There is arguably no word that has shaped popular music as much as "Yeah," whose pronunciation ranges from "Yah" to "Yea" and can be sung in both monosyllabic and disyllabic terms.

It is often difficult to say exactly what "Yeah" means in an individual case.

At its core, it is strongly communicative – after all, it is an affirmative short answer – it is much more than just a synonym for “Yes”.

Often it is cheering, then again, especially as "Ooh Yeah", enigmatic expression of emotion, which, unlike the also common in pop "Aus", "Ais", "Ahas", "Heys", "Wells", "Woos ' or 'Alrights' seems to come from deep within a singer.

Uwe Ebbinghaus

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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The popularity of "Yeah" in pop music is all the more astonishing because, in addition to being extremely flexible, it also has a number of limitations: For example, it has difficulty rhyming with other English words and, unlike the purely vocal exclamations of "Ah" to "Uh", not easy to fit into breathing rhythm.

For reasons of sound alone, it usually comes to the surface spontaneously and willfully.

"Yeah", which opens many songs, manages to create a special transition from silence to music and from music to speech.

As a colloquial phrase, it always ensures clear relationships, it marks an autonomous, emphatically countercultural communication.

In this context, an interesting anecdote that Paul McCartney once told in the English interview program "Carpool Karaoke" (from minute 9)

According to this, when McCartney first played "She Loves You (yeah, yeah, yeah)" to him in the living room at home, his father suggested abandoning the tiresome Americanisms and singing "yes, yes, yes" instead.

At this point in the narrative, presenter James Corden puts his head theatrically and McCartney says, "What would have happened if we had listened to him?"

It probably wouldn't have stopped the success story of "Yeah", which was already established in blues and gospel at the time.

But the Beatles undoubtedly helped "Yeah" finally break into pop culture in 1963.

Walter Ulbricht's announcement of the ban on Western beat music in 1965 was an act of desperation that revealed itself: "Is it really the case that we now have to copy every piece of crap that comes from the West?

I think, comrades, that we should put an end to the monotony of ye-ye-ye and whatever it is called.”

eternal youth

As early as the 1950s, "Yeah" featured in early rock and R&B with Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Ray Charles.

How deeply it is rooted in gospel and its choral singing can be seen in the film "Blues Brothers" in the scene with James Brown, perfectly cast as the church preacher.

Completely secularized, it appeared in Woodstock in 1969, where Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin belted out some of the most beautiful "Yeahs" in music history.

Surprisingly, there are hardly any “Yeahs” to be heard from Bob Dylan, whose closeness the young generation in Woodstock actually sought. Perhaps he is too controlled an artistic personality for that.

Dylan prefers "Yes" (as in "Blowin' In The Wind") or "Alright" (as in "Tombstone Blues").

A rare exception is the song “Yea!

Heavy and a Bottle of Bread", although the exclamation seems rather parodic.