Does translating lyrics help with studying?
I listen to a LOT of reggaeton music, and I was gonna try to start translating some of the lyrics myself and checking my translations against the ones I find online. But will I really learn anything from doing so? Because I know from studying Japanese that in Japanese music a lot of the lyrics aren't at all like everyday speech, they try to fit the words to the music. Spanish doesn't seem to be like that as much, but I don't want to spend a lot of time translating the songs if there's something else that will help me a lot more. Any opinions? 
5 Answers
You are correct that liberties are taken with song lyrics to make them fit. But there is a lot to learn from them as well. Vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and common ways of saying different things. I did a lot of very bad translations when I start out. What I got out of it the most was more questions about certain word structures that I could take to class for explanations. So if you like certain songs then absolutely begin translating them.
Translating lyrics will help you to learn colloquial language, and if you enjoy listening to reggaeton music then there is no harm in doing that. Personally I find that reading articles in spanish newspapers or magazines helps a lot with learning new vocabulary and I also listen spanish radio a lot to see what I can pick out
Im my opinon,lyrics later.At the beginning, films wiith subtitles in spanish and books which abound in dialogues.The films and the books,neither" philosophical",nor for children.You need patience and modesty, Remenber.!Too much modesty means stupidity!.
A mi parecer.versos más tarde.Al principio peliculas con subtitulos en castellano y libros que abundan en diálogos.Las peliculas y los libros,ni" filosóficos",ni para niños.Necesitas paciencia y modestia,¡Recuerda!.¡Demasiada modestia semnifica estupídez!
I think singing works really well. There is research to back that but my experiece tells me it does. In addition, it teaches you culture and serves to help you speed up your listening and speaking if you sing along. I teach songs in my classroom. I remember one lady who very frustrated would break down and cry because she couldn't remember anything. I discovered she loved music and so we put everything to music, her learning took off. Also, if you have spent any time with Alzheimers patients, even on their worst days, play them some music they knew when younger and they usually will start singing along. Music has staying power in the brain, You ever get a song stuck in your head?
Final thought, any work in the language is better than not working on it.
Lyrics of reggaeton tend to be repetitive, very repetitive, well, actually I don't like that genre at all so I wouldn't know. You know, there exists Rock en Español with a lot of great bands and artists, mostly coming from Argentina, Spain or Mexico like Soda Stereo, Maldita Vecindad, Mecano, Fito Páez, Héroes del Silencio, Aterciopelados, Duncan Dhu, Los Prisioneros among others, with much better lyrics for you to pick up some vocabulary, or there's also pop music like Shakira, Juanes, Pailina Rubio, Miranda etc. but I'm not really into that either. Like gato1 said, reading news im Spanish-speaking media is very, very useful to acquire more command of the language since you'll see things you won't understand and will start your own research to learn more. Hope that helps.
