Posted by admin on 11 Jul 2011 | Tagged as: politics, protest, RIP
I’ve often deplored the death of the protest song. So it was stunning to see how big a role music and chanting is playing in the Arab Spring. Shots of men chanting and punching the air in Arabic all sounded alike to me. The horrific murder of Ibrahim Qashoush, however, puts a face and a [...]
Posted by admin on 18 Nov 2010 | Tagged as: news, politics, protest
Image via Wikipedia I just read an article in the Hindustan Times about an Indonesia riot sparked by ringtones. According to the report, hundreds of Wamena tribesmen descended on members of the Yoka tribe on Wednesday morning (November 17, 2010) in the Papua provincial capital Jayapura, after learning that Yokas were sharing a ringtone which [...]
Posted by admin on 29 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: plagiarism, politics
Yep, they’ve done it again. Every publishing contract that I have ever signed obliges the publisher to request my permission if the song is to be used in a political campaign. Yet very often, politicians skip over that detail and decide to use music they like or think appropriate. In a recent spat between The [...]
Posted by admin on 05 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: politics, protest, RIP
Amazon.co.uk WidgetsMercedes Sosa, the Argentinian singer who became the voice of the nueva cancion movement of the 60s and 70s, has died at the age of 74. Sosa was an outspoken singer, who used her voice and art to champion the causes of the poor in South America, even though she tried to distance herself [...]
Posted by admin on 18 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: awards, events, meanings, news, politics, RIP, tip
The infobahn is alive with Susan Boyle’s rendition (nice word, eh?) of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”. There is an overwhelming opinion that Boyle has now recorded one of the definitive versions of the song. This, however, is seen as sacrilege by others, who cling to memories of the Stones and Gram Parsons. This sort [...]
Posted by admin on 14 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: news, politics
Given the control that the Chinese authorities try to maintain over other arts, it’s hardly surprising song lyrics are now being targetted. According to a report on China’s Global Times, song lyrics found to be vulgar, violent, or in otherwise poor taste now face removal from Chinese Web sites. The Chinese Ministry of Culture has [...]
Posted by admin on 21 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: meanings, politics
This title from the Ha’aretz newspaper caught my eye. Why do Israeli singers sing in English rather than Hebrew? The debate is an old one, and has been mirrored in many countries. On the one hand, there are the people that worry about cultural identity. On the other, are performers that either don’t care or [...]
Posted by admin on 28 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: meanings, politics, tip
With the shocking Mumbai attacks still playing out as I type this, I can’t help thinking back to other attacks and other wars with their cast of innocent victims. But attacks also leave witnesses. Nitin Sawhney and Natty appear together on the remarkable “Days of Fire”, the opening track on Sawhney’s latest album “London Undersound”. [...]
Posted by admin on 22 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: meanings, news, politics, protest, religion
In a pretty radical move, Sony Entertainment has decided to pull a track by the Malian harp player Toumani Diabete from the upcoming Little Big Planet game. The track “Tapha Niang” contains two lines quoted from the Quran. After a poster on a Sony message board started complaining, the company decided to withdraw the track [...]
Posted by admin on 16 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: meanings, politics
I’m not sure what to make of this. 80s icon Boy George has recorded a song using a sample of the US president candidate Barack Obama. But, it’s hard to know what exactly the point is, or what he intends to achieve. “Yes We Can” is somewhere between a very private statement and a feelgood [...]