Which made me wonder: how would music of African-American origin (being soul, gospel, blues, funk and indeed most pop music from Chuck Berry onwards) differ if the fledgling United States of America had adopted German, rather than English, as its national language (which folklore says almost happened; the folklore is incorrect, but this is a hypothetical exercise)? Would, to German-speaking parallel-universe Americans, it sound subjectively identical to the way English-language pop sounds to us? And, in that case, in what language would scary industrial metal be?
Gedankenexperiment
Which made me wonder: how would music of African-American origin (being soul, gospel, blues, funk and indeed most pop music from Chuck Berry onwards) differ if the fledgling United States of America had adopted German, rather than English, as its national language (which folklore says almost happened; the folklore is incorrect, but this is a hypothetical exercise)? Would, to German-speaking parallel-universe Americans, it sound subjectively identical to the way English-language pop sounds to us? And, in that case, in what language would scary industrial metal be?
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Get Zucked
It looks like Facebook ads are about to get much more obnoxious. We're talking huge, bandwidth-sucking full-motion video ads along the side of your…
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Lyrics quiz
It has been a while since I posted one of these. Below are 10 lyrics from songs. For each one, if you know the artist and song title, post them in…
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Laura Macfarlane/Hong Kong In The 60s/Hissing At Swans
Last night, I made a return to putting gigs on. So far, a once-off, though there may well be more gigs in the future. I put on a gig by Laura…
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