The absence of asians in popular music

[Dinner]

Well, I don't really keep up with celeb news.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Well, I don't really keep up with celeb news.

then you shouldn't spread ill-informed gossip, what if poor GavIn had of read your post, gone home and kicked the sh1t out of Gwen for being unfaithful?

[Dinner]

I'd love to see anyone kick the sh!t out that woman. Maybe it would shut her up.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Oerdin
They have an Asian Indian guy in No Doubt. He's even banging Gwen Stefani.

banging Gwen Stefani

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Boshko

Well traditional Korean court music is pretty much just a rip-off of the Chinese, folk music is a quite a bit more interesting, mostly precussion of various sorts...


Well the thing is that old-style Asian music (at least in Korea) isn't really a living tradition, a lot of people learn to play it but its mostly just learning old tunes (just like with most older styles of music in the west), there isn't any real growth or change.

Then there's modern Asian pop/rap/rock/whatever in which in just about every single case is COMPLETELY deriviative of Western styles and with virtually NO influence of older Asian styles (again, at least in Korea). Modern Asian music (like that of the modern music of many non-English speaking countries all over the world) tends to be so ridiculously derivative of American/English/etc. styles that Asian artists constantly get sued for cranking out songs that are basically direct translations of English songs (Usher seems to be the target du jour recently). The only real exception seems to be Japan, where music seems to be moving in a lot of much more creative directions, and it'll probably take a decade or three for Korean or Chinese mainstream music to get to the level of Japanese music today.

As has been (at least partially) addressed already, that's has a degree of truth where East Asia is concerned, it's in no way true of India/Pakistan. Bhangra and Qawwali are developments of traditional styles, and have developed swiftly and profoundly. This may be due to less cultural upheaval in the aftermath of WW2, I suppose.

Then again, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi culture doesn't have as big an impact on US life as it does on British life. It's one of the good parts of our colonial oppressor past.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Sprayber
Any Asian rappers out there?

There just happened to be an article about Cambodian rapper DJ Sope in a Swedish newspaper today. He was a refugee in USA but moved back to Cambodia in 1992.

http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/noje/did_8925313.asp

[Bosh]

As has been (at least partially) addressed already, that's has a degree of truth where East Asia is concerned, it's in no way true of India/Pakistan.

In American English, "asian" when applied to people generally just means members of the East Asian ethnic group/race/whatever.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie

http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/noje/did_8925313.asp

The article that URL links to is in foreign

[Japher]

There's also a lack of asians in prison...

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Boshko

In American English, "asian" when applied to people generally just means members of the East Asian ethnic group/race/whatever.

As MikeH has said, in the UK 'asian' especially when talking about music usually means Indian, Pakistani etc. artists. Its certainly what first came to my mind when a read the thead title.

In the USA arn't a lot of the top hip-hop DJ's asian?

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by Japher
There's also a lack of asians in prison...

There's a general lack of women in prison also, but not in the music scene.

[Japher]

There's a general lack of women in prison also, but not in the music scene.

[mindseye]

Originally posted by Dissident

there I said it. I'm not saying they can't be artists. Their architecture is beautiful. But when it comes to music... What have they contributed? Flutes? bamboo reeds?

They've contributed a lot to the world's music, but your question seems to be more like "what have they contributed to western music".

There are many traditional Chinese instruments of all types: wind, plucked strings, bowed strings, percussion. Some are from China, others are modified versions of ideas originating elsewhere.

To western music, the Chinese contributed the accordian, harmonica, harmonium (like a small organ) and other metal reed instruments. These are direct descendants of the ancient Chinese sheng.

How grateful westerners should be for accordian technology is up to you.

[Al B. Sure!]

The rapper Jin is Chinese. one of the rappers in the group Smilez and Southstar is Asian.

[mindseye]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed

I have a theory on this and perhaps the east asians on this board could help me deicde whether it's true or bollocks. I believe the lack of good pop music is due to the lack of decent-sized working class youth subcultures. The kids are too rich and too respectful of their elders. But that's just a guess.

Not East Asian, but living there and wondering about this, too.

I think you are quite right that there is not much of a working class youth subculture, at least not here in China. Middle class youths are certainly large enough in number, but for cultural/historic/political reasons (Confucianism, family structure, state-controlled media etc) there is not much of the spirit of rebellion that is such a vital spark to so much good western rock/pop.

There is, however, no shortage of youth subculture of consumerism, which helps explain the predominance of slickly-packaged Asian superstar pop that is so awful to most western ears.

I think this is why there are many Chinese versions of Britney Spears, but no Chinese versions of Courtney Love (or anything remotely like her).

There is a tiny Chinese independant music scene (including punk) centered mainly in Beijing. It seems to be very small, of the hundreds (> 1,000?) young Chinese I've worked with, I've met probably less than ten interested in any kind of "alternative" music. Finding a young person into jazz or R&B is about as far out as you'll find.