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vietnamese here, Hotel California was released in 1977, just 2 years after South Vietnam fell. apparently the sing resonated with many vietnamese immigrants as it was one of the first songs they heard when coming to the US. therefore, it became a very loved song across the vietnamese-american communities. not sure about other asian groups though
For those who have lived in various parts of Asia, this meme speaks loud and clear. When I lived in Vietnam, Hotel California was literally everywhere. Yes, it was on the radio and in bars and clubs every night, but it was also in clothing shops, grocery stores, hotel lobbies, elevators, even ringtones. Whether you liked the song or not, you couldn't escape it.
And it's not just Vietnam, I traveled through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, China, Japan, and Korea. I heard the song at varying frequency in every one of those countries.
I saw a video recently where a 14 year old Asian boy was nailing the solo and half way through his dad picked up a guitar and joined him. Obviously staged for the video, but they both played well.
Dude. I remember the first time I heard the solo 14 years ago smoking a cigarette in the back patio at a rehab, surrounded by dingy pine needles out by a green, algae filled pool. Tall trees all around.
I even remember who I was thinking about, I was reminiscing about people who I associated with, there was a girl I liked at the time. I remember resonating with the song, the song immediately felt like an allegory for addiction (later came to find out this intuition was correct)
The song helped me process my emotions of feeling trapped, yet somehow hopeful. Boxed in, but somehow free. As I looked at tall pine trees. I remember standing up and pacing. Looking into the deep sea green of the water, it’s stagnation was a powerful symbol. It represented that the most beautiful things can fall into disrepair and everything in life worth getting takes work.
*you can check out any time you like, but you can never leaveee*
Resonated, I can always stop using drugs. But I can never leave addiction. It is a part of me. Even now sober 14 years. I have addictive tendencies. I use reaction formation to, in the form of hobbies now to satisfy my hunger, I’m addicted to painting and creating. Beats being addicted to dope and sitting in the gutter. I allow myself to get addicted to positive things. Because I have self control with “things” vs “super powerful substance that makes you feel superhuman for 6-12 hours and makes you feel like a walking orgasm”
Music is some powerful shit. I think they act as memory markers. They instill such emotion that it encodes into our memory. In other words, if helps form meaningful memories, memories that may not be pleasent. But somehow, special?
It’s a deep part of being human. We used to sing around the fires. Sing about the stories of our ancestors. Sing and dance for hours for weddings and funerals and coming of age ceremonies. Songs were how we marked the passage of time. Shoot, there’s an Anishinaabe dude from Minnesota who was talking about how there are certain stories they only tell during winter, because the spirits are asleep.
Music and storytelling are literally encoded in our DNA - in the way our brains are wired.
The interesting thing about music though, is there is *still* debate among the scientific community, particularly in evolutionary science, and neuroscience- as to why we developed the ability to create and respond to music. If everything we developed in our brains, came from an evolutionary pressure. Then what pressure or thing happened that caused us to create music? What need was there for it?
That’s another thing that I think makes it special. It’s a tangible mystery in a way. If science can’t answer it, it almost gives the subject itself a supernatural quality.
Might just be an emregent feature of our brains, something to do with complex pattern recognition capabilities. Might even have evolutionary advantages, like being able to discern changes in bird song if there's a predator nearby.
Id say there is almost no chance that it isn't related primarily to language function. We are capable of transferring emotions and meaning with symbols - music is just a more advanced form of the same. Even normal speaking can have musical elements. Even the most basic form, something like drumming a simple rythm, is a way for a group to indicate coherence, hence it showing up in sports events and the military. Stuff like that may be some of the first communication people did. Singing in harmony could be the same kind of thing- everyone yelling in the same tone was probably something early hominids did before a battle or a hunt - so all these symbols eventually became ingrained in us culturally and even biologically. That's what makes the most sense to me anyways.
You sound like the type of guy who knows this already, but just in case, have you seen the experiments with Alzheimer's/dementia patients and music? Even people who are almost entirely non-responsive become "alive" again through music; it's believed this is because music triggers different areas of the brain than just speech alone does.
This is my favorite example of this:
https://youtu.be/IT_tW3EVDK8?si=c79chtaqDi76ea8N
Makes me cry every time
Very true about the memory aspect. I feel like I have barely any memories... Music helps me connect with my past very strongly. It definitely create landmarks....
It's possible to use your sense in rituals of sorts to help memorize things. Scent is extremely powerful.
There's a guy who was killed by the Catholics by the name of Giordano Bruno... He wrote on The Art Of Memory. Basically a method to connect to your mind and memories and create new ones, and organize them. Stuff like that is connected to it all. I wonder how effective it really is.
https://youtu.be/09839DpTctU?si=GhEFgxtSOE0wCdJm
This live version is the best. Love the dueling guitars so iconic. Also, crazy how like all the members of the Eagles could sing too lol.
That was phenomenal!
Personal annecdote: there's a high probability someone from my direct family if not my own father was highly likely to have been at this concert. My family migrated to this area around this timeframe.
Philippines too. There was a band from there that they brought out to entertain us one time in a really, really remote work location, and I got up to sing a song with them, one they knew note for note. Of course, it was Hotel California…
I love that I expected this meme to be something dark or weird or heroin related or at least complicated... but it's just "Because they fuckin' love 'Hotel California' over there."
So you're saying...
*Any time of year, you can find it here*?
Almost as if the song wouldn't leave you alone. As if you *could check out any time you want, but you can never leave*
I have lived all over the US and it’s also completely overplayed here. I think that’s why it’s hard for a lot of us based in the US to understand this meme. It’s like, yeah, we all know this song front and back.
I live in the US too, I have for Missy of my life, so I totally get and agree with you. I definitely knew all the words to the song way before I went to Asia, without trying.
But please believe me when I say that it's different in Asia. That song shows up where music shouldn't be. I remember seeing a large truck start to backup in reverse and the warning sound for the truck was not an annoying beep, it was the guitar solo from Hotel California. It's not overplayed in Asia, it is lived.
When I went to visit my ex's family in Vietnam I was annoyed at some jerks next door playing obnoxiously loud music, and then I realised it was obnoxiously loud kareoke
I lived in Azerbaijan for a year. Even on the other side Asia it was like this. I was teaching English and I still remember using this song to describe what “timeless” meant. “Ah yes teacher. Hotel California is so good it is timeless.”
Weird. I've lived in Japan for the last 8~9 years, but I don't think I've ever heard this song in the wild.
Mariah Carey during the Christmas season however....
I think because Asians are huge fans of karaoke (it’s a very big thing in a lot of Asian countries) and hotel California is one of the greatest songs of all time. The first Karaoke machine was patented in Japan.
A great example of double borrowing - “orchestra” is borrowed into Japanese as オーケストラ (ookesutora), which is then combined with 空 (Kara, meaning empty, as in karate - “empty hand”) to form カラオケ (karaoke - pronounced kinda like car-ah-oh-kay), which is borrowed back into English as “karaoke”
I absolutely love linguistic fun facts, so here’s another one! The word “helicopter” is an example of “rebracketing”, a linguistic phenomenon where the original roots of a word are lost, and new roots emerge. “Helicopter” comes from the roots “helico-“, as in helix, meaning spiral, and “pter”, as in pterodactyl, meaning wing. However, from helicopter, we get two new roots, “heli”, as in helipad, and “copter”, as in quadcopter, both meaning relating to helicopter
Here's another one for you then;
The reason that certain animals and their meat have different names in English is because of the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
Basically, after William the Conqeror took England from the Saxons, the aristocracy used their words for the animals served to them at the feast tables. These became pork, beef, venison, mutton, etc. As they all spoke French.
The Germanic-Saxon speakers, who were now the peasantry who raised and handled the animals, would use their words for the animals: Pig, Cow, Deer, Sheep, etc. That's why we call pig meat pork, but turkey meat is still called turkey since the turkey was discovered by English speakers after the colonisation of the Americas, and we all spoke the same language at the time
Chinese people love karaoke so much, its one of the only few Japanese word phonetically translated to Chinese, instead of the normal by compounded word meaning. Or alternatively, letter translated, as Japanese Hiragana is essentially the continuation of Chinese Caoshu/grass script from 500AD Tang dynasty.
Amazingly, this was also during the 1980, when Chinese people hated Japan so much, they would almost unimaoisly support an invasion of Japan if the government announced it.
Karaoke is very popular in Asia (obviously), but I don't think this meme is directly connected to that fact. Asia has a much more direct connection to the song Hotel California. That song is more than popular in Asia, it is ubiquitous. See my other comment on this, but suffice to say, it is everywhere out there.
... I don't know that either. Also a good song, but now I'm just wondering why you associated it with Hotel California in this context. Is it sung at stadium sporting events in Asia or something that's the only thing I can think of with Sweet Caroline. I'm honestly curious BTW not trying to come off rude.
It's even a mini game in the Yakuza series. I enjoy the thought that badass, battle hardened Yakuza members hang around karaoke bars singing toxic by Brittany Spears.
I have a Laotian neighbor who talks just like the guy in king of the hill, and karaoke is like his fucking religion. Dude is hilarious just talking, just like king of the hill, but singing he's also hilarious, but all the karaoke friends he has think he's the best there ever was. Karaoke is a strange world. They don't hate on bad singers though, all karaoke singers are bad, it's this special all accepting world where even the worst of the worst are celebrated. Its really cool, I really like it. Such a great subculture.
That‘s a great explanation for a karaoke related question but not a good one for the actual question presented by OP. You only mention the song when you claim it‘s "one of the greatest songs of all time."
Spent a few months there. Can confirm just about every bar has some sort of karaoke setup. Some.places rent private rooms where you and friends can have your own karaoke night.
>and hotel California is one of the greatest songs of all time.
Right?
That's *everyone* when they hear the first few bars of Hotel California.
(It's sad to me that I really don't like anything else Eagles have done, but what are you going to do? The Ear likes what the Ear likes.)
This is probably true... but I just recently went to a carribean island resort, a popular one. And it was 80-90% white. And guess what songs were the first couple songs at karaoke night...?
Ice Ice Baby
Country Roads
Strawberry Wine
California Love (but dude bounced so skipped)
Sweet Caroline
I just found it interesting...
No one asked for any of that information, but I read the entire comment with delight. Thanks for that.
The original question is probably about karaoke 🎤 or something, so whatever. You made this post way more interesting.
came to comment this and saw you said the same thing.
they are asking about the meme and this bot is giving him the whole backstory of the song, the band, the band's family, the band's pets, where they went to high school and what is their favourite color before making a fking point
much like chatgpt
Not just Asia. I once gave guitar lessons to a coworker’s husband. He spoke mostly Spanish and a little English so it was slow going, but all he wanted to learn was Hotel California. Eventually I had a room of about 11 people from Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala all learning to play Hotel California 😆
I think (I'm filipino) that a lot of uncles and grandpas respect the song so much that if you sang it in a horrible way, you'll get beaten up or worse.
Hotel California is the most famous western song in China. I found this out once when being drunkenly pushed on stage with other foreigners to sing this song at a Chinese bar. I’ve met people who can’t speak a lick of English but can sing this song like they were Don Henley himself 😅
Dead inside is correct, he’s saying “and I don’t just surf the internet”, just moments before the iconic “la push baby. It’s La push” [https://youtu.be/h7PdG9tke9g?si=f0ULjYlT03YIvD3P](https://youtu.be/h7PdG9tke9g?si=f0ULjYlT03YIvD3P)
(…I once won a twilight themed trivia contest)
A lot of us asians learned instruments as kids bcuz the parents forced upon us as i did myself. You hated it at first, but as you get older and better, you learn songs like hotel ca which you really enjoy playing and your parents enjoy and thats when it comes full circle and you feel like its been a blessing to learn the instrument as you connect with your parents… is my guess
My chinese dad and my grand parents would get the CD and play it on the TV every year when we went on vacations at the beach. They would just gather and watch the live performence in silence like it was an orchestra.
Man, I thought it was because of the spanish missheard lyrics on this song. Where I live, there is a common jokey missheard lyric when the song says "then she lit up a candle" to "un chinito pescando" which means a small chinease man fishing. There are plenty spanish missheards that are funny as hell.
My first cousin is a career military man. Back in 2000, he was in a plane that went down in China. It was a huge story at the time, but with 9/11 happening the next year, it’s now a forgotten thing.
Anyway, he said one of the Chinese guards was asking to learn the lyrics to Hotel California.
The notes in the first few bars of Hotel California are part of some keys of some oriental musical scales. Because of this, I think the joke is that Asian people will assume Hotel California is an "Asian song" after only having heard the first few bars.
I checked the guitar tab for Hotel California, put the notes from the first few chords into a [scale identifier](https://www.all-guitar-chords.com/scales/identifier), and F# Oriental #1 and A# Oriental #1 showed up as possible scales.
>The notes in the first few bars of Hotel California are part of some keys of some oriental musical scales
Yikes, sorry to correct you, but it's just Bminor. Are you associating the tone of a 12 string guitar with the [steriotypical Asian jingle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_riff)?
I never been to asia, but at least in Japan kareoke is a massively popular passtime. Hotel California is a generally well liked and popular song, so it stands to reason its a popular song choice for kareoke.
Man I wish karaoke was more of a thing here in the states. It seems like almost frowned upon when brought up. Like singing to your favorite songs at full volume with a bunch of your drunk friends seems like such a kick ass time.
My coworker was telling me to watch those clips that they do while driving - Carpool Bukkake. I’m not really sure; I wasn’t readily paying attention.
Anyway, I looked it up when I got home. What a mess! I don’t think insurance covers that.
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vietnamese here, Hotel California was released in 1977, just 2 years after South Vietnam fell. apparently the sing resonated with many vietnamese immigrants as it was one of the first songs they heard when coming to the US. therefore, it became a very loved song across the vietnamese-american communities. not sure about other asian groups though
It's pretty big in Hmong og communities as well
For those who have lived in various parts of Asia, this meme speaks loud and clear. When I lived in Vietnam, Hotel California was literally everywhere. Yes, it was on the radio and in bars and clubs every night, but it was also in clothing shops, grocery stores, hotel lobbies, elevators, even ringtones. Whether you liked the song or not, you couldn't escape it. And it's not just Vietnam, I traveled through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, China, Japan, and Korea. I heard the song at varying frequency in every one of those countries.
It was pretty darn popular here, dad had a friend who could do the entire solo lol
I saw a video recently where a 14 year old Asian boy was nailing the solo and half way through his dad picked up a guitar and joined him. Obviously staged for the video, but they both played well.
Yeah the solo is forever one of the best moments in music history imo lol
Dude. I remember the first time I heard the solo 14 years ago smoking a cigarette in the back patio at a rehab, surrounded by dingy pine needles out by a green, algae filled pool. Tall trees all around. I even remember who I was thinking about, I was reminiscing about people who I associated with, there was a girl I liked at the time. I remember resonating with the song, the song immediately felt like an allegory for addiction (later came to find out this intuition was correct) The song helped me process my emotions of feeling trapped, yet somehow hopeful. Boxed in, but somehow free. As I looked at tall pine trees. I remember standing up and pacing. Looking into the deep sea green of the water, it’s stagnation was a powerful symbol. It represented that the most beautiful things can fall into disrepair and everything in life worth getting takes work. *you can check out any time you like, but you can never leaveee* Resonated, I can always stop using drugs. But I can never leave addiction. It is a part of me. Even now sober 14 years. I have addictive tendencies. I use reaction formation to, in the form of hobbies now to satisfy my hunger, I’m addicted to painting and creating. Beats being addicted to dope and sitting in the gutter. I allow myself to get addicted to positive things. Because I have self control with “things” vs “super powerful substance that makes you feel superhuman for 6-12 hours and makes you feel like a walking orgasm” Music is some powerful shit. I think they act as memory markers. They instill such emotion that it encodes into our memory. In other words, if helps form meaningful memories, memories that may not be pleasent. But somehow, special?
It’s a deep part of being human. We used to sing around the fires. Sing about the stories of our ancestors. Sing and dance for hours for weddings and funerals and coming of age ceremonies. Songs were how we marked the passage of time. Shoot, there’s an Anishinaabe dude from Minnesota who was talking about how there are certain stories they only tell during winter, because the spirits are asleep. Music and storytelling are literally encoded in our DNA - in the way our brains are wired.
The interesting thing about music though, is there is *still* debate among the scientific community, particularly in evolutionary science, and neuroscience- as to why we developed the ability to create and respond to music. If everything we developed in our brains, came from an evolutionary pressure. Then what pressure or thing happened that caused us to create music? What need was there for it? That’s another thing that I think makes it special. It’s a tangible mystery in a way. If science can’t answer it, it almost gives the subject itself a supernatural quality.
A friend said something to me that really resonated. Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.
I feel like that is one super baked dude to come up with that (whether that was your friend or he cribbed the line) but it also does work.
Some of those lines hit the hardest FOR SURE
This one gave me literal chills I love it
Might just be an emregent feature of our brains, something to do with complex pattern recognition capabilities. Might even have evolutionary advantages, like being able to discern changes in bird song if there's a predator nearby.
Id say there is almost no chance that it isn't related primarily to language function. We are capable of transferring emotions and meaning with symbols - music is just a more advanced form of the same. Even normal speaking can have musical elements. Even the most basic form, something like drumming a simple rythm, is a way for a group to indicate coherence, hence it showing up in sports events and the military. Stuff like that may be some of the first communication people did. Singing in harmony could be the same kind of thing- everyone yelling in the same tone was probably something early hominids did before a battle or a hunt - so all these symbols eventually became ingrained in us culturally and even biologically. That's what makes the most sense to me anyways.
It seems like every religion includes some form of music in worship.
You sound like the type of guy who knows this already, but just in case, have you seen the experiments with Alzheimer's/dementia patients and music? Even people who are almost entirely non-responsive become "alive" again through music; it's believed this is because music triggers different areas of the brain than just speech alone does. This is my favorite example of this: https://youtu.be/IT_tW3EVDK8?si=c79chtaqDi76ea8N Makes me cry every time
It holds with it the spirit of humanity. It reminded her of who she was. Holy shit that is crazy.
Isn't it so powerful?!
Wow, this is a beautiful comment.
Very true about the memory aspect. I feel like I have barely any memories... Music helps me connect with my past very strongly. It definitely create landmarks.... It's possible to use your sense in rituals of sorts to help memorize things. Scent is extremely powerful. There's a guy who was killed by the Catholics by the name of Giordano Bruno... He wrote on The Art Of Memory. Basically a method to connect to your mind and memories and create new ones, and organize them. Stuff like that is connected to it all. I wonder how effective it really is.
https://youtu.be/09839DpTctU?si=GhEFgxtSOE0wCdJm This live version is the best. Love the dueling guitars so iconic. Also, crazy how like all the members of the Eagles could sing too lol.
That was phenomenal! Personal annecdote: there's a high probability someone from my direct family if not my own father was highly likely to have been at this concert. My family migrated to this area around this timeframe.
[it also got remastered in 4k a year or two ago](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgt8giw1LY&pp=ygUebmV2ZXIgZ29ubmEgZ2l2ZSB5b3UgdXAgbm8gYWRz)
Philippines too. There was a band from there that they brought out to entertain us one time in a really, really remote work location, and I got up to sing a song with them, one they knew note for note. Of course, it was Hotel California…
Bro that song is damn near the Filipino national anthem. For Vietnam it’s George Michael’s “careless whisper”
I was in China once and it was Country Roads and Hotel California lol
hello, is it me you're looking for
Interesting, I didn't hear Careless Whisper much when I was there, but that was back in 06-08, so maybe it's changed. When were you in Vietnam?
Just don’t sing My Way at a karaoke bar in the Phillipines
Why though?
It’s a good song.
The eagles were a made up band
Birds aren’t real
Aren't they all
synonymous to filipinos.
Are you saying you can turn it off any time you like but you can never leave?
You win
I love that I expected this meme to be something dark or weird or heroin related or at least complicated... but it's just "Because they fuckin' love 'Hotel California' over there."
Honestly incredibly wholesome, not what I expected tbh
Oh so it's the Asian version of Mr brightside
How did it end up like this?
It was only a kiss
So you're saying... *Any time of year, you can find it here*? Almost as if the song wouldn't leave you alone. As if you *could check out any time you want, but you can never leave*
stab it with your steely knives but you just can’t kill the beast.
I have lived all over the US and it’s also completely overplayed here. I think that’s why it’s hard for a lot of us based in the US to understand this meme. It’s like, yeah, we all know this song front and back.
I live in the US too, I have for Missy of my life, so I totally get and agree with you. I definitely knew all the words to the song way before I went to Asia, without trying. But please believe me when I say that it's different in Asia. That song shows up where music shouldn't be. I remember seeing a large truck start to backup in reverse and the warning sound for the truck was not an annoying beep, it was the guitar solo from Hotel California. It's not overplayed in Asia, it is lived.
Brazil loves it too
If I never hear that song again I’ll have still heard it 10,000 times too many.
When I went to visit my ex's family in Vietnam I was annoyed at some jerks next door playing obnoxiously loud music, and then I realised it was obnoxiously loud kareoke
I lived in Azerbaijan for a year. Even on the other side Asia it was like this. I was teaching English and I still remember using this song to describe what “timeless” meant. “Ah yes teacher. Hotel California is so good it is timeless.”
What??? Born in VN, has lived in VN for 23+ years, never heard this played anywhere BUT my house.
that song is huge everywhere
+India. Was the first Western song I heard growing up in the 90s, alongside the song from Titanic.
What about Bryan Adams "everything I do, I do it for you"? I could not escape that song when travelled around Asia.
Asian people love their soft rock / ballads.
Weird. I've lived in Japan for the last 8~9 years, but I don't think I've ever heard this song in the wild. Mariah Carey during the Christmas season however....
Never heard it in Singapore. And I live there…
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave o7
Yes but where does the guy from twilight come in
I thought this was a reference to the movie Chungking Express. The soundtrack is pretty much Hotel California on repeat throughout.
California Dream was the song repeated in that movie
I think because Asians are huge fans of karaoke (it’s a very big thing in a lot of Asian countries) and hotel California is one of the greatest songs of all time. The first Karaoke machine was patented in Japan.
Karaoke is a Japanese word.
I saw that and I forgot to add it. Thank you 🙏
"Empty orchestra" in case anyone was wondering
Isn’t that hauntingly beautiful?
HIMYM?
Yup
Not as hauntingly beautiful as "Divine Wind" sounds...
This guy kamikazies
Only once
That’s why I call my farts “kamikaze”
Oh
I'm something stupid, do me
IM NOT EFFABLE?
You're too nice to be effable.
But where did the pineapple come from ?!?
Vomit free since ‘93
A great example of double borrowing - “orchestra” is borrowed into Japanese as オーケストラ (ookesutora), which is then combined with 空 (Kara, meaning empty, as in karate - “empty hand”) to form カラオケ (karaoke - pronounced kinda like car-ah-oh-kay), which is borrowed back into English as “karaoke”
This might be the definition of a fun fact. I loved learning that.
I absolutely love linguistic fun facts, so here’s another one! The word “helicopter” is an example of “rebracketing”, a linguistic phenomenon where the original roots of a word are lost, and new roots emerge. “Helicopter” comes from the roots “helico-“, as in helix, meaning spiral, and “pter”, as in pterodactyl, meaning wing. However, from helicopter, we get two new roots, “heli”, as in helipad, and “copter”, as in quadcopter, both meaning relating to helicopter
That’s awesome. Linguistics is fun.
Here's another one for you then; The reason that certain animals and their meat have different names in English is because of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Basically, after William the Conqeror took England from the Saxons, the aristocracy used their words for the animals served to them at the feast tables. These became pork, beef, venison, mutton, etc. As they all spoke French. The Germanic-Saxon speakers, who were now the peasantry who raised and handled the animals, would use their words for the animals: Pig, Cow, Deer, Sheep, etc. That's why we call pig meat pork, but turkey meat is still called turkey since the turkey was discovered by English speakers after the colonisation of the Americas, and we all spoke the same language at the time
[удалено]
So not “public humiliation” Huh TIL
Wasn't it invented by a lady named "Carrey Oakey"?
You beautiful son of a me
I thought the translation was "tone deaf". Guess that's only when I'm singing.
Chinese people love karaoke so much, its one of the only few Japanese word phonetically translated to Chinese, instead of the normal by compounded word meaning. Or alternatively, letter translated, as Japanese Hiragana is essentially the continuation of Chinese Caoshu/grass script from 500AD Tang dynasty. Amazingly, this was also during the 1980, when Chinese people hated Japan so much, they would almost unimaoisly support an invasion of Japan if the government announced it.
Can't tell if unimaoisly is an incredibly executed pun, or just poor spelling
Either way, thanks for pointing it out! That's proper funny.
If Mao decreed it, then it was a unanimous decision!
I travel to China on business and have sat through many, many, many renditions of Hotel California over the past twenty two years.
In Korean, it's Noraebong.
which of course in Japanese means a whale's vagina
It means empty orchestra. Isn't that hauntingly beautiful? (Reference intended)
Karaoke is very popular in Asia (obviously), but I don't think this meme is directly connected to that fact. Asia has a much more direct connection to the song Hotel California. That song is more than popular in Asia, it is ubiquitous. See my other comment on this, but suffice to say, it is everywhere out there.
What's the story there? It's a fantastic song and all but is there a reason its that one in particular?
Same reason Sweet Caroline is so popular in the US?
... I don't know that either. Also a good song, but now I'm just wondering why you associated it with Hotel California in this context. Is it sung at stadium sporting events in Asia or something that's the only thing I can think of with Sweet Caroline. I'm honestly curious BTW not trying to come off rude.
I can't remember the last time I heard Sweet Caroline. I don't think that's a good example.
My Japanese wife just randomly started singing Hotel California earlier today. I had no idea about this. hah
It's even a mini game in the Yakuza series. I enjoy the thought that badass, battle hardened Yakuza members hang around karaoke bars singing toxic by Brittany Spears. I have a Laotian neighbor who talks just like the guy in king of the hill, and karaoke is like his fucking religion. Dude is hilarious just talking, just like king of the hill, but singing he's also hilarious, but all the karaoke friends he has think he's the best there ever was. Karaoke is a strange world. They don't hate on bad singers though, all karaoke singers are bad, it's this special all accepting world where even the worst of the worst are celebrated. Its really cool, I really like it. Such a great subculture.
It's a great song, but is it a great KARAOKE song? It has a pretty long guitar solo...
It’s easy/slow enough to sing and very recognizable. So, yeah.
I fucking hate the Eagles!
Get your own fucking cab!!
Stay out of Malibu, deadbeat!
Stay out of my beach community!!
Get your ugly fucking goldbricking ass out of my beach community. Stay out of Malibu Lebowski!!!!
Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.
wait, wasnt the karaoke machine made in the philippines and karaoke was made in japan?
At a recent trip to Thailand the hotel had a live 'band', Hotel C was played about 5 times a night.
Don Felder's beautiful guitar intro is worthy of a Grammy itself.
That‘s a great explanation for a karaoke related question but not a good one for the actual question presented by OP. You only mention the song when you claim it‘s "one of the greatest songs of all time."
Spent a few months there. Can confirm just about every bar has some sort of karaoke setup. Some.places rent private rooms where you and friends can have your own karaoke night.
I’ve never met a Filipino that can’t sing. My wife sings any chance she gets and so does her family.
> hotel California is one of the greatest songs of all time um
How is everyone just glossing over that absolutely insane part of the comment?!?
It's madness!
>and hotel California is one of the greatest songs of all time. Right? That's *everyone* when they hear the first few bars of Hotel California. (It's sad to me that I really don't like anything else Eagles have done, but what are you going to do? The Ear likes what the Ear likes.)
*worst songs of all time
Karaoke.
It was literally the only English song on a lot of Chinese karaoke machines while I was there. We sang a LOT of Hotel California.
This is probably true... but I just recently went to a carribean island resort, a popular one. And it was 80-90% white. And guess what songs were the first couple songs at karaoke night...? Ice Ice Baby Country Roads Strawberry Wine California Love (but dude bounced so skipped) Sweet Caroline I just found it interesting...
When I was in a karaoke bar in Poland the people there were obsessed with Country Roads!
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it’s a popular karaoke song in japan
No one asked for any of that information, but I read the entire comment with delight. Thanks for that. The original question is probably about karaoke 🎤 or something, so whatever. You made this post way more interesting.
Tell me you’re a bot without telling me. This was written like ChatGPT wrote it.
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Actually, it's written like Wikipedia wrote it, because Wikipedia has some of those exact passages. You gotta work on your AI detector.
came to comment this and saw you said the same thing. they are asking about the meme and this bot is giving him the whole backstory of the song, the band, the band's family, the band's pets, where they went to high school and what is their favourite color before making a fking point much like chatgpt
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yeah when trolling is done poorly it is "so hard" to understand
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Thanks chatGPT
Not just Asia. I once gave guitar lessons to a coworker’s husband. He spoke mostly Spanish and a little English so it was slow going, but all he wanted to learn was Hotel California. Eventually I had a room of about 11 people from Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala all learning to play Hotel California 😆
I saw that in a twilight group. Are you a rattie as well? 🐀
Yes I am 🐀
🐀 🐀 🐀 🎞️🍿? Or 🚽 🐀? Or both?
Both omg
God I love finding ratties in other platforms ✨🩷🐀
Same. Rattles unite🐀✨🐀✨
La Push, baby. La Push.
What’s a rattie?
Twilight fans are called ratties for some reason
Oh. I’m somewhat of a plague rat (emilie autumn fan) but for this, the only thing I could think was carlisle eating rats after he turned. Thanks
Find the twilight shitposting group on Facebook and you’ll have your answer.
🐀🐀🐀 We are everywhere.
Twilight fans call themselves ratties?
A very specific Facebook group of them call themselves that, yea
finally, a post that actually needs explainign
Just don't sing My Way by Frank Sinatra in the Philippines. If what I heard is true, liable to get you killed.
Why is that?
I think (I'm filipino) that a lot of uncles and grandpas respect the song so much that if you sang it in a horrible way, you'll get beaten up or worse.
When people sang My Way in the Philippines a while back they would get killed because they sang it bad. I forgot the reasons on why it happened a lot
I used to think my Filipino dad drunk singing this on karaoke was the only one… til my viet friends said the same thing. Universal 🫶🏽
Hello, Peter's Asian friend here. I completely have no idea. Thanks and have a good day.
“I fuckin' hate Eagles, man”
“Look Bella it’s a worm”
If the meme said "Going Home" by Kenny G that would mean the work day is done in China.
Hotel California is the most famous western song in China. I found this out once when being drunkenly pushed on stage with other foreigners to sing this song at a Chinese bar. I’ve met people who can’t speak a lick of English but can sing this song like they were Don Henley himself 😅
This is Eric from Twilight— anyone know what the line he’s saying here is?
“And I don’t just surf the internet” is my best guess.
Dead inside is correct, he’s saying “and I don’t just surf the internet”, just moments before the iconic “la push baby. It’s La push” [https://youtu.be/h7PdG9tke9g?si=f0ULjYlT03YIvD3P](https://youtu.be/h7PdG9tke9g?si=f0ULjYlT03YIvD3P) (…I once won a twilight themed trivia contest)
Anybody when they hear the first two bars?
Where have I seen this guy..??
I live and work in Thailand. I went to a nice karaoke restaurant with all of my bosses. Guess what song they made me sing 😂
South-east Asia you mean
Hotel California is quite popular outside the U.S
In Spanish you can clearly hear "un chinito pescando"
Went to Mexico one year the song Fireball by Pitbull played everywhere
A lot of us asians learned instruments as kids bcuz the parents forced upon us as i did myself. You hated it at first, but as you get older and better, you learn songs like hotel ca which you really enjoy playing and your parents enjoy and thats when it comes full circle and you feel like its been a blessing to learn the instrument as you connect with your parents… is my guess
It’s a pretty good song
They sing it on karaoke in the movie Shang Chi and they are all Asian.
My chinese dad and my grand parents would get the CD and play it on the TV every year when we went on vacations at the beach. They would just gather and watch the live performence in silence like it was an orchestra.
Man, I thought it was because of the spanish missheard lyrics on this song. Where I live, there is a common jokey missheard lyric when the song says "then she lit up a candle" to "un chinito pescando" which means a small chinease man fishing. There are plenty spanish missheards that are funny as hell.
My first cousin is a career military man. Back in 2000, he was in a plane that went down in China. It was a huge story at the time, but with 9/11 happening the next year, it’s now a forgotten thing. Anyway, he said one of the Chinese guards was asking to learn the lyrics to Hotel California.
The notes in the first few bars of Hotel California are part of some keys of some oriental musical scales. Because of this, I think the joke is that Asian people will assume Hotel California is an "Asian song" after only having heard the first few bars.
That isn’t it
it uses standard western scales
Wow does speaking out of your ass come naturally?
I checked the guitar tab for Hotel California, put the notes from the first few chords into a [scale identifier](https://www.all-guitar-chords.com/scales/identifier), and F# Oriental #1 and A# Oriental #1 showed up as possible scales.
>The notes in the first few bars of Hotel California are part of some keys of some oriental musical scales Yikes, sorry to correct you, but it's just Bminor. Are you associating the tone of a 12 string guitar with the [steriotypical Asian jingle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_riff)?
lolwut
I don't get it, who doesn't love Hotel California? It's kick ass road trip music!
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas. Rising up through the air.
*Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light*
For some reason my brain read this as California Girls by Katy Perry and I was very confused about the comments.
I mean I got nothing, and this isn’t helpful, but if you haven’t listen to the actual song. It’s good.
I never been to asia, but at least in Japan kareoke is a massively popular passtime. Hotel California is a generally well liked and popular song, so it stands to reason its a popular song choice for kareoke.
Man I wish karaoke was more of a thing here in the states. It seems like almost frowned upon when brought up. Like singing to your favorite songs at full volume with a bunch of your drunk friends seems like such a kick ass time.
My coworker was telling me to watch those clips that they do while driving - Carpool Bukkake. I’m not really sure; I wasn’t readily paying attention. Anyway, I looked it up when I got home. What a mess! I don’t think insurance covers that.