Beats, Rhymes, and Life

One of the most outstanding contributions of composers from the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries is the advent of fusion. Igor Stravinsky fused modern classical with Russian folk music to create his Rite of Spring, Aaron Copland did the same using impressions of American folk-life, Dizzy Gillespie made popular a fusion of bebop and the Latin influx to New York, and of course we credit Miles Davis with fusing Rock and Jazz. Rock & Roll itself is a fusion of Blues, Jazz, and Folk, not to mention the further fissile diminutions of stylistic Frankensteinian creations the Beatles would infect upon the world of modern popular music. And let's not forget that Jazz is often attributed to pummeling a tonality descended from Western European Classical tradition with African rhythms. If nothing else the intermingling of culture has proven to be bountiful for those who appreciate the capacity for abstract thought, although typically the only prerequisite is a pair of functioning ears.

So why would I not rejoice at a craigslist posting for an African Marimba, despite the fact that it's made from purely American products, is being sold for way more than its worth, and has been posted incessantly for the past 3 months? In electronic music we deal with two different types of sound synthesis: additive and (you guessed it) subtractive. Music fusion, metaphorically speaking, is additive. Two diverse units join to create something that, in its completion, is greater than the parts itself (or at least comprehended as greater to American audiences). I find this ad for a homemade real African Marimba to be completely insulting, and yes, I consider it subtractive.

Since the "trickle-down effect" is such a hot word lately I'll use it in the sense of Oregon. Oregon is a unique place in the sense that people came out west for two reasons: in pursuit of wealth or in escape from oppression. The ambitious went south to the gold rush of California, the refugees ended up here. The end of the Oregon Trail is littered with those running from something, and often the high culture of the East trickles in slowly. As a result you find a lot of people you hold in absolute contempt. You know the kind, the wine tasting masses wearing windbreakers and ugly hats in flock to the coast for the weekend to enjoy some micro brew and listen to a watered-down, soulless Blues band. The people that ruin our own culture, much less Africa's (it's not like these seafood-grubbing assholes are coming off the boats themselves). In that sense it's no wonder that true West Coast culture is being forged by poor kids with electric guitars and heroin anthems.

Back to my rant. A lot of people around here think they have culture, but really we're too young to have our own. We displaced the peoples here who would have longstanding tradition and culture, and as a result we now have found a happy past-time plugging money into their casinos (if only the revenge could be sweeter). So we assimilate culture, scraping little pieces of flesh from the living and leaving nothing in its place. Eugene is not only no different, it is a prime example to the rule. It's one thing to have an appreciation of a culture and attempt to perpetuate awareness of that culture. It's entirely another when you plagiarize culture in effort to make yourself wealthier or feel smarter. Not only do I find that African Marimba to be plagiarized in poor taste, but I question just how much knowledge this person took from that culture. Traditionally, African Marimbas were pits dug out of the ground with wood slats laid across them. That's what is absolutely beautiful about it. There is a fortification of the soul when a person creates something beautiful with whatever is around, and that something is extremely hard for us to identify, duplicate, or experience. And we're sure as hell not going to do with with measuring tools, resonant, exotic woods, screws, varnish, and a $475 price tag. And that's what confuses me. The African Marimba, to the semblance of culture we have, is an esoteric instrument. It does not make concession for 12-tone equal temperament chromaticism, nor should it. Why push it on an obviously unwilling market when there is no demand? I don't doubt that, without cultural reference or historical background, it is a fine instrument in both aesthetics and sound. But it's just not functional, for our culture or theirs. It sure as hell does not come close to honoring African culture, nor does it give anything back. This is what I call cultural plagiarism. You have a specific purpose for creation, just like writing an essay, and coincidentally you find another person's work would augment your purposes. Without proper credit you have stolen intellectual material, and in the case of the African Marimba, without the cultural atmosphere, the presence of the music and pseudo-instruments falls on deaf minds.

Then again perhaps, in a society where more than half its citizens cannot find the country we're attacking on a map, culture of any degree, no matter how diluted, is necessary. In which case I'll get off my high horse now.