Thursday, November 25, 2004
- THE US AS A CULTURAL PRESENCE IN EUROPE
Lecturer: R. Kroes
We watched the 1986 documentary Big Fun in the Big Town by Bram van Splunteren (on rap music in New York City.) Prof. Kroes discussed chapter 8 of his book and a paper on Turkish-German rap music (Heinz Ickstadt: "Appropiating Difference: Turkish-German Rap", Kennedy Institute for Northamerican Studies, FU-Berlin.) Here are my comments:
- Ickstadt: Two "Cultural Chairs"? Or Maybe Just One! As he sums up his discussion of German-Turkish rap-groups and performers, Ickstadt mentions the "new generation of hyphenated citizens" who know "at least two cultures." He says that these performers sit between "two cultural chairs": they do not feel Turkish, yet they do not feel completely accepted by German society.
In my opinion, there is a massive confusion here between culture and language. All of the artists interviewed say they want to live in Germany. AMIGO even says that "... he very much wished he had been born in Berlin." All of them stress the fact that they enjoy in Germany "... a freedom their parents never had and that they can't imagine ever to have should they choose (or be forced) to go back to Turkey."
In other words, what defines culture here is freedom. And that's the culture these musicians care about. Only Germany offers it -- not Turkey. Language plays only a secondary role. In this sense there is no such thing as a "multicultural Germany." Germany's culture is the culture of freedom, and that freedom may be expressed in either language (which is exactly what these guys wish to exploit.)
- Kroes, Chapter 8: It Takes Two to Tango! The chapter begins with very interesting comments about mass, popular and vernacular culture, but I will discuss a different issue altogether. Throughout the chapter –and indeed, perhaps, throughout the book- it would seem that corporations are the "bad guys" that somehow force artists to sell their products in a determined way.
Thus, one reads here that "Jazz musicians and blues singers have been taken to the recording studios" (emphasis added.) Note the musicians' passivity! The studios are the only ones to act. Rap music itself, says Rob Kroes, "was picked up by the mass-culture industry, recorded, and distributed worldwide." Again, note the passivity of the musicians, and the active behavior of the studios.
This language, which emphasizes corporate activity and artistic passivity, is then contradicted by the assertion that "… the boys who were interviewed already had their dreams of recording studios and market success." So, is mass culture being "reappropiated", as Kroes suggests? I beg to disagree.
It takes two to tango. Artists sell their products willingly; corporate giants buy them in a free market transaction. The emphasis on corporations as know-it-all (and sometimes evil) manipulators hides the fact that artists are perfectly free to sell (or not) their creations.
Thus, corporations can easily be blamed for the "negative ring" associated with the notion of mass culture. From the free markets view that I tend to embrace, such a vision is highly biased. If popular culture is indeed "bad", it's also a matter of artists' personal responsibility.
Lecturer: R. Kroes
We watched the 1986 documentary Big Fun in the Big Town by Bram van Splunteren (on rap music in New York City.) Prof. Kroes discussed chapter 8 of his book and a paper on Turkish-German rap music (Heinz Ickstadt: "Appropiating Difference: Turkish-German Rap", Kennedy Institute for Northamerican Studies, FU-Berlin.) Here are my comments:
- Ickstadt: Two "Cultural Chairs"? Or Maybe Just One! As he sums up his discussion of German-Turkish rap-groups and performers, Ickstadt mentions the "new generation of hyphenated citizens" who know "at least two cultures." He says that these performers sit between "two cultural chairs": they do not feel Turkish, yet they do not feel completely accepted by German society.
In my opinion, there is a massive confusion here between culture and language. All of the artists interviewed say they want to live in Germany. AMIGO even says that "... he very much wished he had been born in Berlin." All of them stress the fact that they enjoy in Germany "... a freedom their parents never had and that they can't imagine ever to have should they choose (or be forced) to go back to Turkey."
In other words, what defines culture here is freedom. And that's the culture these musicians care about. Only Germany offers it -- not Turkey. Language plays only a secondary role. In this sense there is no such thing as a "multicultural Germany." Germany's culture is the culture of freedom, and that freedom may be expressed in either language (which is exactly what these guys wish to exploit.)
- Kroes, Chapter 8: It Takes Two to Tango! The chapter begins with very interesting comments about mass, popular and vernacular culture, but I will discuss a different issue altogether. Throughout the chapter –and indeed, perhaps, throughout the book- it would seem that corporations are the "bad guys" that somehow force artists to sell their products in a determined way.
Thus, one reads here that "Jazz musicians and blues singers have been taken to the recording studios" (emphasis added.) Note the musicians' passivity! The studios are the only ones to act. Rap music itself, says Rob Kroes, "was picked up by the mass-culture industry, recorded, and distributed worldwide." Again, note the passivity of the musicians, and the active behavior of the studios.
This language, which emphasizes corporate activity and artistic passivity, is then contradicted by the assertion that "… the boys who were interviewed already had their dreams of recording studios and market success." So, is mass culture being "reappropiated", as Kroes suggests? I beg to disagree.
It takes two to tango. Artists sell their products willingly; corporate giants buy them in a free market transaction. The emphasis on corporations as know-it-all (and sometimes evil) manipulators hides the fact that artists are perfectly free to sell (or not) their creations.
Thus, corporations can easily be blamed for the "negative ring" associated with the notion of mass culture. From the free markets view that I tend to embrace, such a vision is highly biased. If popular culture is indeed "bad", it's also a matter of artists' personal responsibility.
# posted by Agustin @ 6:09 PM 
