9 February 2010
Kicking it off with a bit about music
If you take a look at the music library in our home, you would be hard pressed to find anything even remotely resembling Top 40 hits. We long ago had to do away with displaying our CD’s in their jewel cases; there simply was not enough room! Even with a recent weeding out of those discs that we never listen to, we still had to purchase a new case for purchases made over the past year. (That makes 4 large, 250-disc cases, now–plus a couple of cases half that size–and we actually need a couple more so the contents are not quite so packed in and the inserts don’t have to go in the same slot as the discs.)
I grew up speaking almost as much Spanish outside the home as I spoke English; there was even a decent amount of French thrown in (poorly pronounced, usually with a vaguely Spanish accent, no less). Even native speakers have told me that they have trouble with their first language when they have gone for extended periods without speaking it. I certainly have retained almost none of the French that I once knew; as for my Spanish, even with formal classes it suffered greatly after my parents moved our family from Tampa, Florida, to a podunk little town in Southwestern Arkansas. The passion (and, dare I confess it–the preference) for the language never left me, however. At every opportunity, I listened to Latino radio stations and accosted random Hispanics for brief conversations. It was always difficult to determine which music groups were worth the effort it would take to find and buy their albums.
Launchcast (in its original incarnation) helped introduce me to a lot of great artists and helped expand my musical horizons far beyond the Latin music I was looking for. When Launchcast underwent its changeover, I switched entirely to Pandora (I tell myself I am contributing to the Music Genome Project when I try in vain to add all of the foreign artists to my station); in addition, the radio stations available through iTunes have been invaluable tools in seeking out new artists’ music. I also love being able to listen to samples on Amazon and then order albums that once would have been well nigh impossible to discover, much less buy.
My husband is now addicted to ‘world’ music, too (he is the one who first investigated the iTunes radio options that we have always ignored). Along the way, our personal music library has grown to include music in Portuguese (European and Brasilian), French, Italian, Faroese, various African languages, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, and other languages; this is in addition to Spanish music from all over the globe. It is now a rare thing to add a new singer/group into the collection if the songs are in English. Andrew Byrd, Keane, Frou Frou, Teitur…there has to be something particularly striking about the vocalist and/or the music to draw us in. Last fall, I asked my husband if he wanted to go on a date to a Bollywood dance recital for a local dance school; he couldn’t wait to go, but he laughingly told me he would be very disappointed if the music and costumes were not largely traditional. Luckily, he got his wish, and we were even treated to Prabhu Deva (India’s answer to Michael Jackson) being dragged onto the stage during the finale to ham it up with a few of his standard moves.
My patience with popular English language music has been very short for a long time now (since the late 80′s, actually). My main source of displeasure is the dearth of originality. While New Wave wasn’t always the most original music out there, at least it was FUN. I am certain the same complaint about lack of originality can be (and is) made of foreign music by native critics. (Although I don’t read many product reviews, as a rule, I do like to read comments from native speakers on their own artists–when I can do the translations.) It is much easier for me to enjoy cliches, though, when they are sung by Tarkan or Nek. Exotic accents, native instruments or beats, even differences in syntax (for those languages I can actually understand even a little)–these things contribute to the appeal of non-English music (and film, too). Add to that certain cultural differences that come across in lyrics and on-stage; it is just so much fun for me that I couldn’t even begin to express it to anyone else!
I have a huge amount of appreciation and respect for artists like Juanes and Sting, both of whom are amazingly talented individuals and both of whom often use their music to impart political and humanitarian messages; nevertheless, enjoyment–i.e. my own subjectively experienced sense of entertainment and temporary mental liberation–is usually the primary reason I listen to music. There are some days when it is only the music I am listening to that keeps me on an even keel; I tell myself, ‘Oh, listen! They’re playing “Hechicera” (or “Particle Man” or “Bu Gece” or “La jeune fille aux cheveux blancs”). Go to your happy place and forget that you just handled 10 straight calls from some of the most personality-challenged individuals on the planet.’ Some days I log off from my job and go in search of Bach’s ‘Toccata and Fugue in D Minor’ to help blow the cobwebs away or ‘Mes Ami’ to help turn my grumpiness into happy contentment. Even people who don’t work in a customer-centric job may be able to relate to that.
