Tasks that apply to any kind of song

  1. Find out everything you can about the band: their history, their greatest hits, scandals, details about the members of the band, etc.
  2. Translate the song into your mother tongue! a) normal translation b) make the lines rhyme
  3. Compare the lyrics to the lyrics of other songs dealing with a similar subject matter !
  4. Compare the lyrics to other works of art, such as books, short stories, poems, films, plays, etc.
  5. Collect all the words and idioms that belong to the word field that the song deals with! Produce a vocabulary list !
  6. Watch the video that goes along with the song ! Are there differences, additions ? Does the video help you to understand the lyrics ?
  7. Listen to the song! Find out the chords to the song ! Play the song and sing along !
  8. Try to transcribe the lyrics while listening to the song several times. Compare your results to the "official lyrics" !
  9. Find out which cds the song appeared on ! (Suggestion: Try www.jpc.de)
  10. Write a parody of the lyrics (Cf. Weird Al Yankovic)!
  11. Write a negativistic review of the lyrics full of sarcasm (cf. Lyrics Schmyrics) !
  12. Find out what the following websites tell us about the songs in question: