[FA Worldmusic] Language!

[Robert Singerman]

I still can9t understand how in all this discussion language has not been
mentioned. I9ve been at many SXSW9s, Midems, etc over the years, working
with world and pop artists and currently 3represent2 in the broadest sense
of the word, artists speaking many, many languages. Look at film/tv, what9s
the difference? Subtitles and Dubbing! Why does film, as Bill says make
music mainstream and vice-versa, it9s because anglophones can understand the
story, as Dmitri sells his artists with their own stories. But each song is
a story! Of course in world music we generally have no conscious idea of the
story, unless we are multi-lingual. We will soon see the changing of this
incredible challenge to world communication which creates many of our
problems worldwide and this will have been lead for years by film, tv and
finally music!  Why is Hollyweird and AmeriKa so powerful, partially due to
language and the money to market (subtitle, dub) films and tv shows and
music to seep into brains worldwide.

As far as SXSW is concerned, the venue selection this year was not right,
Marco, as I walked in with one of the most important journalists mentioned
previously and the place did smell terribly of cat piss, he lasted a few
songs less than me and Eliza Carthy was great. It is a good idea to bring
all artists to SXSW and the other conferences for all reasons discussed and
I praise Marco and Tracy9s work and risk taking, please continue - but ...

I9m promising all of you, as the language problem is solved, if not by
Voxonic, Yabla and/or Gracenote, AMG/lyricfinder with metatag data, then by
others, in the coming two-three years, so called world music will be
mainstream music and pop, international music will cross borders and many at
Joe9s Pub and Carnegie Hall will be singing in French, Italian, Russian,
Chinese, even if they don9t speak the language, as they will understand the
lyrics! Like Opera! Like Suzanne Vega in Paris! Like the Beatles, all over
the world...Live it could be simple l.e.d. Machines and if anywhere, next
year at SXSW, or this year at Womex, these machines, new media techniques,
should be used, at least for the chorus9. Imagine. Universal language, space
is the place, 1 world under a groove...understanding each other finally,
even if we don9t like what our favorite world/international/English language
music artists are singing, at least we9ll know! Manu Chao would (and will)
be huge and a critical voice in the US, finally!

I know I9ve been screaming about this for a while now, but seems like barely
anyone9s listening and it9s so obviously the main issue keeping world music
world music and the biggest challenge to import/export marketing. Except -
as Sam the Sham told me at SXSW, (his new album has many beautiful Spanish
songs), for instrumental music. I agree with Mel, World Music M.ASS! We need
to communicate better to break barriers, that9s all.

If we take away the lyrics and only have the melodies, rhythms, colors,
dances and vibe, how much can you truly communicate on a conscious level?
Fela understood this. If the revolution is in a 3foreign2 language, which
trees (and radio, tvs) in a forest or at least our forest get it?

Peace, Robert
European Music Office
French Music Export Office