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The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

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Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#151

Post by pishpash »

npteljes wrote: post #92
sequoia wrote: post #44

For people wondering "what's the sleng teng riddim?" here's some examples: Original "under mi sleng teng" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjw7m-BKmQ8 One of my favorites, "The Don" by peter metro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnZuTOH2zoc 90 minute sleng teng mix (here's a bunch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwLKc61dVWQ related: Under mi sensi (doesn't actually use sleng teng riddim but it's a riff on the sleng…

Now we're just left wondering what's a "sleng teng". Teng is maybe "thing", so we're left with what's "sleng". Searching for it I'm corrected to "slang", and if I force "sleng" then all I can find is the song itself.

If "teng" is "thing" then "sleng" has to be "sling"? Sling thing? This [1] gives the definition as marijuana cigarette, so semantically it checks out.

[1] http://wiwords.com/word/sleng-teng

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#152

Post by zuminator »

winternett wrote: post #120
elefanten wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founders being rewarded is completely orthogonal to culture, in this picture. Any knowledge or innovation could be “stolen” and used by someone else, whether its origin is cultural or not. Using the possibility of value extracting theft as a reason why (certain) people should never find inspiration in (certain other) cultures… is just bigoted and nonsensical. It’s racist territorialism. Especially when all culture is…

I disagree. There is a history of issues in the industry, and with audience exposure that makes things much more complex than with certain other genres. If reggae has been around this long yet Sting, UB40, Boy George, Snow, 311, Sublime, and Matisyahu are probably the people most Americans would think of as the best musicians making reggae music, it might show a bit of inherent cultural bias for both the industry and…

History must be replete with situations such as where a music producer buys a song outright from a semiliterate performer for 50 bucks and then turns it into a million selling hit with no royalties for the original writer. And that type of exploitation has historically been enabled or facilitated by a classist or racist framework where the original writer would have no conceivable access to fair compensation nor to proper legal representation. And that is certainly appropriation. But the fact that it's cross-cultural may be relevant to the appeal of the stolen good, but it's incidental to the act of thievery.

Hence, if Sting stole musical licks from specific performer(s), that's a problem. If those people would've been entitled to compensation but for the fact that they were poor island countryfolk incognizant of their rights, that's a problem. But if he just borrowed his musical aesthetic from reggae or from "Jamaican culture," that seems morally uncontroversial to me. Maybe musically derivative, but that's a matter of taste.

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#153

Post by JohnBooty »

zepto wrote: post #143
JohnBooty wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, just to make sure we're on the same page about maybe one single thing, I don't think anybody thinks the subject of the linked article is cultural appropriation. I sure don't. Ultimately everything is somewhat of consensus in society, right? I mean, even near-universal truths like "murder is generally bad" or "helping your neighbors is good" are just sort of things most societies kind of agree on. Someti…

> But a lot of people from group ABC feel like it's pretty crappy for me to use XYZ. There is no meaningful comparison between the use of racial slurs and cultural appropriation. It’s not even a straw man. They just aren’t analogous.

I mean, yes, they are different. One is usually explicitly meant to denigrate another group; another is usually not meant to denigrate another group. In that sense, very different.

In another key way they’re absolutely similar: they are modes of expression that (in the eyes of some) harm other groups or (in the eyes of others) are not a big deal. And there are an awful lot of grey areas and nobody agrees on the definitions.

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#154

Post by JohnBooty »

JohnBooty wrote: post #134
quacked wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I suspect we know each other's points already, but I always am curious about how this particular element of the topic is defined by adherents of the group-to-which-I-don't-belong. If we both define what's appropriate, and our definitions don't match, how should that disagreement be settled?

First of all, just to make sure we're on the same page about maybe one single thing, I don't think anybody thinks the subject of the linked article is cultural appropriation. I sure don't. Ultimately everything is somewhat of consensus in society, right? I mean, even near-universal truths like "murder is generally bad" or "helping your neighbors is good" are just sort of things most societies kind of agree on. Someti…

Or to give maybe a more direct example: a friend of mine (who is not Native American) used to make those “dream catcher” wall hangings.

Obviously she meant no harm and saw it as a tribute; a sign of appreciation.

A few people told her why it was not cool. She didn’t really understand/agree. But it’s also like: did she really need to make dream catchers? So, she relented, and just made different crafts.

Moral being: she disagreed with the “consensus”, but still recognized that hey - it really did amount to to stepping on another groups’ toes, at least in their eyes, so why not just stop doing it?

She wasn’t shamed, or canceled, or throw in jail. She just acted in a way she felt was for the common good. Didn’t cost her anything.

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#155

Post by astrange »

Cockbrand wrote: post #89
chrisjc wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick note to those that were potentially triggered when they read "dubstep"... Early dubstep was based on two-step and garage music, while at the same time heavily based on dub and reggae. Digital Mystikz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9H3i0T1iN4 Spaceape - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfyRjyKj05I Goth Trad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d12dJbE_xxw Listen to some of the early dubstep and you'll start to u…

Hehe, I remember telling an American friend about 10 years ago that I was really into dubstep at that time. She was appalled and couldn't understand why a somewhat decent person like myself could listen to that kind of music. Much later, it dawned on me that she was thinking of US bro-step like Skrillex, while I in fact was listening to "UK Bass Music" like Benga and Skream and Digital Mystikz and Loefah.

Can Skrillex really be a bro when he's named after a Kingdom Hearts game?

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#156

Post by [deleted] »

redwall_hp wrote: post #74
Simplicitas wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. I'll never forget Darryl Hall saying that music is a continuum, which is why most of the times he allows his Hall & Oates sounds to be sampled by Rap artists ..

If you look into folk music traditions, one recurring theme you'll find is it's generally not clear who wrote a tune or lyrics, and multiple songs often use the same tune. That's the natural state of music, and the current system of so-called intellectual property is an aberration. We don't know who wrote "Rolling Down to Old Maui" or "Drunken Sailor," other than that they were popular in the 19th century. They both…

[deleted]

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#157

Post by hulahoof »

nyanpasu64 wrote: post #106
lelandfe wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to see some heads on HN! Great list, and RIP The Spaceape. You can find proper sound system culture in the states, though not much is happening since COVID. Tsunami Bass has an enormous PA and Reconstrvct hopefully will be back one day. Analog in Brooklyn did have a whopping home built system but it was sold off and the club is under new management these days. Here's a glimpse into what this sort of stuff is lik…

Technically low-cutting is called highpass rather than lowpass. I don't exactly like the low/high pass terminology myself either though; you end up putting a high pass at a low frequency to remove bass, and low pass at a high frequency to remove treble.

Because you let the high frequencies pass through on a high pass filter and vice versa

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#158

Post by [deleted] »

redwall_hp wrote: post #74
Simplicitas wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. I'll never forget Darryl Hall saying that music is a continuum, which is why most of the times he allows his Hall & Oates sounds to be sampled by Rap artists ..

If you look into folk music traditions, one recurring theme you'll find is it's generally not clear who wrote a tune or lyrics, and multiple songs often use the same tune. That's the natural state of music, and the current system of so-called intellectual property is an aberration. We don't know who wrote "Rolling Down to Old Maui" or "Drunken Sailor," other than that they were popular in the 19th century. They both…

[deleted]

Re: The Casio employee behind the “Sleng Teng” riddim that revolutionized reggae

#160

Post by ahartmetz »

JohnBooty wrote: post #134
quacked wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I suspect we know each other's points already, but I always am curious about how this particular element of the topic is defined by adherents of the group-to-which-I-don't-belong. If we both define what's appropriate, and our definitions don't match, how should that disagreement be settled?

First of all, just to make sure we're on the same page about maybe one single thing, I don't think anybody thinks the subject of the linked article is cultural appropriation. I sure don't. Ultimately everything is somewhat of consensus in society, right? I mean, even near-universal truths like "murder is generally bad" or "helping your neighbors is good" are just sort of things most societies kind of agree on. Someti…

> But a lot of people from group ABC feel like it's pretty crappy for me to use XYZ.

Let's assume you had chosen a better example, such as abusing a religious symbol as the logo of a nightclub...

But there is also a whole lot of mindless calling-out going on regarding cultural appropriation. Most uses of imported cultural material are not meant to denigrate or minimize and don't do so by accident. "Stealing" culture is a stupid concept. Culture cannot be stolen, only disseminated.

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