Jewish music with english words=Goyish.

#notmymusic

based on your posts it seems not to be your religion either. What gives?

@Yussel You are enferring that it was ever different? Sturgeon’s Law. Out of the gazillion Jewish songs that come out every month, a small handful are really good. Those will end up living on, being sung at kumzitzes and chasunas for generations. The rest will be forgotten.

yserbius12: In the days of The Rabbi’s Sons, Carlebach, etc. the music was not the way it is today. Even the early Mordechai ben David (i remember when we still called him by his name and not MBD) had more “soul” to it than what we hear today.

Some singers still have depth to they’re music, take avraham fried for example, most of his music has depth,

So you are going to claim a song like “Siyata Dishmaya” by Miami Boys Choir (1984) is goyish? or Avrohom Fried’s “no jew will be left behind”? or Mordechai Ben David’s “someday we will all be together”?

“…most jewish music produced today is not very good. it’s too loud, too beat-driven, and it’s all from a cookie-cutter mold designed to produce songs for weddings…..

So Yussel, if we were to redirect Jewish music composers away from their primary focus on chasunahs, you would only worsen the shidduch crisis since without such background noise, even fewer would be willing to incur a lifetime of debt and putting up with their machatonim

Abe Rotenberg ,
Come on and ride the train.
As non Jewish as can be. Right?

I think the title just got confused
It should say
Goyish music with Hebrew words = goyish

The only truly Jewish music = leining.

Thank you mods

I think that the lyrics and or the intent of the song is what makes it Jewish.

Take for example Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 hit song, “Spirit in the Sky”. Greenbaum is an Orthodox Jew and if you listen to the lyrics it is very much not a Jewish song. However, Greenbaum’s intent was to express spiritualism and used Christian overtones to express it because it was more marektable.

If you were to take the song at the lyrics it is not a Jewish one. But if you take the intent of the song behind the lyrics knowing that Greenbaum is an Orthodox Jew, you can make a compelling argument that it is a Jewish song. To quote Greenbaum (i got this off his Wikipedia page),

Sometimes its hard to define what “Jewish” music is.

LOTR92

Thanks for this thread, it’s really entertaining.

There are Chabad songs in Russian. Are those goyish?

If the guy keeps Shabbos and is a torah-dika mensch I don’t see why not

Burnt steak – without arguing the point you made, and i don’tknow greenbaum, but i would not feel comfortable with the music from a Jew who is willing to speak of spirituality with christian overtones for any purpose, especially person gain. Its like telling me you composed a song on tehillim while using the bathroom, ch”v.
Side point, i did not read his wikki page but he was in a terrible car accident on a saturdsy afternoon several years back. Although i agree with your point above, this does not seem to be a good example

You’re all wrong
If music is Hebrew it’s tziyonish it’s even worse than English but English is worst
Lashon kodesh is too holy for regular people like you
His thread is a chilul hashem
And lashon hara
And leitzanus

@syag
That’s very fair and you make a good point. I chose a extreme case to make my point and i wouldn’t necessarily think that Greenbaum’s song is actually Jewish, just that you can make the argument it is. I just wanted to point out that the definition of Jewish music is not so black and white.

Music has been intertwined with davening since at least the times of the Beis Hamikdash. I understand Jewish music to be anything that is meant to bring a person closer to Hashem by employing Jewish themes. The tunes don’t have to be Jewish. There are niggumin that are used in davening which originated as local songs. By putting the words of davening, Jews have elevated the music and made it Jewish music. I put much more weight in what the actual intent is behind the song than the vehicle that is used to construct the song.

If the singers and musicians are Jewish, then it’s Jewish music.
If not, then it’s not Jewish. It doesn’t matter what the origin of the tune is or what language the lyrics are. Jewish musicians = Jewish music. Goyish musicians = goyish music.

Reform Rabbi
If non-kosher food is cooked by a Jew is it kosher?