May 22, 2006
Anomaly...
OK, whatever your theory of life and the Cosmos is, I'm guessing this data point doesn't fit your template. (Which pleases me. There are still mysteries!)
JOHN BERMAN, ABCNews, May 19, 2006 — I have been to Iraq nine times since the American invasion three years ago, for a total of about 10 solid months. (My wife is counting.) During that time, I have seen bombs and blood, I have seen rebuilding and restructuring, and I have seen death and democracy. So what have I heard? That's easy: Lionel Richie.Posted by John Weidner at May 22, 2006 06:01 PM
Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. "I love Lionel Richie," they say. Iraqis who do not understand a word of English can sing an entire Lionel Richie song....
....I decided I had to investigate, and not just investigate, I decided I had to ask Lionel Richie himself. So I called him from Baghdad. Actually it was a formal interview. It was the first interview with Lionel Richie ever on the subject of Iraq and Iraqis.
I asked Richie if he knows just how big he is here. He said, "The answer is, I'm huge, huge in the Arab world. The answer as to why is, I don't have the slightest idea."
He has performed in Morocco, Dubai, Qatar and Libya. There is obviously something up there. The more we talked, the more he theorized as to the reasons his music might be so popular here. He thinks it is because of the simple message in his music: Love.
Richie says he was told Iraqis were playing "All Night Long," on the streets the night U.S. tanks rolled into the country in 2003.....
Yeah, that's definitely enough to make you re-evaluate your understanding of the universe...
Posted by: Ethan Hahn at May 22, 2006 09:24 PMAfter travelling a few places and watching a whole lot of foreign tv and movies I have come to the conclusion that the sucky tastes of the so-called overcivilized and oh-so-culchahed rest of the world makes the average rock-pop-and-trashy-movie-loving American look like the London Philharmonic Orchestra (whose individual members probably listen to Britney Spears in their spare time). Then again, there is something refreshingly naive about the adulation Europeans, Middle-Easterners, and the rest give our washed-up popstars. Remember: Germans love David Hasselhoff!
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 22, 2006 10:27 PMYeah, there's nothing that sounds as dated and washed up as European pop, or really most any foreign attempts to replicate American pop. It's like, they got all the elements right - someone stole a book of studio settings from 1993, and they've mastered them - but even so, it just isn't there...
But I have to say, the one exception to this is Arabic pop. Yes, it can be bubblegum - but there's a sound to it that shows they really do get it. There's a completeness, it's not just immitation, it's truly original...my favorite Arabic artist is Iraqi, Ilham al Madfai, and he's more in the Bob Dylan role than anything else - just brilliant.
But yeah, there's no accounting for taste...hell, we still have boy bands and Yankees fans...
Posted by: Ethan Hahn at May 23, 2006 05:19 AMEthan, you always cease to amaze me.
I just listened to some al Madfai clips at amazon.com. Very interesting stuff.
Posted by: John Weidner at May 23, 2006 07:54 AMHere's the al Madfai link: Khuttar [IMPORT]
Posted by: John Weidner at May 23, 2006 07:57 AM
