2004-02-12 Music

This is something I’ve been talking over with Claudia several times.

If you live in central Europe or in a similar culture, you have grown up with English pop-music which you didn’t understand as a kid, you learnt one or two poems in school but didn’t like them, and now you’re older and when you hear Bryan Adams sing about love, you laugh and shake you head. What a fool.

When you visit Arab countries, or Latin America, however, you will note a striking difference. People will often sing popular songs. They know them by heart! And when you translate these songs, you’ll shudder for the sheer amount of kitsch is giving you the cramps. Flowers and heaven and eternal love and dedication and holding and kissing... What fools.

But think about it for a minute. Why are we such cynics?

We grew up with music we didn’t understand. In our post-modern world, romanticising and poetic language is “out”. That means, you’ll never hear much of it. You won’t practice it. And when the time comes, you don’t have the words to express yourself. No role models, no fundus of quotes to cite. No famous poems sung by Omme Kolsoum in the radio. We are speechless, mute, when confronted with our emotions, because we don’t recite poetry in our every life.

Pop culture in a foreign language? The influence of TV? Who knows.

Notice that vestiges still remain: Most people can quote a line or two by Shakespeare or Goethe or Voltaire; even a famous line by a president or two...

• To be or not to be, that is the question.
• Wie hast du’s mit der Religion?
• Zwei Herzen wohnen ach in meiner Brust!
• We’re going to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard!
• I have a dream!
• Even presidents have private lives.

Notice, however, the predominance of existential philosophy and politics. Where are the love songs? Britney Spears and Madonna don’t sing **poetry**. That’s sad.

• *Update**: When I asked the three guys in my office, two of them knew not one song. Not even the national anthem. One knows about 20, he says, and he says he knows many of those because of his two kids. They learn some traditional songs in school. Needless to say, I don’t know a single song by heart, either.

​#Music

Comments

(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)

⁂

Murasaki no panorama, gingaaa no haiuei miagereba,... Ore no, mune o, tsuranuku shuuting staa! Ne-mura-nai machi ni, kasoku suru haatbiito kasanete waa... something somethings, something something, blah blah blah balh balh blah blah. Kikoete kuru ano melodei. Fushigi na ano koe ga ore o hanasanai. Oshiete kuru 7th muun. Kono mune no moya moya o oh no... Ore wa doko e to tsurete yuku no ka? Aoku yureru 7th moon. Dadada da da da daaaa da kamu ni.. de de de daaa de de de de ko ta e o ka ga tsu- da ke zaaaaa! ;) ;) ;)

– LionKimbro 2004-02-14 05:36 UTC

LionKimbro