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

[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.