Global pop, local language / edited by Harris M. Berger and Michael Thomas Carroll.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Berger, Harris M., 1966-

Carroll, Michael Thomas, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular music--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Music and language.

Sociolinguistics.

Music and globalization.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 352 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2003]

Summary:

Why would a punk band popular only in Indonesia cut songs in no other language than English? If you're rapping in Tanzania and Malawi, where hip hop has a growing audience, what do you rhyme in? Swahili? Chichewa? English? Some combination of these? sGlobal Pop, Local Language examines how performers and audiences from a wide range of cultures deal with the issue of language choice and dialect in popular music. Related issues confront performers of Latin music in the U.S., drum and bass MCs in Toronto, and rappers, rockers, and traditional folk singers from England and Ireland to France, Germany, Belarus, Nepal, China, New Zealand, Hawaii, and beyond. For pop musicians, this issue brings up a number of complex questions. Which languages or dialects will best express my ideas? Which will get me a record contract or a bigger audience? What does it mean to sing or listen to music in a colonial language? A foreign language? A regional dialect? A "native" language? Examining popular music from a range of world cultures, the authors explore these questions and use them to address a number of broader issues, including the globalization of the music industry, the problem of authenticity in popular culture, the politics of identity, multiculturalism, and the emergence of English as a dominant world language. The chapters are written in a highly accessible style by scholars from a variety of fields, including ethnomusicology, popular music studies, anthropology, culture studies, literary studies, folklore, and linguistics.

Contents:

Introduction : The politics and aesthetics of language choice and dialect in popular music / Harris M. Berger

pt. 1. Language choice, popular music, and globalization. Doin' damage in my native language : the use of "resistance vernaculars" in hip hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand / Tony Mitchell

Language ideologies, choices, and practices in eastern African hip hop / Alex Perullo and John Fenn

"Goodbye my blind majesty" : music, language, and politics in the Indonesian underground / Jeremy Wallach

At the crossroads of languages, musics, and emotions in Kathmandu / Paul D. Greene and David R. Henderson

pt. 2. Nation, region, and ethnicity in the politics of music and language. Mucho loco for Ricky Martin, or, The politics of chronology, crossover, and language within the Latin(o) music "boom" / María Elena Cepeda

Just for fun? : language choice in German popular music / Edward Larkey

The choices and challenges of local distinction : regional attachments and dialect in Chinese music / Sue Tuohy

"Ordinary words" : sound, symbolism, and meaning in Belarusan-language rock music / Maria Paula Survilla

Cockney rock / Dave Laing

"Raising one higher than the other" : the hierarchy of tradition in representations of Gaelic- and English-language song in Ireland / Anthony McCann and Lillis Ó Laoire

pt. 3. Music and words : language choice and dialect in song and performance. "Trying to break it down" : MCs' talk and social setting in drum & bass performance / Morgan Gerard and Jack Sidnell

Singing Hawaiian and the aesthetics of (in)comprehensibility / C.K. Szego

"Chanter en yaourt" : pop music and language choice in France / Cece Cutler.

Notes:

In part, originally published in Global popular music : the politics and aesthetics of language choice, a special issue of Popular music and society (v. 24.3, fall 2000).

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1578065356

1578065364

OCLC:

50868291