Hi there,
Scanning through this thread got me to thinking, even though it is Monday...
In this area of music which we seem to be calling 'International', how important is it for the band or singer to actually be from that country. By this I mean, surrounded by and soaking up the culture of that particular country.
Thing is, I have always loved reggae music even though I'm not Jamaican. I also happen to be a musician so when it comes to me writing a song, I tend to lean to the type of music that I have listened to the most. Hence, a lot of my songs are reggae influenced. I also like the guitar music from Zimbabwe, especially TUKU although I have never been to any part of Africa. I reckon I can come up with a pretty good version of TUKU style guitar playing even though I'm a white guy originally from the north part of England and via Scotland now live in Georgia, U.S.
Personally, I think it's fine for any musician or any other artist for that matter to be influenced by any music or art from any part of the world. Where it starts to get dodgy is when the songs tend to stray into areas which really can only be based upon the actual experience of growing up in that particular culture, whether it be African, Jamaican, Japanese, whatever...In these cases, the songs are starting to become based on guess work rather than actual experience.
There again, if I was to read a book on the suffering of slaves and this had a genuine effect on my emotions, would it be acceptable for me to try and put those feelings into a song even though my experience of slavery would only be second hand from the pages of a book....
What are your thoughts on this, anyone ?
Gordon.