I was looking at these lyrics and I noticed that half of them are written in katakana even though they're clearly not foreign loan words. Can someone please explain this?

http://j-lyric.net/artist/a000617/l00f03d.html

Well it's not like they're only used for transcription of foreign names, they're also used for transcribing onomatopeia and general emphasis. Here you'll notice it's the chorus, plus the way it's sung probably makes it even more emphatic (like stressing each syllable). Wikipedia compares this usage to italics.

Ah I see, thanks, I wasn't aware of that usage. It's clear to me here how helpful kanji usually is in reading comprehension.

[Zgarbas]

It's like a secret handshake between Japanese lyrics and you, where Japanese theows a bunch of katakana at the reader who innocently believes themselves to be fluent in kana. More often than not, the handshake turns into an accidental bitchslap to one's confidence.
this was mine

(2016-02-21, 6:13 pm)Zgarbas Wrote: It's like a secret handshake between Japanese lyrics and you, where Japanese theows a bunch of katakana at the reader who innocently believes themselves to be fluent in kana. More often than not, the handshake turns into an accidental bitchslap to one's confidence.
this was mine

I discovered this phenomenon though Phoenix Wright. E.g.:

カメラのことなど、事件には
なんのカンケイもない！

Transcription:
http://www.aya.or.jp/~kidparty/gyakuten/word033.htm

Apparently, they used to use Katakana instead of Hiragana in the past, as seen in 雨ニモマケズ, a pretty famous poem.

I've also seen it used to show that the character is pronouncing the word strangely, like a gaijin speaking Japanese or the character speaking in a confused slurry way.

It's moments like these when you really start to appreciate the kanji