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A levenslied (Dutch, lit. "life song" meaning "song about the real life") is a highly sentimental Dutch-language sub-genre of pop music. Typical levenslied-lyrics are very sweet, highly sentimental and about subjects as love, misery and far, sunny and exotic holiday places.
A typical levenslied has catchy, simple rhythms and melodies, with many nice pop and folk tunes, and is always built up on couplets and refrains. Essential, traditional musical instruments in levenslied-music are the accordion and the barrel organ. In the recent years, many levenslied-artists also use synthesizers and guitars for their music.
There is no clear target audience for the levenslied, it is most popular among members of the working class of any age. Music critics are often critical of the levenslied, judging the simple and catchy chorusses and tunes as a lack of creativity. For this reason, the word "smartlap" (Dutch, lit. "sorrow scrap" meaning "sentimental song") is often used for this music style. Originally a term with negative connotations, the term smartlap is now more neutral, and almost any sentimental song is referred to as a smartlap in Dutch.
The levenslied is the Dutch equivalent of the German schlager. In addition, levenslied-music is often called schlager (especially the songs of the Dutch singer Frans Bauer), and many Dutch levenslied-artists are very popular in Germany and other German-speaking countries. Many Dutch levenslied-artists translate their own songs into German. They also translate German schlagers into Dutch. This musicstyle is also very popular in Flanders, but the Flemish give it the German word schlager instead of levenslied.
Famous Dutch levenslied-artists:
Famous Flemish levenslied-artists:
