Tempest in a tea pot dept, pt. 2

More on appropriation without respect or decorum and the emotional fall out resulting from such misappropriations.

Here's an excerpt from an exclusive interview (previously unpublished) via email (7-9-03) with the musician involved in the 2-18-04 post below. (It turns out, he is also a published writer himself.)

Hi Barbara

I found some baboon-free space and here is the result. Do mail more Qs as you need.

All the best

Martin

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BF I think a musician has the potential to bring a lot to the subject when writing about music. How and when did you get started writing about world music for World Music Charts Europe. Also, are there any other places you publish in Europe on world music (if so, any links available?)

(MARTIN) I began to write for the WMCE (www.wmce.de) when I was asked to help an on-line record shop review their entire catalogue. I reviewed about 1000 CDs per week for about three months... The company were specialists in world music, and it was a natural development to bump into the WMCE people, especially as they're based here in Berlin. I write regularly for the WMCE - a monthly review of WMCE contributors airplay-based top 20 - and sporadically for a number of print magazines and newspapers (Folk Roots, Songlines, the Mix, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph and a number of others). My most recent piece is for the UK print quarterly Songlines, which comes out in August 2003, and tells all about the Berlin world music scene.

{THERE IS A SONGLINES WEBSITE - I'LL DIG IT OUT...)

BF Can you tell us something about what World Music Charts is, how long it's been around, how it's put together, and why it's important?

(MARTIN) It's been around since 1991 and collates airplay returns from approximately 50 radio presenters from twenty-three countries scattered around the world, from afar afield as Moscow, Istanbul, the Caribbean and Canada. In order to contribute, a presenter has to have a regular show and the parent broadcaster must be legal, paying airplay royalties to composers and performers. The charts are published monthly - via the Internet, which gets about 15,000 direct hits, via direct mail-out to about 900 professional media outlets and it's also printed in various newspapers and magazines - this runs to about 3.4 million copies.

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Here's a sample of his latest world music review there.

You know, I'd cut and paste it directly here, all 50 words of analysis that include a cross cultural examination of art (he mentions Magritte), pop cultural reference (he mentions that body builder) and half a sentence devoted to beer, but I read and understood the intent of the remark following (which is similar to but not as legally binding as that little copyright mark on the bottom of magazine and newspaper pages):

Audio courtesy of Gift Music GmbH. Any reproduction, publication, further distribution or public exhibition of materials provided at this site, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.


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(Did you read it? I mean his review. And what do you suppose that "strictly prohibited" part of the last sentence means? Anyway, I'll bet he wishes he wrote well enough that someone would want to plagiarise his stuff. Or as a musician revisiting '70s pop, to make music that more than one person would want to write about after hearing it)

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  ¶ 2/19/2004 10:35:00 AM