FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Monday, August 07, 2006
I always find it strange when I'm listening to the radio in mainland Europe because it seems that the majority of the music that their stations play is either English, American or else is sung in the English language. Because I'm currently in the middle of trying to learn French I often tune into France-based radio and television stations on the internet, such as Europe 2, that all seem to play wall-to-wall English pop and rock, which isn't terribly helpful when it comes to improving my language skills but says something important about the French (and general European) attitude to international music making. Even the French music charts and video lists feature many foreign, English-language songs - looking at the TF1 website this morning I was surprised to see that ONLY three out of the top ten videos are currently English or American!
And, yet, in the UK it is very rare that any song makes it into the top 40 that isn't either British or by a group / singer from the USA - only a few exceptions spring to mind, including the 1987 hit by Vanessa Paradis called Joe le Taxi, and The Ketchup Song, by girl-group Las Ketchup, the latter of which was actually partly sung in a mixture of Spanish and English known as Spanglish. I guess when you stop to think about it there will be a number of other big hits in the UK that were sung in a language other than English but that's kind of the point : you have to think about it! Most of the charts in other non-English-speaking European countries in any given week will include a third to a half of songs in English and I think this might be part of the reason why people from these places tend to be more able to speak English to a greater or lesser extent than the average Brit or Yank can get by in, say, German - they are simply more regularly exposed to languages other than their own.
Alizée
Quite apart from the educational aspect of it, the fact is that an awful lot of good music is produced in non-English speaking countries and it seems a shame that British people are not given the opportunity to hear any of it, presumably because some bod or other has decided on our behalf that we're not interested in knowing about what's going on outside of the UK. For example, in my French studies I stumbled upon a young singer who appeared on a French talent show with a similar format to Fame Academy or Pop Idol (called Graines de Star), Alizée Jacotey. Although not everyone's cup of tea, the songs this singer / dancer has released thus far have demonstrated that she has a real vocal talent, despite they being very much in the 'pop' genre and, therefore, likely to be heard mostly by those in their early teens. The question is, though, why hasn't she and other European artists of all genres been marketed for British audiences (with the exception of classical music, that seems to be more blind to national and cultural borders)? My guess is that it comes back down to a traditional and ongoing xenophobia that, despite the relative ease of international travel and the rise of the World Wide Web in the early 21st Century, continues to flourish in this country thanks to the conservative attitudes of our press who wish to deny us of our right to be part of a larger European community. Who knows what the likes of Alizée might do in years to come once she has matured out of singing to teeny-boppers, but one thing's for sure : if our British media doesn't widen it's scope we might miss out on hearing about it!
And, yet, in the UK it is very rare that any song makes it into the top 40 that isn't either British or by a group / singer from the USA - only a few exceptions spring to mind, including the 1987 hit by Vanessa Paradis called Joe le Taxi, and The Ketchup Song, by girl-group Las Ketchup, the latter of which was actually partly sung in a mixture of Spanish and English known as Spanglish. I guess when you stop to think about it there will be a number of other big hits in the UK that were sung in a language other than English but that's kind of the point : you have to think about it! Most of the charts in other non-English-speaking European countries in any given week will include a third to a half of songs in English and I think this might be part of the reason why people from these places tend to be more able to speak English to a greater or lesser extent than the average Brit or Yank can get by in, say, German - they are simply more regularly exposed to languages other than their own.
Alizée Quite apart from the educational aspect of it, the fact is that an awful lot of good music is produced in non-English speaking countries and it seems a shame that British people are not given the opportunity to hear any of it, presumably because some bod or other has decided on our behalf that we're not interested in knowing about what's going on outside of the UK. For example, in my French studies I stumbled upon a young singer who appeared on a French talent show with a similar format to Fame Academy or Pop Idol (called Graines de Star), Alizée Jacotey. Although not everyone's cup of tea, the songs this singer / dancer has released thus far have demonstrated that she has a real vocal talent, despite they being very much in the 'pop' genre and, therefore, likely to be heard mostly by those in their early teens. The question is, though, why hasn't she and other European artists of all genres been marketed for British audiences (with the exception of classical music, that seems to be more blind to national and cultural borders)? My guess is that it comes back down to a traditional and ongoing xenophobia that, despite the relative ease of international travel and the rise of the World Wide Web in the early 21st Century, continues to flourish in this country thanks to the conservative attitudes of our press who wish to deny us of our right to be part of a larger European community. Who knows what the likes of Alizée might do in years to come once she has matured out of singing to teeny-boppers, but one thing's for sure : if our British media doesn't widen it's scope we might miss out on hearing about it!
