Quote:
Originally Posted by NewGuitarist
Thanks a lot y'all! I really appreciate your help.
Jon, really appreciate your efforts and generosity. Those videos, wow, what a pleasure to hear and watch. That jazz oud one is just something special..
BTW, here's a couple of Lebanese (arabic) songs I'm familiar with, having lived in the middle east for quite some time. You might have heard such stuff before, but anyways, there's the ethnic scale plus the western harmony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlaplAypc2w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=458nV2GRY1w
Let me know if you actually liked them, I'd be really interested to know.. |
Sounds to me like pure western harmony, with only the vocal style retaining any Arabic influence.
IOW, until she comes in, it sounds 100% western to me.
Of course, it's interesting that she can superimpose her style on to western harmonies successfully, but I can't say the music as a whole is my taste. The harmonies are very bland and traditional, very much mainstream pop/commercial. It makes it sound sentimental, whereas I imagine the native music of whatever culture she comes from is a lot more vibrant and grittier.
Naturally, I'd still be appreciating
that music as an outsider - not really understanding what it would mean to natives of that culture - but I have to say I'm often disappointed when singers or musicians like that decide to crossover and work with western styles; it often ends up veering towards what sounds like muzak to our ears.
In a way it's understandable. If
I was going to work with (say) Arabic musicians, I might prefer to begin with the simplest examples of their music, rather than dive into the depths as a novice. I would then expect very similar criticism of my efforts from the native music fans - "he's going for that bland popular (Arabic) stuff! Why doesn't he stick with his own blues, jazz or rock'n'roll! We like that much better!"
IOW, while music in general certainly benefits from cross-fertilization from other cultures, there's always a limit beyond which neither side can go, simply because their life experiences are different. I love raga, but I will never fully understand it like the average Indian does, never mind an Indian aficionado of raga. Most cross-cultural mixes seem to end up mixing the blandest, least offensive elements of each culture - because it really can't be any other way; at least for the average popular musician in each culture.
The exceptions would be in spheres such as (avant garde) classical or jazz (and the equivalents in other cultures), where musicians are more highly trained in nuance, more receptive to the weird, and maybe even educated to some degree in the theory of other cultures.
It's the same as speakers of different languages meeting. The average people on each side will gravitate towards a simple pidgin that lets them communicate the essentials. Those with more experience or education in the other culture, or simply more awareness of how language in general works, will be able to have far more productive meetings, sharing more ideas.