11–20 of 20 posts
This is exciting. I'd love to see the topic addressed in the same way for food, as well as music!
In the past it was called 'fusion'. Today it's called 'cultural appropriation' https://twitter.com/hashtag/jerkgate
Reminded me of the Logicomix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logicomix
This was a very enjoyable and creative read. I'm not criticizing this in any way, but it would have been even better had it covered the history of music beyond that of the western hemisphere. Other cultures have had enough written history and written music [0] for what could be some fascinating stories on music and distribution/remixing. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation#In_various_co...
Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men wrote poetry in the lovely Tamasheq language. But when guitars, radios, and recordings arrived in the 1960s/1970s, the instrument had no role in the traditions, and they could make something new. The poetry fused with the rhythms, while the new wave of guitarists dug into Dire Straits and Santana along with their own traditions. The results are astounding - deep, soulful, melodic, improvisational.
Check out Tinariwen and Bombino for the hottest bands in the scene (again imho). If you dig them, keep digging, there's a lot more where that came from. And due to civil war and other problems at home, a lot of the musicians tour relentlessly in the West. I see a half-dozen Tuareg concerts a year!
https://www.amazon.ca/Dancehall-Rise-Jamaican-Culture/dp/095...
Jamaican music in general is the perfect example of music theft giving rise to a whole new style of music. Ska music was created by Jamaican musicians trying to imitate swing and jazz music from America. From there it developed into rocksteady and reggae. At the time Jamaica had no copyright laws so songs were freely sampled and remixed back even back then. Most modern dancehall music still has it's roots in old baselines and melodies written back then. Because of the poverty in Jamaica, a lot of songs were remade and updated over and over again with different singers or musicians.
Hip hop was influenced by Jamaican dancehall brought over by people immigrating to new York and other cities from Jamaica. In the 80's dancehall tunes started sampling from hip hop tracks and a bunch of bands like Sublime took reggae songs and redid them. Every single one of Sublimes songs is a reimagining of either some some reggae, punk rock or old rock song. The downside to this is a lot of talented artists ended up dying broke despite having a bunch of hit songs. Producers who could afford equipment ended up owning the rights to a lot of the music and the artists tended not to be paid properly. Some of them eventually managed to get royalties if they became famous enough that big record companies took interest but for the most part they all lost money they should have been paid.
Now today there's dancehall and reggae festivals all over the world. Some of the biggest ones happen in Europe and Asia. Even Japan has a reggaeband dancehall subculture.
Reggae in general is a pretty cool, I don't want to say genre because there's so many different genres within reggae music, branch of music I guess. So much of it was made in so many different styles, sometimes dozens of different versions of the same song were produced. There's really a ton of music to discover.
This was a very enjoyable and creative read. I'm not criticizing this in any way, but it would have been even better had it covered the history of music beyond that of the western hemisphere. Other cultures have had enough written history and written music [0] for what could be some fascinating stories on music and distribution/remixing. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation#In_various_co...
My current favorite music is the music of the western Sahara desert (mostly but not all Tuareg). Northern Mali and Niger have the hottest music scene in the world today, imho. And it's very much a function of cross-cultural remixing. Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men w…
Quite a bit different from the things you're suggesting showing that there's a huge range of sound coming from that region and there has been for a long time, however not documented in the West.
Sahel Sounds is an imprint that has been putting out a ton of great stuff for a few years now.
This was a very enjoyable and creative read. I'm not criticizing this in any way, but it would have been even better had it covered the history of music beyond that of the western hemisphere. Other cultures have had enough written history and written music [0] for what could be some fascinating stories on music and distribution/remixing. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation#In_various_co...
My current favorite music is the music of the western Sahara desert (mostly but not all Tuareg). Northern Mali and Niger have the hottest music scene in the world today, imho. And it's very much a function of cross-cultural remixing. Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men w…
Music discovery is still a challenge. I used to lean heavily on labels and festivals with supporting roles from radio shows like Wo'Pop and Positive Vibrations.
FWIW, One of my all time faves is Habib Koité https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habib_Koité One of my bucket list items is going to Mali and seeing him, and everyone else, perform live.
This was a very enjoyable and creative read. I'm not criticizing this in any way, but it would have been even better had it covered the history of music beyond that of the western hemisphere. Other cultures have had enough written history and written music [0] for what could be some fascinating stories on music and distribution/remixing. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation#In_various_co...
My current favorite music is the music of the western Sahara desert (mostly but not all Tuareg). Northern Mali and Niger have the hottest music scene in the world today, imho. And it's very much a function of cross-cultural remixing. Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men w…
They were absolutely incredible live, and I was really surprised at how young the audience were (especially for a band that have been going since the 70s).
Thanks for the recommendation for Bombino, it's heading straight into my Spotify queue.
This is reminding me of "The Lick": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lick_(music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDxhnaKD7Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
and Raiding the 20th Century
http://www.djfood.org/raiding-the-20th-century-is-10-years-o...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current favorite music is the music of the western Sahara desert (mostly but not all Tuareg). Northern Mali and Niger have the hottest music scene in the world today, imho. And it's very much a function of cross-cultural remixing. Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men w…
Niger has unbelievably great music. Recently picked up a copy of " Etran De L'Aïr - No. 1" (2014) and it's fantastic. "Azna De L'Ader" (late 70's) is a fantastic find as well - super rhythmic acid rock bursting with energy and passion and completely original. These are just a couple artists from that region I'm into lately and this stuff is as fresh to me as when I discovered punk rock in the early 1990's. Quite a bi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current favorite music is the music of the western Sahara desert (mostly but not all Tuareg). Northern Mali and Niger have the hottest music scene in the world today, imho. And it's very much a function of cross-cultural remixing. Tuareg culture is ancient, pre-Islamic, and it has a long and beautiful tradition of music and poetry, which falls along gender lines. Traditionally, women played most music, while men w…
Dude. I'll pay you money for your playlist. I had a worldbeat phase in the 90s, but now I'm an old man very much out of date. Music discovery is still a challenge. I used to lean heavily on labels and festivals with supporting roles from radio shows like Wo'Pop and Positive Vibrations. FWIW, One of my all time faves is Habib Koité https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habib_Koité One of my bucket list items is going to Mali…
There's a really great documentary from a couple of years ago called They Will Have to Kill Us First, which you would probably love. It's about musicians from northern Mali living as refugees from the civil war, and how the jihadists have treated musicians.
Also, keep an eye out for a band called Songhoy Blues, if they're ever in your area. They're in the documentary. They're Songhoy, not Tuareg (different ethnicity), and the band formed in the refugee camps with guys from different towns who never would have met otherwise. They tour a lot, and they're a lot closer to American/British rock and roll than most Tuareg music. I took my spouse to see them (I've seen them twice), and she said seeing their singer live was what it must have been like to see a young Mick Jagger. He's that good.