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Translating Dance Songs

2013-02-22 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · comedy performance

Hank, following up viewers' answer that we dance to songs we don't understand because we project ourselves onto them, sings English covers carrying the songs' real meanings - mostly darker or sillier than the dance suggests.

What is said

00:00:00 — Viewers' answer to why we dance to songs we don't understand; Hank has translators render the songs' meanings and crams them into English covers

  • ★★★ Hank reports viewers' consensus on why we dance to songs we don't understand: we hear the passion in the words but project our own circumstances onto their blank canvas, which he finds nice and sensible. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In the description Hank asks how many languages Nerdfighteria speaks, pointing to a discussion on the Nerdfighteria forum to find out. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Obsessed with what the words meant, Hank recruited translators through Twitter to translate the meaning rather than word for word, and crammed it into English covers of the songs. — 00:00:13 · Twitter
  • ★ Hank expects to ruin the songs by removing listeners' ability to project their subconscious onto the nonsense of the words, and says he doesn't care. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:25

00:00:34 — Gangnam Style in English, and what it means: mocking Gangnam's culture of materialism and wealth

  • ★★ Gangnam is a super wealthy district in Seoul; many people who don't live there act as if they do and struggle terribly to keep up the image, a problem America has too. — 00:01:06 · United States
  • ★★★ Gangnam Style at first appears to celebrate that culture but in fact mocks the culture of materialism and wealth, which Hank thinks is pretty cool. — 00:01:18

00:01:26 — Macarena in English: the verse Americans never heard

  • ★★ The Macarena heard in America had only its innocuous verse; in the original's next verse Macarena's boyfriend is drafted and she has sex with two of his friends, then wants to go shopping. — 00:01:36 · United States

00:01:51 — Dragostea Din Tei in English: a man leaving messages for a girl who won't pick up

  • ★★ In Dragostea Din Tei a man keeps calling a girl, presumably his ex or current girlfriend, leaving messages that boast of himself through Romanian cultural icons, then wails that she is leaving him. (hedged) — 00:02:22

00:02:37 — Promise in English: an eternal pledge to a lost lover in the cold winter

  • ★★ In Promise the singer appears to sing of an eternal pledge to a dead or lost lover, alone in the cold winter, which one translator says is a Japanese symbol of a perfect thing in an imperfect setting. (hedged) — 00:02:56

00:03:17 — Soulja Boy translated; apology for ruining the songs; thanks to the translators and Michael Aranda; sign-off

  • ★★ Having translated Soulja Boy too, Hank never wants to dance to that song again, and apologizes for ruining all these songs. (playful) — 00:03:17
  • ★ Hank thanks his Romanian, Korean, Japanese and Spanish translators, and Michael Aranda for mixing and auto-tuning the covers. — 00:03:32 · Michael Aranda

Humor (significant)

  • Hank admits the translations will ruin the songs by killing the projection that makes them danceable. — 00:00:31 > «I don't care, though. Deal.»
  • Hank recounts the Macarena's unheard verse: boyfriend drafted, she sleeps with two of his friends, then wants to go shopping. — 00:01:47 > «and it turns out that she's just a terrible person.»
  • A translator says the cold winter symbolises a perfect thing in an imperfect setting. — 00:03:12 > «which I guess would be her perfect pledge to a dead guy.»
  • After translating Soulja Boy's dance hit, Hank reflects. — 00:03:27 > «Yeah. So. I never wanna dance to that song again.»

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