There is something about the arts and citizenship that is peculiar. It would seem that some use the arts to claim citizenship while others see the arts as an unclaimable culture by country. So this week I wanted to bring up the band Hsu-nami, a progressive rock band that features the sounds of an "erhu" (sort of a Chinese violin) instead of lead vocals. I happened to do an interview with their lead erhu player a while back and thought their story exemplified the ideas of flexible identity and the arts.
Jack moved to the U.S. as an adolescent and left his original plans of going into business to pursue music. Today he plays the erhu as Hsunami's lead melody. Their sound is very much like that of other heavier rock bands and quite honestly, so is their lifestyle. Their unique sound is derived particularly from creating this "East meets West" sound, as they refer to it.
Even more interesting, the 2008 Olympic summer games featured their song at the end of the Chinese Vs. Angola basketball game.
What does it mean for Hsunami to cross and be marketed to other nations' audiences by blending two cultures during the Olympic games? The games promote peace through sportsmanship and competition. How does playing Hsunami's music in the stadium complicate this?
Ong's article brings up the idea of flexible citizenship. How does Jack, being a New Yorker, immigrant, and leader of a progressive rock band connect to Ong? How does the music, being a blended and innovated version of rock, being used in the Olympics, relate to Cuban salsa and Japanese salsa dancing?
We have been talking about authenticity. Hsunami sort of exemplifies this crossing and blending of cultures and styles. Their music however tries to deny any sort of question of authenticity by claiming a new sound. What could their sound and marketing mean for the future of global heavy metal in relation to salsa? What does this internationalization of their music mean for their identities as a heavy metal band in New York?
Here is a link to their myspace page so you can hear what they sound like.
http://www.myspace.com/hsunami
I feel that it's supremely important to recognize the importance of the music in our world and how essential it is that we obtain music and art forms from other cultures. The hue of globalization can be a very beautiful thing in that we get to witness the exchange of cultural influences and ideas via art and how culture acts as a beautiful agent of this exchange. With regard to music and the group Hsunami, it's important that we see Ong's connection in the following quote "They are examining how particular articulation of the global and the local-often construed as the opposition between universalizing capitalist forces and local cultures--produces "multiple modernities" in different pats of the world."
ReplyDeleteHere Ong is emphasizing the importance of not misconstruing the overall goals of this music transfer and how it shouldn't be thought of as a space for an oppositional confrontation, but more a mutual respect for what each side has to offer. With respect to Japanese salsa dancing, I believe it's a great blend of cultural flexibility and also a great methodology for expanding the definition of cultural citizenship. Because salsa dancing is "supposedly" not native to Japanese culture, are those that are now doing it creating a different version of authenticity within their sub-altern groups or are we not challenging ourselves enough to remove our coded lenses?
I believe that the internationalization of their sound is another addition to the awesomeness that is New York in conjunction with the fact that they are creating their own version of authenticity in reference to music cohesively.
Tichina I must say you are a bit of a poetic writer, in a good way!
ReplyDeleteBoth the previous posts raised interesting questions. When discussing the social implications of Hsunami's music, naturally our last week's discussion of authenticity comes to mind. Tichina raises the point that Ong's piece states that music is a space for mutual respect for each side of this new form of hybridity, which I agree but would like to expand that thought. In Lipsitz' piece he states that "popular culture does not just reflect reality, it helps constitute it." Hsunami's sound is a representation and creation of the path of globalization and mass communication within our planet. Perhaps this statement may sound grand, yet we cannot forget that although we are trying to define "authencity" in our chairs in class, we are living in a constant homogenizing world politically, economically, and socially. In the case of Hsunami's music being played during the basketball game, that held extreme political significance, and was very deliberate.
Jason asked so what does this all mean? What does all this blending mean? In my opinion, and perhaps Lipsitz' political opinion, this merge is the very essence of our expanding communicating world. Everything has a specific purpose.
"'I see music as a weapon,'" Kuti explains. "'Musicians should be using music to find out what is wrong in the establishment.'"
Ong talked about the Chinese as being a people who have throughout history exhibited displacement, but been prime examples of self-sufficiency. This identity is also displaced but still retains the signifying characterisitcs. The essentialist perspective would state that culture is inherent; it is constant throughout time and place. This would mean that a Chinese person would be Chinese anywhere they are. Following that idea, the music could also be considered inherently Chinese, even though it looks like they have some members who are white. The non-essentialist perspective would argue that identity is dependent on time and place. According to this defintion, the music would not be considered Chinese in any way as it was truly created in New York City. In my opinion, the music definitely has a Chinese identity, but this i part of a larger hybrid identity. I think you accurately described their sound when you said it was east meets west. It sounds pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI was just about to comment on the point that Matthew made about the group members' races, for it seems like 4/5 of them are White (European-descended). I think this is a great example of what Ong was arguing in his article about flexible citizenship.
ReplyDeleteNot only have these 2 cultures collided to make beautiful music that anyone can enjoy, but how the leader player, Jack, understands who he is and how he identifies himself and his band. This is what I think of when I think of flexible citizenship, hense the word "flexible". Not only is this band a hybrid one, but one that understands the global appeal of music.
According to this week’s reading, Ong argues that “flexible citizenship” refers to the cultural logics of capitalist accumulation, travel, and displacement that induce subjects to respond fluidly and opportunistically to changing political-economic conditions. Since the band Hsu-nami and their music are derived from the clashes of eastern culture and western culture, they can be seen as products of globalization. Their logics and practices are produced within particular structures of meaning. Considering that media and migration interconnect diacritics and explores their joint effect on the work of imagination as a constitutive feature of modern subjectivity, Hsu-nami serves as an accelerator of achieving cultural globalization.
ReplyDeleteIn the posting, it has been mentioned that “Hsu-nami sort of exemplifies this crossing and blending of cultures and styles. Their music however tries to deny any sort of question of authenticity by claiming a new sound”. Indeed! Just like other products of cultural globalization, Hsunami has had the effect of greatly increasing cultural diversity instead of bringing about a global cultural uniformity. By emphasizing the characteristics of both authentic rock and authentic Chinese “erhu”, the new style is still authentic since it’s still the original style of its own genre! Moreover, from the economical aspect, this blended and innovated version of rock and Chinese “erhu” can probably help satisfy more consumers’ needs and enlarge the market in order to make maximum profit in the globalized atmosphere.
I really like this posting! I agree with a lot of the posting being made. Especially on the posting that is directed to the identity of the group. I feel as a society we often associate the identity of the music with the identity of the group and in certain cases what we would assume the individuals to look like can be completely different. I believe this relates to Ong's, point about flexible citizenship. Its as if their genre is so different that it is authentic and the approach they use using "erhu" most definitely makes there music different. Since they are the originators that makes them authentic, correct? But its almost as they have combined to cultures of music so it kind of translates into flexible citizenship.
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ReplyDeleteUsing Ong's definition of transnationality, it's interesting to see how the use of the erhu is interpreted through an experience that is both Chinese and American, the latter through the rock-ish rest of the band. This reminds me of the Rajgopal article in the sense that this is a musical third space to interpret one's diasporatic experience.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to many of the commenters, I immediately thought of Ong's understanding of "flexible citizenship." I think that this concept truly questions issues of authenticity, something that I think we have all been questioning a great deal in class.
ReplyDeleteAs flexible citizens, Hsunami represent a very globally aware type of culture - though I would not say that they are "global citizens" since this term is loaded with all sorts of contradictions. By globally aware, I rather mean that the Hsunami seem to be aware of the very idea that citizenship is flexible - and the authenticity tied to citizenship can be contested and challenged as well.
I think that the quote Tichina used is particularly useful in thinking about this case, "They are examining how particular articulation of the global and the local-often construed as the opposition between universalizing capitalist forces and local cultures--produces "multiple modernities" in different pats of the world." Yes, Hsunami is a reflection of popular culture and culture at large, and as one commenter noted - but they are also producers of culture. I think this is a very important distinction to remember when thinking about such a music style. They are a product of what Ong calls "multiple modernities" but they are also producing a culture of these multiple modernities.
Quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteOng argues that " Self-censorship and other kinds of responsible behavior may be necessary to get the kind of freedom we want(pg. 2)." In other words the Hsunami got their freedom through their arts of music and originality. Even though they're from both multicultural backgrounds. The Hsunami had to come up with a different behavior in the music industry. They publicize their music everywhere they can, to get their identity out there. Their music is an encouragement to reach out to other cultures and not just their own. This is the notion of flexible citizenship of being adjust to understand the social life of others.
When I saw the question How does Jack, being a New Yorker, immigrant, and leader of a progressive rock band connect to Ong? I thought of the idea of flexible citizenship. I thought it was really interesting how you said that band tries to avoid and deny authenticity issues by claiming a new sound. I feel that in the future this might be very important because it doesn't create any labels and with this, the guys in this band won't be questioned on whether not they are authentic but more so recognized for their music and that multicultural and flexible citizenship background.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and really intriguing discussion.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone makes a really good point referencing the idea of flexible citizenship that Ong discusses. The band creates there own new sound by fusing together aspects of many different styles. Just as we had discussed in class, throughout history different societies have been influenced by other societies which brings to question the idea of authenticity and where this truly originates. I think that the way this band is claiming a new authentic sound is in the same manner that societies throughout history have.
Again I'm fascinated by several commentator's bestowal of the authenticity token upon Hsu-nami (e.g. Quian19: "By emphasizing the characteristics of both authentic rock and authentic Chinese “erhu”, the new style is still authentic since it’s still the original style of its own genre!"). It seems as though authenticity is invoked to legitimate or de-legitimate a cultural product. The power relations invoked by using this term were brought to light last week, though it seems as though we are still naively utilizing it.
ReplyDeleteAlong with last week's notions of hybridity, I think a study of how their music is informed both by the rock tradition and traditional Chinese music would be enlightening. What aspects are appropriated from each tradition? Is this perhaps similar to mestizaje, where the ehru ornaments the forms and tropes of the rock tradition? Or are the forms and contextualization also informed by the traditional Chinese music. Of course here I run the risk of essentializing both parent traditions.
From my brief listening, my initial answer to the question is that the ehru is more decoration than an invocation of a decidedly chinese aesthetic. Though I'm sure this analysis is informed by my negative response to the music. So I may be read as rationalizing my own distaste for the music. My initial reaction was that the instrumentation is a bit of a gimmick that sets them apart, thus making them more marketable. This is not to say that I think the band is insincere...
Lastly a comment of Audrey's comment: "we are living in a constant homogenizing world politically, economically, and socially." Perhaps the certain forces are seeking out homogenization, but, as Ong notes, "despite the widespread dissemination of the trappings of globalization ... cultural forms have not become homogenized across the world. ... these products have had the effect of greatly increasing cultural diversity because of the ways in which they are interpreted and the way they acquire new meanings in local reception ..."