MUSIC: A case study analysis of the issues adapting local music for global audiences

by Yona Schwalbe-Goodwin

Explore some of the issues involved when music created and performed in local contexts is adapted for staged performance and/or global consumption. Please make reference to at least two case studies from the course. 

In this essay I will explore some of the issues involved when music created and performed in local contexts is adapted for global consumption. I will explore the issues of appropriation, stereotyping cultures, the marketing category of ‘world music’ and the dangers of the separation of the art from the artist. To do this I will mainly explore the examples of DJ Shantel and Rolf Harris.  

The marketing category of ‘World Music’ originated in 1987 (Stobart, 2009, p.98) when 25 small record labels got together to discuss how to get their releases of African, Latin American, and other international musics onto the shelves of record stores. The category ‘World Music’ replaced more problematic ones for example ‘ethnic’. While this did help to get more music from around the world into the public eye, it also had the effect of ‘othering’ anyone outside the popular music genre. There are also many issues of appropriation within this category, and I will explore some examples in this essay. 

 ‘Balkan beats’ is a music soundscape that appeared in the 1990s in clubs, where Romani music is remixed (Silverman, 2015). The usual 9/8 tempo that is frequently found in Romani music is generally changed to make the music easier to dance to and therefore more popular.  One of the most successful DJs has been DJ Shantel. Shantel plays on stereotypes associated with the Roma people in his music and includes instrumentation and rhythms used by the Roma people. For example, in the song Citizen of Planet Paprika (Hantel and Gurzhy, 2009) the lyrics ‘Some say that I come from Russia, Some think that I come from Africa, but I’m so exotic, I’m so erotic, ‘Cause I come from the Planet Paprika’ deliberately play on the Romani stereotypes of eroticism and exoticism.  

Shantel and many other DJs in this network argue that their work promotes hybridity (Silverman, 2015). However, Silverman notes ‘No DJs in this network [Balkan Beats] are Roma’ (2015, p.11). Shantel has also ‘assembled a mythical past based on his ancestry. His grandparents were Jewish/German from Bucovina…He travelled to Chernowitz to learn about the multicultural character of the city where German, Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Roma, and Jewish musics fertilized one another (Rigney 2010, Icrates 2011)’ (Silverman, 2015). The truth of this is doubted by some people. Cartwright is quoted by Silverman (2015) as saying ‘sure his mum or grandmum was from Moldova but that's like saying my granddad was half Maori and claiming some kind of faux authority on all things Polynesian’ (p. 19-20).  

This all raises the problem of appropriation when music is adapted for global consumption. DJ Shantel is playing on Romani stereotypes and using those to promote music and make money. Shantel’s ‘”lite” multiculturalism’ as Silverman argues (2015, p. 19-20) does nothing for the Roma people as ‘he has not been involved in any political projects’. This is all damaging for the Roma as they do not see any money from the DJs in the ‘Balkan Beats’ scene and a lot of it as we can see in the case of Shantel promotes stereotypes. Furthermore, Shantel also claims that ‘ethnicity doesn’t matter’ (Silverman, 2015, p. 23). However, he is deliberately using ethnicity to sell his music and it is also clear that he is not acknowledging his privilege or promoting more understanding and less hate towards the Roma, who have been prosecuted and looked down upon for centuries. Instead, Shantel takes advantage of this and uses the position the Roma are in for his own gain.  

 Another view that is sometimes taken by other DJs in the ‘Balkan Beats’ scene is that because the Roma have appropriated music when they moved into different countries and combined the music for those cultures with theirs, appropriations from them cannot be problematic (Silverman, 2015, p. 22). This view is simply ignorant: it is the power structure in these appropriations from these DJs that is the huge problem. The Roma have been persecuted and looked down on for generations and the DJs in the ‘Balkan Beats’ scene rarely have any connection to the Roma which makes it easy for them to appropriate their music. The idea of hybridity and that the ‘Balkan Beats’ soundscape is a positive and inclusive sound is also once again an issue especially as most of the time this argument is put forward by the artists attempting to justify their appropriation rather than critics arguing for hybridity. In my opinion this idea is just a way out and an excuse to ignore the question of a power structure and how an artist should go about combining music together.  Outside of the ‘Balkan Beats’ scene, other musicians such as Goran Bregović also hold the view that appropriation is unproblematic as they claim the Roma people have done the same. Bregović collected a lot of Romani traditional tunes and rearranged them; these have become synonymous with Balkan brass (Marković, 2015). This is all very damaging to the Roma as Bregović’s appropriation has meant his version of their original tunes have become so popular that they are regarded as the originals.  

My next example concerns Rolf Harris and his song ‘Sun Arise’. Harris released his first version of ‘Sun Arise’ in 1960 and it ‘had a didgeridoo, rhythm sticks, and Aboriginal musicians supposedly flown in from Arnhem Land’ (Casey, 2018, p. 360). It was the first pop song to be released with Aboriginal instrumentation. A second version was however recorded in 1962, which became a Top 5 hit in the UK. This version did not include the aboriginal instruments, and these were replaced with a double bass, two cellos and two pieces of steel pipe (Casey, 2018, p. 367). This second version became a lot more popular than the first. Both versions did not achieve the same popularity in Australia although the second was more popular, likely due to the lack of Aboriginal instruments and the attitudes to Aboriginals by non-Indigenous Australians. 

There are two different accounts of how Harris came up with the idea for the first version of ‘Sun Arise’. Casey in his article (2018) quotes Harris in 1962 saying ‘”It is based on an aboriginal chant I was lucky enough to hear a few years ago when I was admitted to a corroboree and heard them sing as dawn broke”’ (p. 366). However, in Harris’ biography it is said that ‘Sun Arise’ was ‘inspired by the Aboriginal music that Harry Butler introduced me to…[we] wrote ‘Sun Arise’ together, trying to capture the magic of aboriginal music by reproducing the repetition of lyrics and music that made it so mesmerising’ (Casey, 2018, 366). There is no way of knowing if Harris asked permission from the indigenous people that ‘Sun Arise’ is based on. There are claims that Aboriginal musicians were involved in the song. There is one claim that Harris’ record company flew three Indigenous musicians from Arnhem Land to back him (Casey, p. 365) and another that Harris was sent a didgeridoo and played it in the recording. However, as Casey writes ‘the original Aboriginal source remains unidentified’ (2018, p. 366). The lack of transparency and clarity on the original source I believe is problematic as Harris could have easily taken advantage of his position and attitudes to Aboriginal people. He also made a second version without any aboriginal instruments, which implies that Harris cared more about making money than making a statement about the treatment of indigenous Australians.  

Casey’s article (2018) claims that ‘Harris’s message was emphatically inclusive. This was not just “their music”; it was also his and, by extension, it belonged to non-Indigenous Australians as well’ (p. 365). However, I believe this is a rather problematic view as Casey also writes about ‘Aboriginalism’ and says, ‘it does not engage with the Aboriginal culture at all…[and] while appropriation usually implies that the appropriator takes what is prized, in many cases of Aboriginalism, the appropriator takes because the appropriator can’ (p. 360-361). Even though ‘Sun Arise’ was one of the first attempts to combine popular music with Aboriginal music, I believe Harris took advantage of his position of power and appropriated Aboriginal culture. Furthermore, Harris at the same time was known to use racist comments. In his song ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ (1960) the lyrics contained the comment ‘Let me Abos go loose, Lou, they’re of no further use’ as quoted in Casey (2018, p.366). Harris did begin to omit the offensive verse in concerts and re-recordings after a protest by a bandleader (p.366). The ABC also attempted to ban the song, but this only lasted one day. Both songs were released in the same year and the contrasting messages and racist comment in ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ also show Harris’ appropriation.  

Another issue with Harris’ music comes from his conviction in 2014 of twelve counts of indecent assault on four girls between 1968 and 1986, one of these counts was later overturned in 2017. This brings about the question of whether the art can be separated from the artist. As Casey claims that Rolf Harris has been ‘the most prominent and successful practitioner of the fusion of pop and the Aboriginal musical’ (2018, p. 359) can Harris still be held in such high regard considering his convictions? I do not think he can as even though he may have been one of the first musicians to combine popular music with aboriginal instruments, he appropriated it through the lack of transparency and acknowledgement of the Aboriginal musicians who supposedly helped with ‘Sun Arise’. Both Harris’ convictions and appropriation do not portray him in a positive light at all and I believe in Harris’ case it is difficult to separate the art from the artist. 

Overall, there are many issues that can occur when music created and performed in local contexts is adapted for global consumption. The main one is cultural appropriation by some artists in positions of power along with a lack of consideration and acknowledgement of privilege. Appropriation will always be detrimental to the cultures and people from where the music came from, and it is important for artists to acknowledge their privilege if they are from outside this culture and to consult and gain approval from those within the culture. 

Bibliography
 

Casey, B. (2018) ‘“Sun Arise”: The Appropriation of Australia’s First Peoples’ Music, 1956–1974’. Journal of Australian Studies. 42(3). 357-373. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2018.1499671 (Accessed: 23 March 2022) 

Marković, A. (2015) ‘‘So That We Look More Gypsy’: Strategic Performances and Ambivalent Discourses of Romani Brass for the World Music Scene’ Ethnomusicology Forum. 24(2), 260-285. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2015.1048266 (Accessed: 25 March 2022) 

Silverman, C. (2015) ‘DJs and the Production of "Gypsy" Music: "Balkan Beats" as Contested Commodity’. Western Folklore. 74(1). 5-29. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24550673 (Accessed: 21 March 2022) 

Stobart, H. (2009). 'World Musics'. In An Introduction to Music Studies. Eds. J.P.E Harper-Scott & Jim Samson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 97-118. 

Discography
 

Hantel, S. and Gurzhy, Y. (2009) Citizen of Planet Paprika. Crammed Discs 

Harris, R. (1960) Sun Arise (version 1). Columbia DO 4167

Shantel (2009) ‘Citizen of Planet Paprika’ Planet Paprika. Available at: Apple Music (Accessed: 26 March 2022)