It usually is, but as English pronouns, you can use any, albeit you’ll be corrected by natives. Stereotypically 僕 gives a tomboy feel to some people, a rougher one. But don’t overthink it, things aren’t black and white
It’s two syllables instead of three, which is easier to work into lyrics. It’s also got a more energetic, tomboyish feeling as noted by the other commenter.
Because they want to
If you’re taking about recent idols like AKB48, nogizaka46 etc. Lots of songs are written by men thus they use male pronouns.
To dare to present a strange feeling and bring out freshness. It is also because the great writers of the Meiji period in Japan brought such culture into the world of calligraphy. It may also be an intention to express the cuteness and boyish liveliness within that particular girl.
However, it is necessary to determine the situation in order to actually identify the meaning.
It’s also relatively rare for women to refer to themselves as 僕 or men to refer to themselves as 私, but it’s not prohibited.
I only know Ayumi Hamasaki (as she was super popular in my generation) whose known for exactly this. It was kinda edgy and tomboy-ish, and that definitely added some character to her artistic style in lyrics. But I don’t think her first person pronoun was that when she actually speaks in real life. It’s cool for lyrics, but using them in real life is a bit over the top, at least at the time, and probably now as well. (Not sure how kids today deals with that. But it’s not illegal for certain.)
It’s become the standard for what gets used in lyrics, regardless of what the singer would use personally. It’s a lot less stiff than trying to use the formal form, which often wouldn’t really work in a pop song.
Songs aren’t always about the singer’s perspective.
It can be used by girl/women if the want to sound tomboish.
there’s a whole conversation out there about the pronouns people use for themselves, there are quite a lot of them and a lot of reasons for them. shortcut answer musically is, it’s often for spunk and cadence.
This topic comes up often and everyone dutifully answers that わたし is too many syllables so it’s not used in song lyrics. But considering that this is extremely common in song lyrics from the early 90s or earlier I don’t think that’s right. I think it has more to do with わたし conveying a type of femininity that sounds old-fashioned now.
I know that fhána uses a couple different pronouns, mostly 僕 and 私 but also 自分
I thought boku was for both genders, isn’t 俺(ore) the masculine pronoun?
I think it is their use of gender ambiguity. If it were in English they could just say “I”. I am a woman and for that reason I use “自分は” instead of “わたしは” on the internet.
14 comments
It usually is, but as English pronouns, you can use any, albeit you’ll be corrected by natives. Stereotypically 僕 gives a tomboy feel to some people, a rougher one. But don’t overthink it, things aren’t black and white
It’s two syllables instead of three, which is easier to work into lyrics. It’s also got a more energetic, tomboyish feeling as noted by the other commenter.
Because they want to
If you’re taking about recent idols like AKB48, nogizaka46 etc. Lots of songs are written by men thus they use male pronouns.
To dare to present a strange feeling and bring out freshness.
It is also because the great writers of the Meiji period in Japan brought such culture into the world of calligraphy.
It may also be an intention to express the cuteness and boyish liveliness within that particular girl.
However, it is necessary to determine the situation in order to actually identify the meaning.
It’s also relatively rare for women to refer to themselves as 僕 or men to refer to themselves as 私, but it’s not prohibited.
I only know Ayumi Hamasaki (as she was super popular in my generation) whose known for exactly this. It was kinda edgy and tomboy-ish, and that definitely added some character to her artistic style in lyrics. But I don’t think her first person pronoun was that when she actually speaks in real life. It’s cool for lyrics, but using them in real life is a bit over the top, at least at the time, and probably now as well. (Not sure how kids today deals with that. But it’s not illegal for certain.)
It’s become the standard for what gets used in lyrics, regardless of what the singer would use personally. It’s a lot less stiff than trying to use the formal form, which often wouldn’t really work in a pop song.
Songs aren’t always about the singer’s perspective.
It can be used by girl/women if the want to sound tomboish.
there’s a whole conversation out there about the pronouns people use for themselves, there are quite a lot of them and a lot of reasons for them. shortcut answer musically is, it’s often for spunk and cadence.
This topic comes up often and everyone dutifully answers that わたし is too many syllables so it’s not used in song lyrics. But considering that this is extremely common in song lyrics from the early 90s or earlier I don’t think that’s right. I think it has more to do with わたし conveying a type of femininity that sounds old-fashioned now.
I know that fhána uses a couple different pronouns, mostly 僕 and 私 but also 自分
I thought boku was for both genders, isn’t 俺(ore) the masculine pronoun?
I think it is their use of gender ambiguity. If it were in English they could just say “I”. I am a woman and for that reason I use “自分は” instead of “わたしは” on the internet.