Melodifestivalen

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Sir Terence of Wogan, on the radio just now:

'Pop music's an anglophone thing. In French or Finnish, it's just not right...'

O RLY? Can you judge Eurovision for anything here? Does all English music sound like Canal Street hi-NRG then? Or is it because the only European music 'we' - 'we' being yr Radio 2, maybe Radio 1 audience - hear is in English, save dancehall shows which I guess are already targeted at a patois-speaking audience, radio-wise. But like I said earlier, I'm musically rusty, and probably don't listen to enough non-English pop save 'Initial BB' and Jacques Dutronc.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

When I hear some non-Anglophone thing I really like, I often find myself thinking "ah yes [language] is a great language for [genre]" on the flimsiest of bases (this weekend I decided Polish was a great language for cod-reggae, for instance).

"French is a great language for hip-hop" is one you hear a lot. Is it, though?

Are there some anglophone pop vocal techniques which just don't work with some languages, I wonder? Are there languages where R'n'B style melisma would be useless, for instance?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

"French is a great language for hip-hop" is one you hear a lot. Is it, though?

It is in that French has a long tradition of clever wordplay involving homophones and the like which fits well with the way rappers use these devices in their rhymes.

I would give this question the attention it probably deserves if the statement hadn't come from Wogan, who has raised Xenophobia and little-Englander mentality to a high art on his radio show recently. The latest being some crap about Mutya Buena's name.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I guess he thinks he is trying to stir up some national pride ahead of Saturday.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

The wordplay thing would probably be lost on a non native speaker, though - I doubt somehow Wogan is a Francophile but this is something that really gets lost in translation.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I don't think it matters what language a song is in for any genre - although if your language included loads of clicks and whistles it would be AWESOME for making minimal techno...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Argh I meant to expand upon this a little but got carried away with attempting to beatbox at my desk. AHEM: yes, I propose that the language in question doesn't matter because either you are used to it, or you are not (and it will automatically sound strange/interesting/awful/amazing/different), whether it is Hebrew or Japanese. Terry is obviously going for the 'awful' option which I think is very closed minded of him.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I'm not sure whether Eurovision entries are the best guide to the pop temperature of each country, despite the oft-quoted maxim 'but they take it really seriously over there!'

I heard some Spanish boyband, for example, the other day who sounded just like 911-era UK chart pop, but then I'm used to the language and British boybands being huge in Spain, it's probably heavily influenced by things relatively familiar to me.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, they should have techno missionaries sent to the Congo then.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard that a lot too. The only one I can name off the top of my head is MC Solaarm who must be pretty aged now. There's a big resurgence in Algerian immigrants doing hip-hop in France, though, which makes sense.

I doubt very much melisma could happen in German or Dutch, it's not soft enough.