Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Flaskaland, where it's sometimes Two for Tuesday (or world music on the internet is alive and well, old musings and new)
(from the appropriately named something remarkable)
Sunday, April 11, 2004
From and old Woebot post:
……….IS THE NEW NIGERIA/ETHIOPIA
OK you’ve got the Strut (RIP) Comps and the Shrine Comps and the Fela Kuti Box Sets and the entire Etiopiques series etc etc
1) Mali
2) Guinea
3) Zimbabwe
4) South Africa
Cloudy heads will be unlikey to latch onto the sweet gentle music of the Congo, Senegal and Madagascar. They like it dark, hard and weird.
A crude outlook has emerged from my listening to African music. In my ignorance, I perceive three eras of African music.
1. Traditional pre-colonial music, from field recordings and the first generation in recording studios.
2. Colonial + post-colonial music, having a Western influence, with artists operating largely in their country of origin, working in distinct local styles, operating in a local scene. Some examples: The music of the Ethiopiques series, Congolese Soukous, Mali "blues", etc.
3. The current, Afro-Pop "World Music" scene in which locality is less relevant, style + influence are indelibly interwoven, etc. Dominated by individual artists, rather than styles or scenes.
Which is to say, the most obvious categories in the music I have heard so far seem to be about:
1. The absorption of foreign influces.
2. The shift from rural traditions (sources) to urban scenes (development)
3. The shift from the relative isolation + provincialism (not perjorative) of the "classic" national styles to the post-modern, transnational present.
Rudimentary + obvious way to analyze things; oh well.
Congolese music is exemplary of the middle phase. Fomented in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, (Kinshasa, DNC), it went on to become the mother-genre of the continent. A vital musical scene developed in an urban environment (usually a capital), patronized by a white elite. Catering to colonial tastes, certain foreign influences were integrated by the scene. In the case of Congolese music, Cuban music figured large. The capitals of the two Congos, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, both served as centers of this music. After the 60s, Congolese music spread across the continent.
By the 80s, many musicians had moved to Europe, especially France. This had a number of consequences. World Music fans from the first world became the primary audience, and musicians catered to their tastes. Musicians recording in France developed a "produced," studio sound and integrated electronic instruments.
Question: I know I am going to get this wrong, but what is the relationship between the terms?
a. "Congolese music"
b. Rumba
c. Soukous
d. Afro-Cuban music
Answer: All of these are problematic terms that refer to music from the two Congos. Rumba more commonly refers to the style of Latin American music that originated in Cuba and was (with other Cuban music) an important influence on Congolese music. When people speak of Afro-Cuban music, they mean music from greater realm of cuban influence - much of it from Africa. Soukous refers specifically to Congolese music from the 60s, and more broadly to all Congolese and Conogolese-influenced music from then on (much like American RNB).
Questions:
1. What are the worst misunderstandings in the foregoing?
2. Why did guitar emerge as the dominant lead instrument all over the continent, regardless of what traditions preceded or foreign influences were at work? Provisional answer/guess: the piano, which usually dominated the western styles that African musicians drew from, wasn't available in Africa.
3. Why did France become the headquarters of so many expatriate African musicians. Ie. why were so many recordings done in Paris? Provisional answer: political repression + economic instablity in central African (ie Zaire/DNC under Mobutu) lead many musicians to a wealthy, receptive public in France. Still, why France?
See:
WikiPedia
AfroPop
// posted by ytiop @ 9:38 PM
Harry Belafonte's acceptance speech for the 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award: "You can cage the singer, but not the song."
[ok, so it's three for Tuesday where world music is concerned ... the following is via rockandrap mail list. Thanks to JCL, for the heads-up)
from from Charlie Gillett, UK DJ and author ....
Last week was a pivotal moment in the history of music, as the merger between the music distribution divisions of BMG and Sony was confirmed, and Apple launched its iTunes download site in Europe (specifically, UK, France & Germany).
This week's rumour is that EMI and Warner may now be allowed to consummate their long romance, reducing the number of major record companies to three. No major will easily forgive an artist whose an album sells fewer than 250,000 copies, which eliminates most world music artists, for whom such sales remain a tantalising dream without marketing budgets or access to mainstream radio and TV. Will Warner’s Nonesuch label, currently the home of Youssou N'Dour and David Byrne, as well as being the US licensee for World Circuit, continue to be indulged?
Will paid-for downloads be the answer, enabling artists without marketing clout or worldwide distribution to sell their wares alongside the famous names? Will world music enthusiasts finally get access to hard-to-find tracks they have heard on the radio? And even if such tracks are made available at iTunes, will those enthusiasts be satisfied with downloads to their iPod, instead of a proper CD album in its jewel case and sleeve? Right now, it's a hypothetical question, because there's not much world music to be found at the iTunes site.
Among the Americans in London to launch European iTunes was independent consultant Denzyl Ferguson, who runs a site of his own with the self-explanatory name, Artists Without a Label (www.awal.com). At Apple, Denzyl's role is to help to license music from repertoire owners, and I had been in email contact with him for some months, hoping that Apple would make world music a priority.
I had invited Denzyl to come to the radio studio in order to meet him, without originally intending for us to converse on air, but offered him the chance to answer a query raised listener Rob Hall on our website's Feedback forum. As one of the first visitors to the new iTunes site, Rob reported that several anomalous artists were listed under world music, including Abba, Bing Crosby and the Scots Guards. Denzyl explained that labels are responsible for the first classifications of their own repertoire, but errors can easily be corrected. Originally from South Africa, Denzyl was for a time the US manager for Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Gipsy Kings, and we could hardly have a better ally on the inside at Apple. But even he finds it hard to convince the decision-takers that world music matters.
¶ 6/22/2004 11:54:00 AM
(from the appropriately named something remarkable)
Sunday, April 11, 2004
From and old Woebot post:
……….IS THE NEW NIGERIA/ETHIOPIA
OK you’ve got the Strut (RIP) Comps and the Shrine Comps and the Fela Kuti Box Sets and the entire Etiopiques series etc etc
1) Mali
2) Guinea
3) Zimbabwe
4) South Africa
Cloudy heads will be unlikey to latch onto the sweet gentle music of the Congo, Senegal and Madagascar. They like it dark, hard and weird.
A crude outlook has emerged from my listening to African music. In my ignorance, I perceive three eras of African music.
1. Traditional pre-colonial music, from field recordings and the first generation in recording studios.
2. Colonial + post-colonial music, having a Western influence, with artists operating largely in their country of origin, working in distinct local styles, operating in a local scene. Some examples: The music of the Ethiopiques series, Congolese Soukous, Mali "blues", etc.
3. The current, Afro-Pop "World Music" scene in which locality is less relevant, style + influence are indelibly interwoven, etc. Dominated by individual artists, rather than styles or scenes.
Which is to say, the most obvious categories in the music I have heard so far seem to be about:
1. The absorption of foreign influces.
2. The shift from rural traditions (sources) to urban scenes (development)
3. The shift from the relative isolation + provincialism (not perjorative) of the "classic" national styles to the post-modern, transnational present.
Rudimentary + obvious way to analyze things; oh well.
Congolese music is exemplary of the middle phase. Fomented in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, (Kinshasa, DNC), it went on to become the mother-genre of the continent. A vital musical scene developed in an urban environment (usually a capital), patronized by a white elite. Catering to colonial tastes, certain foreign influences were integrated by the scene. In the case of Congolese music, Cuban music figured large. The capitals of the two Congos, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, both served as centers of this music. After the 60s, Congolese music spread across the continent.
By the 80s, many musicians had moved to Europe, especially France. This had a number of consequences. World Music fans from the first world became the primary audience, and musicians catered to their tastes. Musicians recording in France developed a "produced," studio sound and integrated electronic instruments.
Question: I know I am going to get this wrong, but what is the relationship between the terms?
a. "Congolese music"
b. Rumba
c. Soukous
d. Afro-Cuban music
Answer: All of these are problematic terms that refer to music from the two Congos. Rumba more commonly refers to the style of Latin American music that originated in Cuba and was (with other Cuban music) an important influence on Congolese music. When people speak of Afro-Cuban music, they mean music from greater realm of cuban influence - much of it from Africa. Soukous refers specifically to Congolese music from the 60s, and more broadly to all Congolese and Conogolese-influenced music from then on (much like American RNB).
Questions:
1. What are the worst misunderstandings in the foregoing?
2. Why did guitar emerge as the dominant lead instrument all over the continent, regardless of what traditions preceded or foreign influences were at work? Provisional answer/guess: the piano, which usually dominated the western styles that African musicians drew from, wasn't available in Africa.
3. Why did France become the headquarters of so many expatriate African musicians. Ie. why were so many recordings done in Paris? Provisional answer: political repression + economic instablity in central African (ie Zaire/DNC under Mobutu) lead many musicians to a wealthy, receptive public in France. Still, why France?
See:
WikiPedia
AfroPop
// posted by ytiop @ 9:38 PM
Harry Belafonte's acceptance speech for the 2004 Global Exchange Human Rights Award: "You can cage the singer, but not the song."
[ok, so it's three for Tuesday where world music is concerned ... the following is via rockandrap mail list. Thanks to JCL, for the heads-up)
from from Charlie Gillett, UK DJ and author ....
Last week was a pivotal moment in the history of music, as the merger between the music distribution divisions of BMG and Sony was confirmed, and Apple launched its iTunes download site in Europe (specifically, UK, France & Germany).
This week's rumour is that EMI and Warner may now be allowed to consummate their long romance, reducing the number of major record companies to three. No major will easily forgive an artist whose an album sells fewer than 250,000 copies, which eliminates most world music artists, for whom such sales remain a tantalising dream without marketing budgets or access to mainstream radio and TV. Will Warner’s Nonesuch label, currently the home of Youssou N'Dour and David Byrne, as well as being the US licensee for World Circuit, continue to be indulged?
Will paid-for downloads be the answer, enabling artists without marketing clout or worldwide distribution to sell their wares alongside the famous names? Will world music enthusiasts finally get access to hard-to-find tracks they have heard on the radio? And even if such tracks are made available at iTunes, will those enthusiasts be satisfied with downloads to their iPod, instead of a proper CD album in its jewel case and sleeve? Right now, it's a hypothetical question, because there's not much world music to be found at the iTunes site.
Among the Americans in London to launch European iTunes was independent consultant Denzyl Ferguson, who runs a site of his own with the self-explanatory name, Artists Without a Label (www.awal.com). At Apple, Denzyl's role is to help to license music from repertoire owners, and I had been in email contact with him for some months, hoping that Apple would make world music a priority.
I had invited Denzyl to come to the radio studio in order to meet him, without originally intending for us to converse on air, but offered him the chance to answer a query raised listener Rob Hall on our website's Feedback forum. As one of the first visitors to the new iTunes site, Rob reported that several anomalous artists were listed under world music, including Abba, Bing Crosby and the Scots Guards. Denzyl explained that labels are responsible for the first classifications of their own repertoire, but errors can easily be corrected. Originally from South Africa, Denzyl was for a time the US manager for Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Gipsy Kings, and we could hardly have a better ally on the inside at Apple. But even he finds it hard to convince the decision-takers that world music matters.
¶ 6/22/2004 11:54:00 AM
