[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.As Jan Nedeerveen Pieterseof the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague writes, “Howdo we come to terms with phenomena such as Thai boxingby Moroccan girls in Amsterdam, Asian rap in London, Irishbagels, Chinese tacos and Mardi Gras Indians in the UnitedStates.? Cultural experiences, past or present, have notbeen simply moving in the direction of cultural uniformityand standardisation.” He suggests what we’re witnessing isa “creolisation of global culture.” It does not follow thatcreolization wil take a standard form.Localism is ignored,as Céline’s marketers know, at peril.Likewise the global-hegemony model presumes there won’t be reciprocal cultural_________• 46 •LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVEinfluence on the west, but the counterevidence is al aroundus: Asian video-game music, for example, is arguably amongthe most pervasive influences on young pop musicians now.And as Pieterse points out, with the exception of isolatedindigenous groups, civilization and hybridization have beensynonymous for centuries.This is not an answer to exploitation and inequality.Butthe presumption that the world will automatically becomemore like us is itself chauvinism.Contrary to globalizationcheerleader Thomas Friedman’s bestselling sloganeering, theworld is not going “flat,” never has and never wil , unlessyou look through a two-dimensional screen.Yet some west-ern critics of hegemony present merely a negative image ofAmerican triumphalism.In George W.Bush’s case, it is wish-ful thinking; in theirs, apocalyptic thinking; but both operateas if the totalization of their own culture were an inevitability,despite all signals of how improbable that is.* * *Some of that self-absorption can be heard in the wide-eyedhorror with which western witnesses relate Céline’s popular-ity abroad.Local accounts are subtler, indicating how com-mercial music is redeployed in everyday life for people’s ownpurposes.One of the most astounding tales of Céline’s globalflexibility comes to me from Jamaican-American music criticGarnette Codogan, who says she may be Jamaica’s most pop-ular non-native musical figure.And not just for grandmas.“I wish I could give you an explanation beyond Jamaicans’love for saccharine tunes, but that may be satisfactory enough,”Codogan wrote me._________• 47 •CARL WILSONAnd the places she turns up in Jamaica are all the more curi-ous.I remember being at sound-system dances and hearingeveryone from Bob Marley to Kenny Rogers (yes, KennyRogers) to Sade to Yel owman to Beenie Man being blastedat top volume while the crowd danced and drank up a storm.But once the selector (DJ in American parlance) began toplay a Céline Dion song, the crowd went buck wild and somepeople started firing shots in the air.I also rememberalways hearing Céline Dion blasting at high volume wheneverI passed through volatile and dangerous neighborhoods, somuch that it became a cue to me to walk, run or drive faster ifI was ever in a neighborhood I didn’t know and heard CélineDion mawking over the airwaves.I sometimes shared this little anecdote with other Jamaicanfriends, only for them to laughingly comment that they had asimilar practice.The unofficial rule seemed to be, “If you hearCéline Dion then you’re in the wrong place.” That’s not to saythat roughnecks (as gangsters are also called in Jamaica) arethe only ones who appreciate and publicly show their love forSaccharine Céline.It’s just that, for some reason, they showher more love than just about any other group.Codogan asked around, including a few roughnecks, and thereason given was, “to quote one fellow, ‘Bad man have fiplay love tune fi show ’dat them a lova too.’”The Pentagon apparently has the same idea.In the run-upto the Iraq war, the US was reported to be wooing Iraqis witha radio station broadcasting Céline to show the west’s softerside, alongside Arabic-singing stars, all programmed by Iraqi-American staff in Washington.(Propagandists apparently lis-_________• 48 •LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVEten to local informants in a way the occupation forces haven’tmastered.) Indeed, comparisons between Céline and MiddleEastern divas surfaced over and over in my research.Shemay even recognize them herself: An article on the comebackof Iranian superstar Googoosh mentioned Céline attendedGoogoosh’s concert in Toronto.Yet when reports came out that part of US militaryintelligence’s “no-touch torture” techniques, used to circum-vent the Geneva Conventions, include blasting loops of loudmusic at prisoners night and day—a practice that shouldsicken any music lover—I came across scads of sniggeringdownpage editorials and blog posts quipping that “they oughtto use Céline Dion”: surely that would break any recalcitrantP.O.W.In reality, it would be turning some of their favoritemusic against them.After artist Paul Chan went to Baghdadin 2003 with American activist group Iraqi Peace Team, hetold the Omaha World-Herald that there, “Everyone lovesCeline Dion.For some reason they see her as the pinnacle ofsadness.Her songs speak to the plight of the Iraqi people.”He added, “It makes me giggle to think that.It makes themmore human.And the more human they seem, the harder itis to kill them.” It’s a patronizing remark, but better than thetorture jokes’ implication that affection for Céline might aswell be a reason to kil them.What’s remarkable in many of the stories about Céline’sinternational presence is how moving they are.Think ofChinese gymnast Sang Lan, who was paralyzed in a fall at the1998 Goodwil Games, and had Céline come to her hospitalroom in New York and give a private, a capella performance.People magazine reported: “Says the determined 17-year-oldthrough an interpreter, ‘When she goes to Hong Kong next_________• 49 •CARL WILSONyear, I’ll find a way to walk there, if that’s what it takes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.As Jan Nedeerveen Pieterseof the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague writes, “Howdo we come to terms with phenomena such as Thai boxingby Moroccan girls in Amsterdam, Asian rap in London, Irishbagels, Chinese tacos and Mardi Gras Indians in the UnitedStates.? Cultural experiences, past or present, have notbeen simply moving in the direction of cultural uniformityand standardisation.” He suggests what we’re witnessing isa “creolisation of global culture.” It does not follow thatcreolization wil take a standard form.Localism is ignored,as Céline’s marketers know, at peril.Likewise the global-hegemony model presumes there won’t be reciprocal cultural_________• 46 •LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVEinfluence on the west, but the counterevidence is al aroundus: Asian video-game music, for example, is arguably amongthe most pervasive influences on young pop musicians now.And as Pieterse points out, with the exception of isolatedindigenous groups, civilization and hybridization have beensynonymous for centuries.This is not an answer to exploitation and inequality.Butthe presumption that the world will automatically becomemore like us is itself chauvinism.Contrary to globalizationcheerleader Thomas Friedman’s bestselling sloganeering, theworld is not going “flat,” never has and never wil , unlessyou look through a two-dimensional screen.Yet some west-ern critics of hegemony present merely a negative image ofAmerican triumphalism.In George W.Bush’s case, it is wish-ful thinking; in theirs, apocalyptic thinking; but both operateas if the totalization of their own culture were an inevitability,despite all signals of how improbable that is.* * *Some of that self-absorption can be heard in the wide-eyedhorror with which western witnesses relate Céline’s popular-ity abroad.Local accounts are subtler, indicating how com-mercial music is redeployed in everyday life for people’s ownpurposes.One of the most astounding tales of Céline’s globalflexibility comes to me from Jamaican-American music criticGarnette Codogan, who says she may be Jamaica’s most pop-ular non-native musical figure.And not just for grandmas.“I wish I could give you an explanation beyond Jamaicans’love for saccharine tunes, but that may be satisfactory enough,”Codogan wrote me._________• 47 •CARL WILSONAnd the places she turns up in Jamaica are all the more curi-ous.I remember being at sound-system dances and hearingeveryone from Bob Marley to Kenny Rogers (yes, KennyRogers) to Sade to Yel owman to Beenie Man being blastedat top volume while the crowd danced and drank up a storm.But once the selector (DJ in American parlance) began toplay a Céline Dion song, the crowd went buck wild and somepeople started firing shots in the air.I also rememberalways hearing Céline Dion blasting at high volume wheneverI passed through volatile and dangerous neighborhoods, somuch that it became a cue to me to walk, run or drive faster ifI was ever in a neighborhood I didn’t know and heard CélineDion mawking over the airwaves.I sometimes shared this little anecdote with other Jamaicanfriends, only for them to laughingly comment that they had asimilar practice.The unofficial rule seemed to be, “If you hearCéline Dion then you’re in the wrong place.” That’s not to saythat roughnecks (as gangsters are also called in Jamaica) arethe only ones who appreciate and publicly show their love forSaccharine Céline.It’s just that, for some reason, they showher more love than just about any other group.Codogan asked around, including a few roughnecks, and thereason given was, “to quote one fellow, ‘Bad man have fiplay love tune fi show ’dat them a lova too.’”The Pentagon apparently has the same idea.In the run-upto the Iraq war, the US was reported to be wooing Iraqis witha radio station broadcasting Céline to show the west’s softerside, alongside Arabic-singing stars, all programmed by Iraqi-American staff in Washington.(Propagandists apparently lis-_________• 48 •LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVEten to local informants in a way the occupation forces haven’tmastered.) Indeed, comparisons between Céline and MiddleEastern divas surfaced over and over in my research.Shemay even recognize them herself: An article on the comebackof Iranian superstar Googoosh mentioned Céline attendedGoogoosh’s concert in Toronto.Yet when reports came out that part of US militaryintelligence’s “no-touch torture” techniques, used to circum-vent the Geneva Conventions, include blasting loops of loudmusic at prisoners night and day—a practice that shouldsicken any music lover—I came across scads of sniggeringdownpage editorials and blog posts quipping that “they oughtto use Céline Dion”: surely that would break any recalcitrantP.O.W.In reality, it would be turning some of their favoritemusic against them.After artist Paul Chan went to Baghdadin 2003 with American activist group Iraqi Peace Team, hetold the Omaha World-Herald that there, “Everyone lovesCeline Dion.For some reason they see her as the pinnacle ofsadness.Her songs speak to the plight of the Iraqi people.”He added, “It makes me giggle to think that.It makes themmore human.And the more human they seem, the harder itis to kill them.” It’s a patronizing remark, but better than thetorture jokes’ implication that affection for Céline might aswell be a reason to kil them.What’s remarkable in many of the stories about Céline’sinternational presence is how moving they are.Think ofChinese gymnast Sang Lan, who was paralyzed in a fall at the1998 Goodwil Games, and had Céline come to her hospitalroom in New York and give a private, a capella performance.People magazine reported: “Says the determined 17-year-oldthrough an interpreter, ‘When she goes to Hong Kong next_________• 49 •CARL WILSONyear, I’ll find a way to walk there, if that’s what it takes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]