Krystian SuchorabVulgarismen in deutschen und polnischen Rap- und Rocksongs

About this book deutschenglish

Is rap music more vulgar than rock? Are Polish song lyrics more vulgar than those of German? These questions and many others will be addressed in the monograph „Vulgarismen in deutschen und polnischen Rap- und Rocksongs. Eine semantische und strukturelle Analyse“. The monograph touches upon a topic that is still taboo today, dedicating itself to the use of vulgarisms in the song lyrics of the rap- and rock genres. Krystian Suchorab first investigates the terminological aspects. He defines the category of text song lyrics taking into account the text structure and multimodal character. With this in mind, the two genres of rock and rap are compared and contrasted, with a focus on the characteristic features of each genre. The author also explains the differences between terms such as: swear words, curses, vulgarism, invective, derogatory titles and insults which are very commonly confused today.

The analysis centres on vulgarisms taken from one-hundred German songs and one-hundred Polish songs. The study focuses on the semantics of the aforementioned vulgarisms when used in the lyrics. It is observed in which way, and for what meaning, vulgarisms were used and whether new usage and meaning has developed, undefined in any dictionary. Furthermore, the author focuses on the structure of vulgarism, differentiating, amongst other things, simplizia, compounds and derivatives which form the base units of vulgarisms.

The research enables the definition of a saturation-point of vulgarism in song lyrics. The extensive comparisons give the research a complex character and display the differences in the employment of vulgarisms in German and Polish language. In addition, it is clarified as to which areas German and Polish vulgarisms refer to, e.g., defecation, sexual life, prostitution, etc.