izzy's playlists!
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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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@vibesfortribes
“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”
Osho
Whether they know it or not, white women who practice belly dance are engaging in appropriation
As usual, thehoruseye posts something beautiful and relevant to compliment my weekly music choices :) I don't know if you're doing this on purpose, thehoruseye, but it's much appreciated! Thank you! Love the muted grace of this woman and am very jealous of her long, gorgeous hair.
Filth in the Beauty
performed live by The Gazette
Thanks, bestoftheeast, for following me recently! It's nice to know that a beginner blogger can get off the ground with a little help from fellow music-lovers :) Also, I love the music posted in this blog! It's all popular music from East Asia (Korea, Japan, etc.), so I got to get my J- and K-pop fixes. While I was exploring the blog, I found this song that speaks very nicely to our theme this week of fusion in Japanese music. Though the song is mostly Rock-based, you can hear a shakuhachi (Japanese wooden flute) being integrated very interestingly in the background. Very different from the artists I talked about, but nonetheless, very cool. Thanks again, bestoftheeast!
It is amazing how artists can render specific styles of music to suit such a large range of moods. Though tsugaru-shamisen is described as being rhythmic and loud, in the right context, it can sound quite ethereal. Here, I present Tenbi. According to her artist's Facebook page, she was the winner of the Japanese Folk Association's Tsugaru-Shamisen contest four times. After having released her album Rebirth, Tenbi now travels the world performing with artists from all different genres of music. Her song "Calling" is very interesting in the genres it uses. The rhythm of the shamisen evokes a gritty, acoustic, Blues-Rock feel. The background orchestrals are quiet enough to let Tenbi's playing shine but loud enough (especially when joined by the female singer) to take said playing into an entirely different realm of cross-genre fusion. This makes it not a particularly ambient song, but not your standard workout song either. It's the kind of song that makes you bop your head as you otherwise sit quietly reading a book. This song would be great for a slow piece or even (for all the teachers out there) a super-slow fast song that's good for practice. Not to mention all the potential for fusion pieces. How did you guys like this piece compared to the previous piece from the Yoshida Brothers?
The Yoshida Brothers were a mainstay on my "Transglobal Underground" Pandora Station (why does saying that feel make it feel like Pandora was so long ago?). I did some more research on them: they were trained in the minyo-shamisen and Tsugaru-shamisen styles. Their first album sold more copies than either of them had imagined, and now they're entertaining people all around the world with some highly addictive, electronica-inspired tunes. "Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix)" is a song that has gained international popularity by being the background song for Wii commercials. It was actually the first song of the Yoshida Brothers' I ever heard, and it is quite unlike most other songs i've heard. The rhythm is consistent and foot-tappingly catchy, and the melodic theme is predictable, but the listener is kept on their now-tapping toes by the interplay of the shamisens and electronic music. Namely, the shamisens continue the theme as bass beats fade in and out, rendering a surprising and explosive quality each time the two instrumental groups play together. Because of these quick mood changes throughout the piece, I see how it would be difficult to dance through it (in fact, I have with one of our troupes, and it was slightly confusing). But I will still declare that if one were to memorize the song well and maybe not zill through most of it, it would be an awesome fast ATS piece. Or a super-dramatic dramatic slow. I'm not sure, but it's hard to pass up a solid 4/4 beat that's accented so naturally by triplet patterns already in the music. ATS-er's, how would you dance to this song? To all the myriad dancers out there, how would you use this song to really make a choreography shine?
This Week: Tsugaru-Shamisen in Contemporary Japanese Music
I, frankly, do not know very much about Japan. My parents have been there quite a few times and have come back with stories about miraculously insulated water bottles, beautiful Buddhist shrines, deep-fried octopus balls, and the politest people. For my part, I seem to accidentally stumble upon stories about the Yakuza: I recently watched "Ichi the Killer" and read Out by Natsuo Kirino in high school. And, of course, Memoirs of a Geisha. And Hello, Kitty. Maybe even both.
From my limited exposure, all I can tell you is this: It's clear that many parts of Japanese traditional culture have been romanticized and appropriated extensively (e.g. samurai, ninja, geisha, karate). Because of this and Japan's interesting relationship with modernity (as conceived in the Western imagination), I would be willing to say that Japanese performance culture has embraced its roots by preserving things like Kabuki and Noh theater. Traditional Japanese music has also stayed in the fray with the growing popularity of things like taiko drumming. The shamisen, an instrument brought over to Japan from China before being in the 16th century, is one of these popular instruments. There are a number of different styles of shamisen-playing, many involving different models of shamisen and employing local musical styles and songs. It seems that one of the most currently popular styles is tsugaru-shamisen, a percussive style that originated in North Honshu (specifically in the Aomori prefecture).
The story behind tsugaru-shamisen: it was used by goze- blind, female traveling musicians who performed in guilds. It was adopted gradually by blind, male beggars who would play on the street for money. To overcome the noise on the street, they would play louder and more rhythmically, thus creating the style we know today. Another interesting facet of this style is, what Wikipedia calls, its cumulative nature, which would lend itself to being a popular style for fusion:
"As can be seen from the listing of songs in Group B, newer variants of songs tend to coexist alongside older versions, rather than replacing them. Although the older songs and their shamisen accompaniments or shamisen solo versions have no doubt themselves been somewhat transformed from what they were many decades ago (and they of course were never an entirely uniform to begin with), it remains certain that the “old,” “middle,” and “new” versions are differentiated not merely stylistically but also historically. Their structural differences contain, as it were, a congealed history."
Why is this important? It is very interesting to see, especially in cultures stereotyped so dramatically among outsiders/Katy Perry, how styles develop through systemic innovation. The artists whose songs I will be sharing this week are Japanese musicians classically trained in the tsugaru-shamisen style. Their fusing of this style with electronic music, hip-hop, and other forms of world music is a testament to the notion of cumulative culture and how internally-driven innovation can be just as mind-blowingly awesome as that fostered by cultural exchange.
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”
Martha Graham
“Jyotsna Srikanth: Annapoorne (taken from The Rough Guide To Indian Classical Music)" by World Music Network
A Carnatic song played on the violin. This is a lovely composition by Muthuswamy Dikshitar set in Sama Raga. Give it a listen to see how different South Indian music is from North Indian music (like that in Punjab). Thank you for sharing, worldmusicnetwork!
Indian vs. India : A Reflection with Desh Raag on August 15th, 2014
In India, everybody is getting a long weekend. Schoolchildren have contests to see who can draw the best lotus flower (the national flower) or sing the national anthem the best. It is a song set in the Raag Desh- The Nation's Raag (a tutorial of which follows below). This is a romantic raga, rife with melodic phrases that every Indian might recognize. And on this day, there is that national romance and celebration weighted down with the gravitas of India's relative youth.
But for me, today is a day of reflection. On reality and identity: I was not born in India but am (and, in some ways, choose to be) inextricably tied to a label of "Indian" that I usually correct to "Indian-American." I live in America and speak loudly with an American accent. I value things like democracy and race/gender equality and fight when those things are ignored. And yet my identity, through either my or others' doing, continues to be reduced to "Indian."
Is it because I sing Indian songs? Is it because I love Indian classical music and dance? And Bollywood? Is it because I find myself getting pissed off at the myriad ways people reduce India to yoga, sitars, and curry? Is it something as simple as my brown skin and black hair? Probably. But this is not me defending or protecting India the country so much as it is me defending my heritage, a history that is longer and far more complex than 67 years of an independent India. That is a heritage I am absurdly proud of, the one that boasts hundreds of languages and peoples, the arts and traditions of those people. And I as a woman of half-Punjabi/half-Telugu descent proudly advertise that aspect of Indianness as do many others (as the video below shows)
But really, I am not angry at something as small as my own identity being questioned. I am angry that India the country, with all of its sociocultural progress and regress, is so often reduced (much in the way I am) to being a land of singing and dancing and pretty stuff. It was a country conceived in partition, segmented from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. It is a country where Chinese food is super popular and people from Arunanchal Pradesh are beaten up for looking too Chinese. It is a country that birthed Hinduism and thereby the censorship of academic texts on Hinduism and systemic discrimination against Muslims. It is a country that flaunts the bodies of hundreds of sexy Bollywood actresses and dismisses the millions of ordinary women who fall victim to a patriarchal/misogynistic culture. It is a country that we reduce to simpler identities so that we can forget an insanely complicated reality.
So why am I bringing this up on Indian Independence Day? Because today is not the day that we celebrate "Indian;" we do that everyday in the way just by living. Today is the day we celebrate India, a country that has been around for 67 years. And when we celebrate these 67 years, we should celebrate all the wonderful things that this country has done and can do. Breaking the shackles of British rule with largely non-violent revolution was not a small feat after all. But we should not forget all of India's political shortcomings but process them and make sure to work past them. And when that anthem is sung, I hope it is sung for a future that lives up to the beauty of the culture I love so much.
As an Indian/American/both, that is my wish for India
It's August, 14th 2014 and Pakistan turns 67 today! Since this week was devoted to Punjabi culture, I felt it necessary to share one of my favorite parts of Pakistani/Punjabi culture: qawwali. It's basically Sufi gospel and combines elements of ecstatic Persian poetry and devotional Hindu singing. This is one of my favorite songs: Akhiyan Udeek Diyan (My eyes long for you) by the inimitable Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Full translation is available here (and in the video). In my opinion, it is impossible to fully appreciate the beauty of qawwali without knowing the poetry behind it. In it is the history of this beautiful culture, a combination of Indian, Persian, and Arabic languages. So read, watch, listen, and enjoy. My Punjabi grandmother from Lahore, who is currently battling cancer in a Mumbai hospital, came from this land. Though Pakistan is facing many of its own political and social problems, it deserves to be recognized for its rich history and artistic culture. It is a place my grandparents can never go back to, but it is a place that I remember as if I had ever been. It is in my blood and my heart. That I have a place to share the importance of my heritage means so much, even if it is only in a nascent music blog. This is for my mother and my grandmother, two of the strongest women I know. Punjabi or otherwise. But being half-Punjabi myself, I'd like to think it helps :) Much Love, Amita
Book Share: "Bhangra Moves" by Dr. Anjali Gera Roy
From the Amazon summary: "...This book looks at Bhangra's global flows from one of its originary sites, the Indian subcontinent, to contribute to the understanding of emerging South Asian cultural practices such as Bhangra or Bollywood in multi-ethnic societies." "...The critical importance of this book lies in understanding the difference between the present globalizing wave and previous trans-local movements." "...It weighs both the uses and costs of visibility provided by global networks to marginalized groups in diverse localities and explores whether collaborations between Bhangra practitioners, largely of working class origin, give ordinary people any control over the circulation of culture in the global village. Finally, the book considers whether cultural practices can alter hierarchies and power structures in the real world."
I don’t know if it’s taboo for me to share multiple songs from the same artist’s album in one week. But it’s not, because I say so. I guess. I hope. Yes.
This song needed to be shared because it would be a wonderful slow-and-fast ATS song. It incorporates sitar riffs for a more Indian-not-distinctly-Punjabi feel, But just listen to those backbeats! Don’t you just want to keep doing slow drops? Maybe that’s just me. But I still hope you enjoy this song! Let me know: did I do ok with a repeat post?
Of the most innovative contemporary artists to work with Punjabi music, Panjabi MC is definitely one of the best. He is probably best known for "Mundian To Bach Ke" that achieved worldwide popularity and countless remixes in 2003. On the same album (aptly titled "The Album") is a song that quickly became a personal favorite. The female singer, Hema Sharma (who was an astounding 14 years old when this was recorded), sings to her lover about secret talks that they have together. A rough translation here is worth reading through as you listen. Sharma's mature, gloriously husky voice pairs excellently with a simple, lilting melody and minimal instrumentation, making this song ideal for a relaxing night in or romantic daydreaming (if you're anything like some of the people who like this song…) Would any of you dance to this song?
As I mentioned in a previous post, Bollywood culture does include elements of Punjabi wedding culture. Punjabi weddings are, after all, filled with dancing, complaining about mothers-in-law through song, and pulling pranks on the groom. This music video, "Dholki da Gitta," by the popular Bollywood playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan shows these wonderful traditions off. Frankly, it was difficult for me to find a fast song appropriate for ATS that wasn't explicitly Bhangra; the time signatures were always posing a bit of a problem there. Thankfully, this newer song captures a traditionally convivial spirit quite well. The lyrics talk about the fun of the wedding and teases some of the groom's family members much to the delight of the bridal party. This would be a particularly fun song to dance to if you were feeling rather mischievous. I always felt like that emotion was under-expressed in ATS, so maybe sharing this song will help that come out a little bit more. How do you feel about a playful/mischievous ATS performance? How would you make it one?
goodbyefuturehellopast:
A Punjabi bride sits in the ‘doli’ in a pensive mood before departing from her parents’ house forever to be wed.
Looks like someone else was up for sharing some beautiful parts of Punjabi culture! Thank you thehoruseye for this a gorgeous picture, and I'm glad that some of the songs I'll be sharing tomorrow will talk about how Punjab di kudiyan (Punjabi girls) sing about love and marriage.
I was actually exposed to the Dhol Foundation when I was pretty young, maybe 12 or 13 years old. It was the track "TDF vs. DCS" on a "fusion" (for lack of a better word) album my Dad had bought me. That track was basically a Dhol battle, and I loved it. Years later when I created my StudyTime Playlist, I was surprised to realize that Dhol Foudnation was on it with some completely different, absolutely sublime songs. True to its name, this song plays with various styles of Punjabi music. The simple, haunting flute melody is echoed and continues to (with the help of the dhol and tumbi) achieve a lilting and rhythmic quality as the piece moves on. It would be a fun ATS slow song, but mostly, I enjoy this song as a relaxing-but-motivating part of my study routine. Was this song a departure from what you might think of as "Punjabi"? Would you dance to this song? If yes, then how?
