I'm beginning to wonder about the Germans—first it's “Springtime For Hitler [1]” on German television, and now it's Germans doing a country-western cover [2] of the funk R&B (Rythm and Blues) song Word Up [3] (link via kisrael.com [4]).
I don't know why, but I'm finding I like American country-western music when done by non-Americans. Okay, maybe like is too strong a word—maybe tolerate would be better. It's the finding of something so unexpected, like a plane crashing into a derailing train during an earthquake just before a gas pipe explosion [5], only in a good way. It's the cognitive dissonance of watching The BossHoss [6] (the German country-western group) covering a hip hop song [7] originally done by a white guy [8] in a musical form originally from the African American communities [9].
In fact, this fascination with American musical culture interpreted by non-Americans extends even further, to Swedish rap [10] (I blame Wlofie [11] for bringing this to my attention—not that there's anything wrong with Swedish rap—it just find it … oh … I don't know … amusing, much like Wlofie finds our attempt at Swedish meatballs amusing).
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTfWTqQ0dM
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7Kp_TapA4
[4] http://kisrael.com/2009/08/27/
[5] /boston/2009/08/27/plane-train-gas-leak.gif
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BossHoss
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syldi9fD1lU
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music
[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHzdWcJ9_N8
![[5] /boston/2009/08/27/plane-train-gas-leak.gif](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2009/08/27/plane-train-gas-leak.gif){kind=link}