This is spawned off the Music Themed Films thread.
We were talking about films with a music theme. Then it got to this.....(sorry a bit long, but I've put some of it here in one place for your convenience. You are welcome :mrgreen
....
Sage suggested this film about Iceland's music (we can all blame sage for starting this!) :
"Screaming Masterpiece"! Absolutely nuts about that one
So, I said:
If Iceland (population 300,000) can make so much music, what does it show Singapore?
And Pathe..Pate..Pathin...arrgh replied:
it shows we have a long way to go
but then we have singapore gaga and loads of other indie stuff waiting to be discovered from within and not look outside of singaland for inspirations. Imho
To which Danelectrico opined:
That if we were living in a place with sub zero degree temperature and ice floes and the occasional polar bear swimming over, maybe we'd be more creative and write elf songs about birthdays and motorcycles? No worries, things will start to look up when the next ice age comes around!
And RoRK naughtily chimed in with:
But Singapore has more guitar gawds than any other country on this planet. We should not let the lack of ice put us down. There is always mosquitoes and dengue to sing about. Lots of fines and all sorts of taxes. We just need to be more creative.
And the Pat fella laughed:
hahahah, no wonder we are not going anywhere. We need music producer and writer, not geetarer. Guitarer think in one point 5 dimension sometime, hard to make music. Wank har, can, anytime
And so the sage one spoke these words:
I think they've just got the whole package; respect in their musical cultures and traditions across generations, an insatiable amount of curious musicians, romanticism, an open-minded and art-loving community, a government that fully comprehends and supports the ideas and nature of these arts, gorgeous scenery that could inspire anyone walking past their neighbouring glaciers, and lots of alcohol to keep their bones (if not their minds) in a relatively warm enthusiasm about their lives.. and no one gives a brow over how eccentric you can be.
Complete freedom
And Danelectrico came back with:
What we have here is competition not inspiration. Guitarists are generally deadweights, i'll be the first to admit. Who can play what faster, cleaner, flashier, more impressively...whatever. I think it's all about ego. It's backasswards when your priorities in picking up a musical instrument are about about technique rather than creativity. Precision at the expense of inspiration just makes for dull art.
Anyway, creativity and inspiration here don't fly...due to numerous factors these have been boiled out of most of us like a piece of meat in a British restaurant.
A bit later I sang....
The Icelandic Rocker's Lament:
(especially popular in the winter months)
- The population is only 300,000 (and that's including the babies, under-7s, old people who can't see, hear and/or have money to buy concert tickets or CDs) - where's the market for our music?
- After all the essential services/occupations like teachers, soldiers, policemen, postmen, civil servants, pen pushers, mouse clickers, housekeepers, where are there enough people or talent for producers, gig organisers, and soft.com.sg-equivalent webmaster?
- The weather is too cold - I am too frozen to write songs.
- The national cuisine is singed sheep head and cured shark (I kid you not) - how can I find any inspiration from such "food" (term used very advisedly). And all of us are just too busy catching fish all the time.
- All the 299,999 persons look exactly like the 300,000th (me)! - where's the diversity/cosmopolitanism that London or LA have. We need more multiculturalism! It's this stupid government policy.
- The local language is so blah that Sigur Ros has to sing in gibberish! How to write good songs, you tell me.
- Nobody knows whether Iceland is a country, colony of Denmark, name of a planet in Star Wars Episode V, or a brand of bottled water. How do you even market our music to the world?
- I look around and all I see are ice-fields and geysers. It's too boring, man. I'm thinking of quiting all the time. If I have enough krona, I'm leaving this island for sure!
You do see now why Icelandic music is in such parlous state, don't you?
(please don't pm me; this is a rhetorical question)
To which Danelectrico responded with (after RoRK wanted to export Aedes mosquitoes):
but seriously. could one of the factors why small countries like Iceland (and to a less extreme extent, Ireland and Scotland etc) still produce music with some considerable impact on the international scope be because they are closer in proximity to the all important UK touring belt?
So, why Iceland with 300,000 can, and Singapore with 4 million cannot? Do we just like to whine? Discuss with examples (35 marks).
We were talking about films with a music theme. Then it got to this.....(sorry a bit long, but I've put some of it here in one place for your convenience. You are welcome :mrgreen
....Sage suggested this film about Iceland's music (we can all blame sage for starting this!) :
"Screaming Masterpiece"! Absolutely nuts about that one
So, I said:
If Iceland (population 300,000) can make so much music, what does it show Singapore?
And Pathe..Pate..Pathin...arrgh replied:
it shows we have a long way to go
but then we have singapore gaga and loads of other indie stuff waiting to be discovered from within and not look outside of singaland for inspirations. Imho
To which Danelectrico opined:
That if we were living in a place with sub zero degree temperature and ice floes and the occasional polar bear swimming over, maybe we'd be more creative and write elf songs about birthdays and motorcycles? No worries, things will start to look up when the next ice age comes around!
And RoRK naughtily chimed in with:
But Singapore has more guitar gawds than any other country on this planet. We should not let the lack of ice put us down. There is always mosquitoes and dengue to sing about. Lots of fines and all sorts of taxes. We just need to be more creative.
And the Pat fella laughed:
hahahah, no wonder we are not going anywhere. We need music producer and writer, not geetarer. Guitarer think in one point 5 dimension sometime, hard to make music. Wank har, can, anytime
And so the sage one spoke these words:
I think they've just got the whole package; respect in their musical cultures and traditions across generations, an insatiable amount of curious musicians, romanticism, an open-minded and art-loving community, a government that fully comprehends and supports the ideas and nature of these arts, gorgeous scenery that could inspire anyone walking past their neighbouring glaciers, and lots of alcohol to keep their bones (if not their minds) in a relatively warm enthusiasm about their lives.. and no one gives a brow over how eccentric you can be.
Complete freedom
And Danelectrico came back with:
What we have here is competition not inspiration. Guitarists are generally deadweights, i'll be the first to admit. Who can play what faster, cleaner, flashier, more impressively...whatever. I think it's all about ego. It's backasswards when your priorities in picking up a musical instrument are about about technique rather than creativity. Precision at the expense of inspiration just makes for dull art.
Anyway, creativity and inspiration here don't fly...due to numerous factors these have been boiled out of most of us like a piece of meat in a British restaurant.
A bit later I sang....
The Icelandic Rocker's Lament:
(especially popular in the winter months)
- The population is only 300,000 (and that's including the babies, under-7s, old people who can't see, hear and/or have money to buy concert tickets or CDs) - where's the market for our music?
- After all the essential services/occupations like teachers, soldiers, policemen, postmen, civil servants, pen pushers, mouse clickers, housekeepers, where are there enough people or talent for producers, gig organisers, and soft.com.sg-equivalent webmaster?
- The weather is too cold - I am too frozen to write songs.
- The national cuisine is singed sheep head and cured shark (I kid you not) - how can I find any inspiration from such "food" (term used very advisedly). And all of us are just too busy catching fish all the time.
- All the 299,999 persons look exactly like the 300,000th (me)! - where's the diversity/cosmopolitanism that London or LA have. We need more multiculturalism! It's this stupid government policy.
- The local language is so blah that Sigur Ros has to sing in gibberish! How to write good songs, you tell me.
- Nobody knows whether Iceland is a country, colony of Denmark, name of a planet in Star Wars Episode V, or a brand of bottled water. How do you even market our music to the world?
- I look around and all I see are ice-fields and geysers. It's too boring, man. I'm thinking of quiting all the time. If I have enough krona, I'm leaving this island for sure!
You do see now why Icelandic music is in such parlous state, don't you?
(please don't pm me; this is a rhetorical question)
To which Danelectrico responded with (after RoRK wanted to export Aedes mosquitoes):
but seriously. could one of the factors why small countries like Iceland (and to a less extreme extent, Ireland and Scotland etc) still produce music with some considerable impact on the international scope be because they are closer in proximity to the all important UK touring belt?
So, why Iceland with 300,000 can, and Singapore with 4 million cannot? Do we just like to whine? Discuss with examples (35 marks).
