African musical influences - whether it be North, South, East or West African - have shaped the development of reggae, blues, rock, jazz, calipso, tango, mamba, salsa...and many other styles of music. But in all of these cases, the African influence evolved into a brand new genre, effectively becoming it's own style of music. Yet for all it's musical influence, it is rarely used as the primary motif of a piece of music.
"What do you mean?" You say?
This might be explained easier if I compare it to Latin music. When a piece of music has a Latin flair to it, it is usually quite prominent - the rhythm, the scales, the melody, and even sometimes the language - is used in a way that it is front and center of the music. If the basis is rock music - such as Santana's music - you can hear the Latin influence on the melody and rhythm, all the while still being undeniably "rock". Or Indian music and the role it plays in "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles, or "Beware..." by Jay-Z and Punjabi MC.
African styles of music however, don't often get that kind of creative usage in Western music. And I don't know why.
There are exceptions of course, and I find them very refreshing - such as Shakira's Waka Waka song, Paul Simon's Graceland, or even the Lion King soundtrack. But you probably haven't heard much else that prominently has an African flair to the music.
Given that rarity...would you be curious what Indie Folk with African flair would sound like? Of course you would be!
If you've watched the MLB playoffs this year, you may have noticed a new Blackberry Torch commercial. While the commercial itself isn't incredibly memorable, the music in the background completely floored me - and I found myself hoping that it's an actual artist that plays this type of music, instead of it being a jingle that was written just for the commercial. In fact, it was only the last few seconds that really stood out, because it clearly had a twangy, nasal, multi-voiced rhythmic feel - a prominent African flair.
The song is by tUnE-yArDs, which is the moniker of an Oakland based musician named Merrill Garbus. It's really rough sounding - it's recorded at home, using non-professional equipment - but it makes the sound that much more raw and honest. She has one album out right now, and it's full of little gems that are African influenced, yet unmistakably indie folk. Where does her African flair come from? She spent some time studying and living in Kenya! Very cool.
So without further ado, here is "Fiya" (Fire) by tUnE-yArDs. If at first it seems really straightforward folk, wait until it builds up. The African flair comes in slowly, but completely takes over the melody and feel of the song at around 4:00.
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Plagiarisng Africa: A Habit of the Music Industry
The FIFA world cup is now into it's final stages, with only a handful of countries left to compete for the worlds biggest sporting prize. FIFA has chosen a few songs as official anthems for this particular world cup, and I'm sure most people have heard them by now. One of them is performed by Shakira called "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)".
It's a very catchy song, but what I want to talk about is it's origins. I'm not going to be saying anything new here to be honest - it's been said before in many other forums, books, news articles and documentaries - but I feel like it still needs repeating, because this is a trend in the music industry that really irks me.
The music industry seems to be very strict about copyright law, to the point that prominent artists such as CCR can be sued for plagiarizing themselves by lawyers in the music biz. And let's not even get into the horror stories of students being sued for millions in damages for having downloaded mp3s illegally. If there was anything they are extremely sensitive about, it would be respecting copyright and proper compensation to the rightful creators of the music right?
Wrong. I would argue that the most prominent criminals - when it comes to respecting copyright law in music - is the music industry itself. For proof, all we need to do is look towards Africa... and the Shakira song is unfortunately another continuation of the trend. First, listen to the chorus of "Waka Waka" by Shakira:
Now listen to the last section of Zangalewa by a Cameroonian band called the Golden Sounds, released in 1985:
These two songs are not just similar - the lyrics are even the same! You would think that the big lawyers behind Sony and Shakira would call up the Golden Sounds and ask for permission, give them writing credit, and pay them royalties...but no. Instead, they never asked for permission, writing credit was not given, nor did they pay the Golden Sounds the royalties that they deserved. Given how often the music industry flaunts copyright law, you would think they actually respect it. Turns out, they just care about it when it works for them, and ignores it when it's against them.
And this is far, far from the first time this has happened. Without getting into too much detail, such luminaries such as James Brown, Timbaland and Michael Jackson have been caught lifting/stealing entire sections and lyrics from African artists without paying the original creators. And those are just the examples that got caught (I would like to clarify that I have nothing against Shakira or these other artists. The problem really is on the industry side of things, I think). There's very little an artist in a developing world can do to force a major label in the West to pay royalties or get writing credit... and that's not even the most heinous example of this practice. For the worst, hard hitting, unjust example of the music industry ignoring copyright, we go back to South Africa, and the song "Mbube".
"Mbube" is a song written by Solomon Popoli Linda, a South African Zulu musician and composer, way back in 1939. Doesn't ring a bell? Take a listen:
This song has been covered a dozen times, been in countless movies, made millions of dollars for film and music companies, and is even in music textbooks...but Solomon Linda died penniless in complete poverty, unrecognized as the original composer. Solomon Linda was completely forgotten while the music industry stole his creation, and left the artist to die. Indeed, up until a South African journalist named Rian Malan wrote an article in the Rolling Stone about this (in 2000!), did this reality come to light. This led to the PBS documentary "A Lion's Trail", which also highlighted the unjust usage of Linda's song, the poverty that he and his descendants live/d in, and the millions that the song has made for the industry (I highly recommend this documentary, it's quite good). Fortunately, in 2006 Linda's heirs sued Disney and Abilene Music (over the use of the song in "The Lion King") and a settlement was reached, ensuring the acknowledgment of Linda as the original composer, and payments for all past uses of the song.
...but again, this happened only because a major media outlet enabled this to happen. Without it, it's extremely difficult for artists in developing countries - or heck, any other country really - to sue the music industry for stealing their work. Yet the music industry will go after downloaders with the very same law that the industry breaks all the time. Hypocritical, to say the least.
Africa has such a rich musical history, and it keeps growing, evolving, and expanding in it's artistry (as an aside: it's a shame that most people seem to think that there's such a thing as an "African" sound.....when there's really quite a diverse set of musical traditions that are quite different, depending on where you are on the continent). They should be compensated the same way that any Western composer would be.
The good news however, is that you - yes you are all a part of an amazing era where information can't be monopolized by a select few. While it's true that Sony did not acknowledge the Golden Sounds, thanks to the power of youtube and the internet, this discrepancy quickly spread over the internet and has now been addressed. The writers are credited, and compensation has been negotiated with the original writers. What took decades for "Mbube", took only a couple months for Zangalewa. Cool.
By the way, there's a bittersweet irony in all of this. The lyrics in Zangalewa - which Waka Waka stole in whole - are actually about White colonial oppression and corruption, written in the native language of Fang. That's why in the video they are dressed as old men with white beards.
It's a very catchy song, but what I want to talk about is it's origins. I'm not going to be saying anything new here to be honest - it's been said before in many other forums, books, news articles and documentaries - but I feel like it still needs repeating, because this is a trend in the music industry that really irks me.
The music industry seems to be very strict about copyright law, to the point that prominent artists such as CCR can be sued for plagiarizing themselves by lawyers in the music biz. And let's not even get into the horror stories of students being sued for millions in damages for having downloaded mp3s illegally. If there was anything they are extremely sensitive about, it would be respecting copyright and proper compensation to the rightful creators of the music right?
Wrong. I would argue that the most prominent criminals - when it comes to respecting copyright law in music - is the music industry itself. For proof, all we need to do is look towards Africa... and the Shakira song is unfortunately another continuation of the trend. First, listen to the chorus of "Waka Waka" by Shakira:
Now listen to the last section of Zangalewa by a Cameroonian band called the Golden Sounds, released in 1985:
These two songs are not just similar - the lyrics are even the same! You would think that the big lawyers behind Sony and Shakira would call up the Golden Sounds and ask for permission, give them writing credit, and pay them royalties...but no. Instead, they never asked for permission, writing credit was not given, nor did they pay the Golden Sounds the royalties that they deserved. Given how often the music industry flaunts copyright law, you would think they actually respect it. Turns out, they just care about it when it works for them, and ignores it when it's against them.
And this is far, far from the first time this has happened. Without getting into too much detail, such luminaries such as James Brown, Timbaland and Michael Jackson have been caught lifting/stealing entire sections and lyrics from African artists without paying the original creators. And those are just the examples that got caught (I would like to clarify that I have nothing against Shakira or these other artists. The problem really is on the industry side of things, I think). There's very little an artist in a developing world can do to force a major label in the West to pay royalties or get writing credit... and that's not even the most heinous example of this practice. For the worst, hard hitting, unjust example of the music industry ignoring copyright, we go back to South Africa, and the song "Mbube".
"Mbube" is a song written by Solomon Popoli Linda, a South African Zulu musician and composer, way back in 1939. Doesn't ring a bell? Take a listen:
This song has been covered a dozen times, been in countless movies, made millions of dollars for film and music companies, and is even in music textbooks...but Solomon Linda died penniless in complete poverty, unrecognized as the original composer. Solomon Linda was completely forgotten while the music industry stole his creation, and left the artist to die. Indeed, up until a South African journalist named Rian Malan wrote an article in the Rolling Stone about this (in 2000!), did this reality come to light. This led to the PBS documentary "A Lion's Trail", which also highlighted the unjust usage of Linda's song, the poverty that he and his descendants live/d in, and the millions that the song has made for the industry (I highly recommend this documentary, it's quite good). Fortunately, in 2006 Linda's heirs sued Disney and Abilene Music (over the use of the song in "The Lion King") and a settlement was reached, ensuring the acknowledgment of Linda as the original composer, and payments for all past uses of the song.
...but again, this happened only because a major media outlet enabled this to happen. Without it, it's extremely difficult for artists in developing countries - or heck, any other country really - to sue the music industry for stealing their work. Yet the music industry will go after downloaders with the very same law that the industry breaks all the time. Hypocritical, to say the least.
Africa has such a rich musical history, and it keeps growing, evolving, and expanding in it's artistry (as an aside: it's a shame that most people seem to think that there's such a thing as an "African" sound.....when there's really quite a diverse set of musical traditions that are quite different, depending on where you are on the continent). They should be compensated the same way that any Western composer would be.
The good news however, is that you - yes you are all a part of an amazing era where information can't be monopolized by a select few. While it's true that Sony did not acknowledge the Golden Sounds, thanks to the power of youtube and the internet, this discrepancy quickly spread over the internet and has now been addressed. The writers are credited, and compensation has been negotiated with the original writers. What took decades for "Mbube", took only a couple months for Zangalewa. Cool.
By the way, there's a bittersweet irony in all of this. The lyrics in Zangalewa - which Waka Waka stole in whole - are actually about White colonial oppression and corruption, written in the native language of Fang. That's why in the video they are dressed as old men with white beards.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Postal Workers Canceling Stamps
I think (er... hope?) that the recurring theme in this blog will be the question, "what is music?" It's amazing how varied the answers can be, depending on cultures, customs, and even physical attributes (We'll get to that last one in another post. If you're deaf, what IS music? Can you listen to music without your ears?).
While we've become accustomed to sitting down and listening to music "as is", a lot of what we consider music isn't seen that way by the people who produced them... such as this work song from Ghana.
A field recording by James Koetting in 1975, this piece was created by postal workers canceling stamps at the University of Ghana post office (In Accra!). That's right! It's just 4 dudes with scissors, stamps, and a table.... making music as they work, completely improvised. I think it's utterly mesmerizing to listen to, as the polyrhythms overlap and the whistled harmonies come in. Not to mention how cool it is that all these office supplies become instruments.
If you want to know more about this piece, go here.
While we've become accustomed to sitting down and listening to music "as is", a lot of what we consider music isn't seen that way by the people who produced them... such as this work song from Ghana.
A field recording by James Koetting in 1975, this piece was created by postal workers canceling stamps at the University of Ghana post office (In Accra!). That's right! It's just 4 dudes with scissors, stamps, and a table.... making music as they work, completely improvised. I think it's utterly mesmerizing to listen to, as the polyrhythms overlap and the whistled harmonies come in. Not to mention how cool it is that all these office supplies become instruments.
If you want to know more about this piece, go here.
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