Helena makes it to #9 on the AMERICAN chart! (rejecting, translation)

[Djamila]

Helena Paparizou has made it to #9 on the American charts with (last year's, in Europe) hit song My Number One!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=WP-5WiP4Zg8

CONGRATULATIONS, HELENA! BRING OUR BALKAN MUSIC TO AMERICA SO WE CAN ALL MAKE MONEY! LOL

[Djamila]

And the original, Balkan version (which is, of course, slightly better, musically - more guitar dance than techno dance):


http://youtube.com/watch?v=wKf2rOCwo30

[Djamila]

I'm curious, is is strange for Americans to hear a woman singing about a man like this? Most of the US music I hear is negative towards men?

[RevOxley_501]

all the positive songs women sing are about me



the rest havent met me yet

[Djamila]

Hahaha - you're as pathetic as I am.

I always pretend Tarkan is singing to me:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=2y11SWZJ_xs

Like Ajsa says, he can club me over the head and drag me back to Bursa anyday.

[RevOxley_501]

i iwll have to check them out at home---no youtube at workie

[robtex]

Originally Posted by Djamila

I'm curious, is is strange for Americans to hear a woman singing about a man like this? Most of the US music I hear is negative towards men?

depends what kinda music you listen to. I think you may be listening to a lot of american hip/hop because you post hip/hop on general on here. Hip hop in America, and I say in America because I am ignornant of it outside of the USA, is very atagnositc and narcissitic in presentation. In America the slang for this is "all about me" which you can take literally in translation.

Applying this to your question if a man is singing hip hop he is either "scoring with his bitches" (bitches being a common reference to a women in hip/hop), or making money which is dubbed with the slang term "hustling". Women making a name for themselves in hip/hop more often than not embrace the narissitic (meaning self centered i just realized that is a big word for 2nd language but leaving word because it is grammaitcally accurate in the contect of the post), just as the men do but in their presenations it is either about seducing men or by replusing some pass that was made at them by a man.

In the hip hop "scene" (hip hop slang word for culture) when the artists sings their aspirations or they aspirations of their target audiance, men expect submission, and "weaker women" and defiant women in the culture of hip/hop music sing about being seductive (thus of more power) or of rejecting males expectancy of submission.

The forerunner of the language used in hip/hop is called ebonics which is not recognized as a language in academics due to the incomplete structure but acknowledged in sociological circles.

I can't find hip hop translator online but here is an ebonics one:
http://www.joel.net/EBONICS/translator.asp

[Booko]

Originally Posted by Djamila

CONGRATULATIONS, HELENA! BRING OUR BALKAN MUSIC TO AMERICA SO WE CAN ALL MAKE MONEY! LOL

Hey, why not??

You're right, the music on the guitar version is *much* better. The lapse into pseudo-Phrygian mode is especially nice.

It seems the remix has done what usually gets done -- it's been sped up and dumbed down, as if we Amurricans are not capable of listening to anything challenging.

Which probably accounts for why I so rarely listen to the radio, and haven't for years.

Also that's related to your question about a positive view of men. Well, I really can't say, because I turned off my radio. But around the time I did that was also when what you heard about women was a continual stream of comments about female dogs.

If American pop music has become negative about men (I wouldn't know) maybe there's a reason for that.


My daughter has declared the dancing "Awesome" and now that I emailed her the links, I expect it'll be all over her high school within the week.

[Djamila]

I'm glad your daughter liked the dancing. It's mostly modern, of course, but there are a few traditional dance steps in there from the horon and the kolo.

[Djamila]

Here's a live performance with more fully-traditional dancing.