[FA Worldmusic] Language!

[Carlos A. Guti é rrez]

I agree with Robert in regards to the language. The "other" cinema is
commonly referred to as "foreign film" plainly because it's spoken in a
foreign language -just last week I was talking to a Canadian colleague of
mine and she was arguing that it was too hard to build a profile for
Canadian films in the foreign film circuit precisely because of the language
factor. This becomes very obvious in some awards categorizations (like the
case of Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood,  two quintessential American
mainstream directors, competing in the Best Foreign Film Category for their
films APOCALYPTO and LETTER FROM IWO JIMA in the past edition of the Golden
Globes).
How about if we swapped adjectives: foreign music and world cinema?
However, I'm not so sure if "subtitling" the music is so desirable. I
understand the need to contextualize the work in order to promote it and
reach bigger audiences, but if I admire something about music is precisely
its ability to transcend the language, try showing a foreign-language film
with NO subtitles.


On 3/20/07 5:02 PM, "Robert Singerman" <robert.s at french-music.org> wrote:

> 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
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