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I haven’t heard any of it yet (bar the “Bird Flu” video, which is YouTubed here) but am looking forward to it. Having said that when I read this interview with her in Fact Magazine last month, I was reminded of some of the criticisms of her music by Simon Reynolds. Reynolds did say "don't let her brown skin put you off", which does mean he should be stoned to death, but he also said the music "comes from nowhere” - that is, it borrows from a wide range of cultures without any real engagement with any of them, the music has a kind of global glamour to it without substance, and further, a glamour which appeals to a young white audience - an audience which is savvy enough to know that their privilege rests on a lot of hideous political situations and exploitation.
A lot of this criticism was supported by frothing-at-the-mouth denouncements that she'd been to St Martins, which I always thought was bollocks (I mean, who fucking cares? Work out your class guilt on your own) but how do people see these issues at work with regards to the new album? I think Reynolds initial critcisms are offensively phrased bollocks, but in this interview, she mentions such a wide range of international influences on the album - Jamaica, Trinidad, Baltimore, Bollywood, a grime MC from London (Afrikan Boy), the rapping of some Australian Aboriginal kids, Liberia - I wonder about the politics behind this, the reasons for her choices. I think the nearest she comes to it in her interview is here:
The media can portray cultures as segregated, but culture is becoming more global. There’s just so much going on amongst the other 5 billion people on the planet that’s not discussed.... To me, you have to allow for all those experiences. If you go to Africa, in every nook and cranny, all you get is 50 Cent, 24/7. Kids are wearing 50 Cent T-shits, and trying to sound like that... If their access to music from the West is the same as ours then why can’t we flip it now and again and have access to what they’re doing and what they’re listening to?
Any thoughts/feelings/reactions? My own initial reaction to this statement and to her personally is very positive. She reflects the diversity of my own background growing up in London, and reminds me of the way mixed race kids are the fastest growing minority in the UK. However, being able to move from culture to culture so fluidly isn't something that's available to all. Cultures are still segregated - they are segregated by power and wealth, and she's is a very privileged position to be able to flip between them. I couldn't help but think of the freedom of movement available to her, and to that of someone seeking asylum in the UK.
Also, to go back to the original critique, but if you are switching so rapidly between cultures, what's lost in translation, if you'll excuse the pun? Is there a degree of "authenticity" to local scenes which we'd do well to regard? How are these two issues inter-related? Does any of it matter when she's making great music? Why should the problems of the world fall on her shoulders?
All of this is just food for thought and discussion. As I said, broadly speaking, I think what she's doing is great, but these are some of the questions that arise for me. I also wonder to what degree her gender figured in the criticisms she received previously. Nothing definite to say on that for now, but someone else feel free to pick it up. |
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