Earlier today I received the 'leaked' version of Machel Montano's bid for the road march 'Advantage,' and please allow me to be the first to say that it is aptly and succinctly entitled.
Not even bothering to change the basic driving bass beat of his last five or so years of contributions, this song is at best a blended remix of much mediocrity that hopes to appeal to the revelers' joy at returning to the savannah stage.
Similar to the effects of any other leaked pornography I have had the pleasure of viewing in the past, i felt guilty after listening to it as if i somehow contributed to its existence by my audience.
Now, this is in no way meant to blame the man, as I along with many countless others understands that he does indeed have talent, but knowing the business he is in and the compromises he must make to the fete and radio station owners, if its drivel they want to a hook and a killer beat, by all means give them.
Especially when you count each Carnival in the millions of dollars, then 'go thru hard sah,' grind them out.
Where he is complicit in our destruction and that of our culture though, is that his very existence now is becoming detrimental to the art form and murderous to the culture; like something both tragic and obscene, carnival is slowly becoming nothing but a two day drunken orgy to music where a celebration of a people used to be.
Where we had 'four verse and chorous' before (to quote the Mighty Stalin), we now have the word 'huuur' punctuated by a rapid fire series of barely understandable commands.
It would appear that David Rudder may have been our peak, and the few bright sparks since have flared briefly and dissipated long before the big brooms come out to sweep away the mess that Carnival leaves behind.
We are dumbing down our nation with each passing opportunity to find something like art among our contributions, and nothing like a greatest hits can be compiled that anyone would want to own much less listen to years down the road.
For those needing the release to jump and prance around I understand your desire, but is it too much to ask that after all is said and done we leave something that looks and sounds like something we can be proud of years from now?
Somewhere along the way this mimickry and wholesale importation of all things foreign will leave us only with an accent and a self destructive attitude to tell us apart from anyone else, and all the talk of history and mamaguy will count for nothing then.
Say what.
Huuur...
Apt commentary. I, however, take a more holistic and historical look at road march and Machel's place in it. As you alluded to in the note, this is business, not cultural attachment: "if its drivel they want to a hook and a killer beat, by all means give them."
ReplyDeleteThe year Machel won the road march with "Big Truck" in 1997 was a cusp much like an earlier era when Sparrow won with "Jean and Dinah." Sparrow ushered in the era of music and tempo in the road march. In the decade prior to 1997, Pelham Goddard was arranging consecutive road marches for Superblue and Tambu. Tempo, melody with some sing-along lyrics. Machel's win signaled the tempo at all costs era with no-lyrics tuned to drive the hordes across the stages at Carnival and in the fetes. The mas took on a different look also. Poison rose while Minshall and Berkley were the last bastions of "art."
You request of revelers and soca providers to leave a legacy at this point is noble, but like most thing in life, there will be a rising to the top of quality. Every nation that produces music all have a barrel full of shit music in their musical and cultural canon. Future generations may look at it with different eyes and ears and see "art", all we can do is be a marketplace. Either we buy it or not, jump to it or not, request it or not. We don't write our history, it is always written after we are gone.
Huuur...