she sings German as if she was an American tourist!  



Interzone sang German like Germans. (Perhaps I liked them so much because the late Heiner Pudelko had a bit of Rob Halford in his voice and even in his look, just listen to the chorus screams.)



Rammstein, of course, put on a spoof. They pronounce and emphasize Tshörrrmänn like radio broadcasters in the 30ties would have (for all the toying with Third Reich/Leni Riefenstahl visuals, the bands lyrics are either staunchly apolitical (if taboo defying) or - like in the "Amerika" clip I posted above - leftish), no one speaks our language like that today anymore.

To my ears, Spanish (like Italian) and rock work fine and certainly better than German:






As does French:

[Dave W]

The only German singer whose music I'm familiar with is Gus Backus, and he's a transplanted American.

[copacetic]

The only German singer I am familiar with is Hoger Czukay. He nails it down.

[John Schoen]

I still believe Nina Hagen's first album is one of the finest moments in German rock.

[uwe]

Yup, Hagen's debut was a milestone, never mind the many silly things that came after. Her voice was theater-schooled.

[uwe]

The only German singer whose music I'm familiar with is Gus Backus, and he's a transplanted American.

Come on, Dave, not even Billy Mo, another "transplant"?



Basically, all GIs started to sing Deutsch once zey gott ze knäck of itt, jawoll!





And what about Joachim Fritz Krauledat from East Prussia who even named his band after a German novel?



Thinly veiled, but you could hear from the lyrics where the guy came from, Kraut is Kraut or Krauledat, whatever:

Get your motor runnin'




Head out on the highway




Lookin' for adventure




And whatever comes our way

[Basvarken]

I really dig Chris Laut and his band Ohrenfeindt.

I think he manages to sound like German was meant for Rock n Roll

But somehow I'm the only one in the whole of The Netherlands who likes to hear German as a language for hard rock... I've been trying to get them a gig here, but nobody seems interested. I Germany they draw quite large crowds these days.