English Songs: good or evil?

Listen to music and get the most of it.

by Kasra Sharifan | Jul 19, 2019 | Listening

There are many types of music available on the market and most of them are in English. Even many singers from other countries whose mother-tongue is not English, use this rich market and publish songs and albums globally. This makes choosing the correct song to listen to for English learners a bit difficult.

Is Pop the best?

Rock music, mostly, includes exaggeration of stress patterns and manipulation of word order in the sentences. Rap music is comprised of too much contraction between words and often includes very informal and sometimes quite offensive words which are not common in standard English dialogues. Metal or Hard Rock music sometimes contains jargon or tough and infrequent words. Country music is solely focused on Southern American accent, or in other words the accent cowboys used to speak.

It all now boils down to listening to a song that many people understand and has elements of everyday English. Pop music seems to be satisfying in this aspect, not to mention that you can actually sing along with the singer and follow the lines as naturally as possible.

A word of Caution!

In some songs, the focus of the artist is on the music rather than the lyrics and therefore should not be used for English learning purposes. The late Michael Jackson, for example, who is rightfully known as the King of Pop, regardless of how great his songs are, did not pronounce words clearly.

Who to listen to

There are many popular singers from English-speaking countries (e.g. Ireland, England, Canada and America) who can buy antibiotics online fast delivery be used as the best sources for practicing different accents as well as learning new words, structures and collocations in English. We recommend: Chris de Burgh, Adele, Celine Dion and Bruno Mars.

Let’s sum up

There is no such thing as the best song to listen to. All things considered, listen to your heart! If a song interests you, download the lyrics, listen to it and sing along.

For more help on how to properly listen to a song and practice your English, read IELTS Juice’s: “A Christmassy lesson”

Your turn

What English songs do you listen to for learning English? Leave a comment below and share them with other English learners?

Kasra Sharifan

Co-founder and CFO

British Council certified English teacher, IDP-trained IELTS instructor, content writer, editor-in-chief, co-founder, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at IELTS Juice Online Academy.