The World Still Loves American Music. But Why, Exactly?

Monday, October 29, 2012
by  paul

It's an age-old question: if music is pouring out of every corner of the globe, why is American music so popular on the world stage?  Especially in a borderless, digitally-liberated media environment?  And even in countries that deeply resent America, or whose cultures are radically different?  

Sitting in a Starbucks in Seoul, South Korea, which is right next to a Dunkin' Donuts, the question is impossible to avoid.  Outside of the obvious language differences, this looks exactly like a Starbucks in LA, almost down to the music.  I'm listening to Norah Jones, Nancy Sinatra, even Bobby McFerrin, but not one Korean singer. 

It's not that Korean music isn't all around.  There's K-Pop and PSY, of course, and also lots of syrupy Korean ballads.  But even the Korean music video channel finds Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, and Britney Spears heavily layered into rotation.  Flip on a Korean baseball game, and it's Nickelback and Earth, Wind & Fire (yes) during the breaks.  Watch the Korean-commentated World Series, and its 30 Seconds to Mars to transition back from the commercials.

This is deeper than just music in the background; American pop culture and music are deeply seeped into this culture - consciously or otherwise.  While searching for my hotel, I was saved by a young woman who graciously guided me through the Seoul maze.  She was wearing a stylized army jacket with Guns n' Roses emblazoned on the back, yet she'd never really heard of the group.  I told her it was mostly an 80s and 90s thing, but a legendary rock group to this day.  "Sort of like Nirvana," she responded.  We left it at that.

You can say this is isolated, but American music - and the celebrities attached to it - travel extremely well.  While lingering around France after MIDEM died down last year, I started to meet some locals.  Once the networking and industry crowds left, the hotel kept playing American pop non-stop; a local limo driver showed me pictures of the time he escorted members of Black Eyed Peas around.  The hotel concierge, who also worked for a yacht reservation company, loved to tell me about Diddy's failed pissing contests with Russian billionaires on the Riviera.  These were highlights... yes, for French people. 

It's even seeped into abandoned junkie houses in Siberia.  Edgy magazine Vice once took their cameras into the region's most depressing, heroine-infested buildings, and the discussion turned to Rihanna.  The junkies were discussing whether they liked the singer, pointing to a magazine cover.  What?

Of course, American music doesn't play well everywhere, and its not like other cultures (like the UK) don't also export well.  But American music oftentimes permeates the most foreign environments, often with little-to-no protection against piracy.  It's almost like an extension of the US itself: decimated and demoralized, major labels still retain the power to break major music superstars, but lack the ability to monetize it properly.  It's hard to say if this is a machine that keeps going, or what happens after it breaks down.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff, in Seoul.

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Taj Mahal, still rocking, "feels" the blues

By Jeremy Gaunt

LONDON | Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:53am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Maybe it's the panama hat. Or the diamond earring. Or perhaps it is the eight-stringed ukulele on which he does constant little runs. Taj Mahal looks every bit the part of the U.S. music legend he is.

Chatting over a beer the day before a recent concert at the Africa Utopia Festival at London's Southbank Centre, the Grammy award-winning bluesman is also remarkably laid back. He has no idea what he is going to play.

"I never have a set list," Mahal told Reuters in the deep, gravelly baritone that, along with superb musicianship, has been his trademark for around 50 years in the business. "It's all by feel".

The feel must have been good. The concert a day later was a rollicking affair of wailing classic- and twangy country-blues and a smattering of world-inspired music including a banjo romp Mahal called, tongue-in-cheek, Afro-Celtic.

Seeming at times to be almost pulling the strings off the guitar rather than picking them, Mahal bashed out old standards through "Natch'l Blues" and a sashaying "John Henry" to a "Corrina, Corrina" encore that left the audience hollering for even more.

"There's a couple of things that people can't do without," he said. "Food and music."

His presence in a festival dedicated to all things Africa (it includes a lecture on adoption entitled "Quick Hide Madonna's coming") may seem strange to those who know Mahal mainly from his U.S. blues.

But Mahal has spent many years investigating and enjoying the links between African, Caribbean and American music, an interest he partially puts down to a West Indian heritage on his father's side.

He thinks of world music as connecting him to his cousins. "It's what was always connected to me and what connects me to it," he said.

AFRICA ROOTS

Not that Mahal plays world music per se -- rather, he uses the rhythms and sounds of various regions as a basis for his own style of Americana.

An example was his funky rendition of "Zanzibar", performed with Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, who has also been performing at the festival.

While Maal's African chants and lyrics dipped and soared, Mahal managed to turn his guitar into a cross between a kora and a mbira -- a twang from Austin by way of Lagos, if you like.

This is not surprising, given Mahal's view of the global links between instruments and music.

"The finger-picking style the world came to use began in West Africa," he said. "I'm of the opinion that it moved north through Morocco to Spain."

The audience loved it -- and his imposing yet friendly presence on stage, laced with humor and a love of what he does for a living.

He has been at this for a long time, ever since the 1950s when his Springfield, Massachusetts, home had a welcome invasion of musical émigrés from the South that got him into music.

But at 70, he gives no hint of calling it quits. Indeed, he opened his concert with a warning that anyone expecting an aged, venerable bluesman to come on stage was in for a disappointment.

This was going to be "a party", he said. And it was.

(Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Aerosmith 'Still Firing on All Cylinders' as Tour Lifts Off

by Gary Graff, Detroit  |   June 14, 2012 5:00 EDT

A erosmith fans can expect an album that "really pays attention to all the different eras of the band" when "Music From Another Dimension!" -- the Boston bad boys' first new release in eight years -- comes out on Aug. 28 according to bassist Tom Hamilton.

"It's gonna be, like, a 14-song album, so it's got a lot of range," Hamilton tells Billboard.com about the set, which was co-produced by the band's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry along with longtime cohort Jack Douglas, with additional work by Marti Frederiksen. "I think it just kind of reflects all the eras of our career, everything we've learned over the centuries -- the 70s era, just all-out riff rock songs, and then the later stuff that's more melodic, ballady stuff so that we can have girls in our audience. It's all there."

Hamilton says all five band members wrote for the album, although the Tyler-Perry team dominated, of course. Aerosmith also drew from "songs that have been written over the course of our lifetimes" -- including the first single, "Legendary Child."

"We've had these songs that we've been really enthusiastic about," Hamilton explains, "but never have felt we had a producer or support from the record company for some of these more off-the-wall tracks that are very similar to what we were doing in the 70s. Jack Douglas was our producer back then, and he has an ear for the weird stuff and how the weird stuff turns into great Aerosmith songs. So that's the process that happened on this record."

A surprise inclusion is a cover of "Shakey Ground," which was a 1975 hit for the Temptations though Aerosmith based its version on Etta James' rendition. "We needed extra songs for Japan and Europe," Hamilton recalls, "and we thought, 'OK, we're struggling to get all our own songs written. Maybe we should cover a couple of songs.' I forget who brought ('Shakey Ground') in, and we tried it out and in the course of recording we just had so much fun with it that we wanted to put it on the album. We like to show off our funk roots and show we can get people's butts shaking."

The album may also include some guests, Hamilton adds, but "everything is not 100 percent definite at this point. There's still decisions to be made, so it's just a little early to talk about that."

Hamilton says the best part of "Music From Another Dimension!" is having new music to play on the road when Aerosmith begins its Global Warming Tour with Cheap Trick on June 16 in Minneapolis. The group plans to play "Legendary Child," and even though it's leery of exposing the rest of the new songs to fans' cell phone cameras "we're probably going to say 'To hell with it' and play 'em because they're fun. We're chomping at the bit to play a bunch of these live. We haven't had an album of new material in a long time, so it really makes you feel like you're walking out there with a loaded weapon. I want us to be known as a band that is still firing on all cylinders."

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The Walkmen Still 'Same Old Guys' on Happier 'Heaven'

In the decade since debut album "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone," the Walkmen have made some new friends. For "Heaven," their fifth album, the New York group accepted a call from producer Phil Ek and decamped to Seattle. The 13-track set, due May 29 on Fat Possum, includes guest vocals from Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold and a surprisingly bright outlook that belies its rainy origins. There's no irony to the album title: it's the indie rockers' sweetest album yet.

"I felt like that was a big new step for us," frontman Hamilton Leithauser told Billboard.com of writing songs with less doom and gloom. "It's definitely harder."

The Walkmen - Heaven (radio edit) by FatPossum

Working in the local recording studios Bear Creek and Avast!, Ek (Band of Horses, the Shins) helped them break other previous habits: opener "We Can't Be Beat," a gentle acoustic track, washes away the band's expected effects and distortion in favor of a more nostalgic feel.

"I always really liked the idea of doing [something] that's really small and intimate-sounding because we're always so big," Leithauser said. "That song's really directly inspired by one of my favorite bands, the Fleetwoods, from the '50s."

The group's recent work has reflected its sense of rock history - in 2006, the Walkmen released a tribute album to Harry Nilsson's "Pussy Cats" - and much of "Heaven" finds inspiration in early rock 'n' roll's simplicity and optimism.

"You get these big, kind of classic lyrics, like, 'I'm not your heartbreaker' or 'love is luck,' that seem trite or bland when they're just by themselves on paper," Leithauser explained. "But we had these big I-IV-V, happy-sounding songs -- to be able to slap those things together and be happy with the results, I felt like that was our biggest accomplishment on the record."

The album's balanced between upbeat, open-armed anthems ("Heartbreaker," "Heaven") and more meditative efforts, such as "Line by Line." Elsewhere, "Song for Leigh" is borderline twangy. Some of the album's warmth comes from Pecknold, who adds his croon to "No One Ever Sleeps" and "We Can't Be Beat." Ek has served as Fleet Foxes' producer as well, though it was the Walkmen who reached out to the folk frontman.

"We toured with them last fall and really liked them as guys and really liked their band," Leithauser said, noting Ek's connection as a lucky coincidence. "I really wanted someone else, another voice on the record, and none of our guys would really be willing to sing… Once you add his voice in there, it brings a whole new sound to the record."

Leithauser himself has come a long way from the ragged-voiced wailer of 2004 single "The Rat." On tracks such as "Love is Luck," his vibrato is yearning but controlled, willing to see what it can accomplish without opening the emotional floodgates entirely. While maturity may be a factor in the contented feel of "Heaven," Leithauser says the group's mood hasn't changed too much.

"In the past, you try to do something that happy, it just made us all sick and not interested at all," he said. "I wouldn't say it felt that different. It was just the thing that seemed interesting and more worth pursuing for us. But, same old guys."

The new directions of "Heaven" are only a piece of the Walkmen's prolific process. Upon the releases of 2010's "Lisbon" and 2008's "You & Me," the group was already at work on new material, a trend that hasn't stopped yet. Ek put a ban on songwriting in the studio, a rule that kept the band on deadline for the first time in its career.

"We had like 30 songs going in and immediately cut out anything that wasn't ready to go," Leithauser said. "That saved like, a year."

But don't look for the band to take a vacation after its trip to "Heaven." The group already has two songs in the works for its next album -- and more, if it draws on its current leftovers.

"I'm going into the studio today to work on a few things," Leithauser said. "At this point, it's just sort of a lifestyle for us. The records eventually are markers in time as we complete a certain amount of stuff, but it's really just an ongoing process for us. As of now, we're all willing to do it."

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Fun. Still No. 1 on Hot 100, Flo Rida Enters Top 10

by Gary Trust, N.Y.  |   March 21, 2012 3:50 EDT

Fun.'s "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monae, spends a third week atop the Billboard Hot 100, while Flo Rida jumps into the chart's top 10 with the assistance of pop singer/songwriter Sia.
"Young" logs a fifth week at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart with 349,000 downloads sold (up 8%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. With the sum, the song passes 2 million in digital sales since its release.

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On Radio Songs, "Young" bounds 19-14 with 65 million audience impressions (up 40%), according to Nielsen BDS, granting the song the Hot 100's top Airplay Gainer award for a third consecutive week.
As announced last week, streaming data now carries a greater weight on the Hot 100 with the addition of the newly-launched On-Demand Songs chart. Streaming figures continue to help keep "Young" at the Hot 100's summit, as the song, which crowns On-Demand Songs for a second week, drew 1.1 million on-demand streams in the chart's tracking week, according to BDS.

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Flo Rida, meanwhile, boasts the Hot 100's lone new top 10 title, as "Wild Ones," featuring Sia, surges 12-9. The track gains on all three Hot 100 chart components: Digital Songs (No. 6; 158,000, up 5%), Radio Songs (35-29; 39 million, up 17%) and On-Demand Songs (18-11; 429,000, up 22%).
"Wild" marks the Sunshine State rapper's seventh Hot 100 top 10 (all in lead roles). The song follows his No. 3-peaking "Good Feeling." Both cuts preview Flo Rida's forthcoming fourth album, "Only One Rida (Part 2)." The Australian-born Sia (last name: Furler) scores her first Hot 100 top 10. (She made mainstream inroads as far back as 2005 when her haunting track "Breathe Me" accompanied the closing scenes of the last episode of HBO's "Six Feet Under.")

Sia Explodes on Hot 100, While Stepping Back From Fame

Below "Young," the same songs as last week populate the Hot 100's top five.
Kelly Clarkson's former three-week No. 1 "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" holds at No. 2. The song bullets at No. 2 on Radio Songs (118 million, up 1%) while dipping 3-5 on Digital Songs (162,000, down 2%). It ranks at No. 8 on On-Demand Songs with 462,000 streams (up 5%).
The Wanted's "Glad You Came" advances 4-3 on the Hot 100, courtesy of a No. 2 rank on Digital Songs (183,000, down 4%) and a 13-7 jump on Radio Songs (73 million, up 13%). The boy band's debut single rumbles 7-4 on On-Demand Songs (570,000, up 21%).
Adele's former two-week No. 1 "Set Fire to the Rain" descends 3-4 on the Hot 100 and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," featuring Kimbra, bullets at No. 5 for a second week. The collaboration, which tops Alternative Songs for a fifth week, climbs 5-4 on Digital Songs (166,000, up 8%) and 45-36 on Radio Songs (36 million, up 21%). "Somebody" remains at No. 2 on On-Demand Songs (778,000).

Nicki Minaj's "Starships" rebounds 9-6 on the Hot 100, returning to its peak position to date and showing gains in all Hot 100 measurement fields. The song rises 4-3 on Digital Songs (172,000, up 6%), 31-21 on Radio Songs (41 million, up 12%) and 13-10 on On-Demand Songs (440,000, up 19%).

The advance of "Starships" pushes back David Guetta's "Turn Me On," featuring Minaj, 6-7 on the Hot 100, along with Drake's "Take Care," featuring Rihanna (7-8).

Below Flo Rida's "Wild," Katy Perry's "Part of Me" rounds out the top 10, holding at No. 10 for a second week. It's the first time that it hasn't fallen since it debuted at No. 1 four weeks ago. "Part" breaks into the Radio Songs top 10 (11-6; 74 million, up 13%) and elevates 41-34 on On-Demand Songs (260,000, up 31%). The song drops 7-10 on Digital Songs (114,000, down 8%) but could yet rebound on the Hot 100; it opened atop the Hot 100 due to strong initial sales but strong airplay gains are now offsetting its sales erosion. Next week's release of Perry's "Teenage Dream: the Complete Confection" should additionally enhance the song's profile and future chart potential.

Check billboard.com tomorrow (March 22), when all rankings, including the Hot 100 and On-Demand Songs in their entirety and Digital Songs and Radio Songs, will be refreshed, as they are each Thursday.

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