Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2018 Thread Once Known as World Music

One of Sayeed ‘s most viewed songs on YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxbZBbmpr58

Oh no I totally missed the news about Arby, that is really sad

Listening to Emel Mathlouthi, female Tunisian singer who came to fame with the Tunisian revolution in 2010. She's kinda Arabic folky, but sometimes now sings over programmed beats and sounds artsy

SOAR by Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, second collaboration between the harp and kora players. https://open.spotify.com/album/2s5WYOg1fezE42u6X0GqJc?si=9xI9lJXgRwCgqDnIbEIovg
^^this one is great!

World Music Fest in Chicago is about to start -- psyyyyyyyyched!!! https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/world_music_festival.html

Here's a very groovy live set by Senegal's Marema, at the Africa Festival in Germany:

- https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/076003-002-A/marema-africa-festival/

(Video is available online until 31 Dec 2019)

I like Marema’s vocals and some of the songs I have heard, although a few sound influenced by Peter Gabriel sorta — not as crazy about those.

https://m.france24.com/en/20180912-french-based-algerian-singer-rachid-taha-dies-59

Rip Taha. He did a rendition of “Rock the Casbah “ that got some crossover attention

Was listening again to the late Rachid Taha's rockin Algerian rai music last night. Sad he's gone too soon.

x-post-- that Chicago Fest looks good. If I was out there I would see Jupiter & Okwess from the Congo (again) on the 22nd and/or 23rd.

From Simon Reynolds piece on Autotune in Pitchfork, discussed on ilm rockism thread:

When it was first embraced by Western audiences in the ’80s, African music tended to be associated with qualities like rootsy, earthy, authentic, natural—in other words, values fundamentally at odds with Auto-Tune. Actually, this was a mistaken—and dare I say, rockist—projection. Most early forms of Afro-pop, such as highlife or juju, were slick, the work of highly professional bands not averse to a little bit of razzle dazzle. There was nothing particular rural about this sound, which was to a large degree associated with an urbane, sophisticated, cosmopolitan audience. Nor was it particularly “pure” in the way that Western world music enthusiasts seemed to crave: It always eagerly incorporated ideas from black America, the Caribbean, and the outside world, from King Sunny Adé’s Shadows-style twangy guitar, to the synths and drum machines in ’80s Ethiopian electro-funk.

So it makes perfect sense that 21st century Afrobeat would embrace the latest in sonic modernity.

When it was first embraced by Western audiences in the ’80s, African music tended to be associated with qualities like rootsy, earthy, authentic, natural

is this true? who/what is he talking about? putumayo listeners? i feel like african music that could be described that way exists - as field recordings, folk styles, etc - but the same thing applies in the west as well. once music starts to travel, becomes urban, gets radio play it immediately becomes eclectic in its influences. seems like maybe a strawlistener. ppl who listened to african crossover music in the 80s like lizzy mercier descloux or graceland would i think get how cosmopolitan this music was.

crossover influenced

Yea, it's all a little more complicated. There are both Putumayo listeners and others who do view this simplistically, and so yes Simon would have been better if he had stated African music tended to be associated BY SOME WESTERNERS

Sometimes I feel a bit defensive with this thread that some people will think we're pushing and embracing "rockist" global sounds rather than the pop modern ones of the Afrobeats thread. I would hope that most people here know that multiple types of sounds exist everywhere (and depending on taste, age, etc.) one can find music inspiring in all camps no matter how its made.

it's a little weird bc i don't think of world folk music traditions as rockist? but maybe i don't know what rockist means anymore? but like field recordings def don't scan as rockist to me. isn't rockism like canonical western guitar band albums? how would that relate to putumayo listeners who i have complaints about but i don't think of as rockist? when you say "rockist global sounds" do u mean those sounds or do u mean more like stuff that guitar band fans might like like tuareg blues type stuff?

Rockist to me simply means here "I like music played on real instruments with real vocalists" not "Programmed computer sounds with autotuned vocals"....

World music fests that include only folks playing sounds on old-school traditional instruments, but not new autotuned vocalists from such countries, might also be a type of rockism to some. Of course, others will say that such fests are highlighting the sounds that don't get the support and recognition that the younger (usually) autuned pop gets.

Sneering at Congolese rumba and soukous dance records and saying its not authentic like field recordings could also be seen as rockist

I don't think a recording itself can even be rockist but appreciation of folk recordings can come in the guise of "look at the authentic roots of the music that ended up as Blues/Rock when it came to the US", i.e. framing it only in the context of its influence on Rock (obviously this works better w/ some field recordings than others).

Then there's the impulse to ignore modern Pop coming from Africa and rejecting anything that sounds to o influenced by Western music but I dunno if that's rockism so much as the kind of old school folkie mentality that angered Dylan in the US and the Tropicália bunch in Brazil.

Conflating traditionalism with rockism is weird to me; not all status quos are the same.

I think a lot of critics see rockism as the privileging of tropes of a specific genre (or culture?) when analysing music not from that genre, and that genre doesn't have to be Rock (though it usually is). At least that was the answer here some time in the early to mid 00's when someone brought up if there could be "popism", "reggaeism", etc.

There are lots of reasons someone might privilege folk traditions over popular music that have nothing to do with Rock music (and lots of reasons that such an approach would be anti-Rock in its essence). I think thinking about African music might obscure this for the very reasons that Reynolds claims is afflicting these supposed "rockists." People aren't familiar enough with African folk to know what it is so they're assuming it's just proto-Blues & Rock. If you talked about non-African folk traditions though this distinction would be obvious. No one would accuse a klezmer purist who preferred Dave Tarras (1955 klezmer artist) to Golem (contemporary punk-klezmer outfit) of being a Rockist. Maybe of being misguided in other ways (Klezmer has always had outside influences, Tarras was not himself as genre pure as you'd assume, etc), but Rockism would be a bizarre accusation. I think similarly with African music - if someone loves Mbuti pygmy music and thinks that it's more authentic than Congolese rumba I think that person is missing out but I doubt they're animated by rockism so much as ethnomusicological biases.

they're all just different ways of esteeming some notion of authenticity

"not all status quos are the same."

Re: egregious over- and mis-use of the term 'rockism': ILM gonna ILM.

not even all rockisms are the same. if anyone's got a better shorthand pls avail us

prescriptivism?

Gatekeeping?

if someone thinks western art music is the height of music and pop music is all garbage aka a classical music snob are they also "rockists"? i mean acc to the idea that rockism is just emphasizing some forms of music as more authentic than others then definitely but it's v stupid calling someone who hates rock music a rockist.

Yeah but 'prescriptivism' sounds less like 'racism' so idk.

It is my understanding that yeah, as the term was used from the get-go it could indeed apply both to yr hypothetical klezmer fan and yer classical music snob. I see why you would think that to not be very helpful as a term but in this particular context I think it's pretty obvious what Reynolds is getting at, anyway.

historically informed performance you could call rockist, but snobbery can run in all sorts of directions, likewise gatekeeping could be done on a rockist basis but not necessarily

Mordy otm

trying to assess folk traditions in terms of the vocabulary of a very specific school of British pop music criticism seems massively short-sighted to me

"rockism" was invented to take Robert Christgau down a peg not to describe African music

i don't love the SR piece but it's not doing that, you guys are v rockist about the usage of the term rockist

yeah, it's about western perceptions of African music and "world music" as a category, it's got nothing to do with trying to describe any actual music

'My coinage is so utterly exemplary that it turns any and all proximate terms into subcategories of it'.

prescriptivism is the correct term imo
it is what i was going to post before i decided i didn't want to get into the discussion that far (and then changed my mind)

there is nothing wrong with exploring and appreciating the roots of popular music if it is informative; if it is prescriptive ("this is the greatest music right here") then obviously that is not in the correct spirit of music appreciation

I kind of want to thank this thread for validating every misgiving and suspicion I ever had about the concept of "rockism".

(the term itself, obv, not the nebulous thing it supposedly refers to)

Moving on slightly from the authenticity discussion-

So I saw Malian band BKO Quintet last night in a small DC club. I liked the way the musician on the electrified ngoni uh rocked. Not flashy, but quick fingers that created rhythm and noisey notes. The drummer, percussionist, & kora player added funkiness. But I guess they’re considered roots/ traditional since they don’t rap, or use autotune, or programmed beats.

I am guessing that in Mali BKO’s audience is different a bit from Malian rappers, but I don’t know; and don’t know how folks of different ages and classes there view traditionalism and pop and authenticity.

BKO Quintet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZNm3dZbGI4

this looks cool haven't heard it yet

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2440170954_16.jpg

That does look intriguing. Currently listening though to a more serious Arab world effort-- DC based Palestinian singer/oud player Huda Asfour whom I have touted here before. She's on Spotify and her latest album Kouni is very good.

La Lechera, how was the Chicago fest? Did you see Jupiter & Okwess? Did your students go to any of the events?

It was amazing, as usual! In fact, before I tell you any more I learned that the webcasts have been archived and you should be able to view them from the facebook page -- this should work? https://www.facebook.com/pg/WorldMusicFestivalChicago/videos/?ref=page_internal

I caught Juana Molina (awesome, inventive, super fun), Rio Mira & Orquesta Akokan (their only US appearance?! wut? two students came to this and both enjoyed it a lot, insanely packed venue), and Jupiter & Okwess (no students showed but the performance was great and I enjoyed Quantic's DJ set a LOT) I didn't get to all the events I wanted to see, but it was satisfying.

By the time last Saturday rolled around I was completely exhausted but that is what I want from WMF -- it helps a person save up good memories to last through the winter

i like this - it's on spotify:

https://thevinylfactory.com/news/african-acid-is-the-future-launches-new-label-ambiance-vinyl/

Oh will have to check that out, as it includes “the queen of mbira” Stella Chiweshe from Zimbabwe. I didn't recognize the Kenyan names on it.

Rio Mira, the Ecuador/Peru marimba music act, that was one of the groups La Lechera saw at the Chicago Fest, are gonna be in the month long October DC Global Music fest. The DC Fest has a mix of paid ticket and free shows, plus they're showing movies also like Zerzura: A Saharan Acid Western (made by Sahel Sounds )