In 1966 John Denver wrote the song “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” When I was growing up, I didn’t like that song. The version I heard the most when I was young was the one by Peter, Paul and Mary. I think we learned it in kindergarten.
Yes, Peter, Paul and Mary were part of the 1960s, but other artists produced what I thought (even in kindergarten, I think) was a lot more interesting work (Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones. . . the list goes on and on. . . Ok, maybe I didn’t listen to Hendrix and the Stones in kindergarten, but Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” was a song we knew.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFj8yGIMpQw
So it kind of surprised me when I came across this version of that song a few years ago and found that I actually liked it. It’s by Palmy, a singer in Thailand who is of Thai-Belgan ancestry and who grew up in Australia.
Maybe I’m getting too deep here, but when I see/hear a performance like this, I have all of these “visions” of the past that come to my mind.
I think of the 1960s, the Cold War, the social turmoil in the US, the utter destruction that the US brought to mainland Southeast Asia (one of my earliest memories is of hearing the “body count” on TV).
And in realizing that this is sung by someone whose parents are of different nationalities, I think of Thailand’s intense contact with “development” during the “American era,” the political turmoil of the 1970s, etc.
And then after thinking about all of that historical stuff, I think about how after all of that struggle and destruction and change we have a talented and attractive young woman singing a sweet song that was first performed in the midst of that turmoil several decades ago by some of the more conservative artists of that time.
So what does it all mean?
Does it mean that all of that conflict had a purpose and was moving societies toward something better? Or does it mean that it was all for nothing, and that people should have forgotten what they were struggling/fighting for and listened to the sappy love songs of Peter, Paul and Mary in the 1960s?
Maybe something else?
I still don’t think that listening to Peter, Paul and Mary in the 1960s was a good idea, but as for the rest. . .
I think we’re roughly contemporaries and I remember my very young self actually enjoying Peter, Paul and Mary. I grew up in the hinterlands and my mother kept the radio tuned to a station whose format was geared toward “groovy grown-ups.” Like many adolescent males of my time and place I grew to be a fan of more rebellious and experimental popular culture. But I have a strong memory from high school at being at a pizza parlor with a couple of friends. I remember a little girl being sent by her parents with a quarter to the jukebox to select her favorite song. Then out came the sounds of “So many nights, I’d sit by my window, hoping that someone…” The three of us made faces and laughed. But at the same time I saw that little girl glow in the presence of a song that any theoretician of the “sappy” would say is the Olympus of sappiness. When I saw the joy this girl experienced and recognized our sneering attitude I immediately felt remorse.
Sincerity is a problematic substance. The music that you favored – Hendrix, Dylan, Stones – definitely rates as more sophisticated than John Denver and Peter, Paul and Mary (and I definitely prefer it myself). But underlying the sophistication is almost always a level of cynicism and even nastiness. Possibly that cynicism is a more mature and authentic reaction to the world as it actually is, but most people are not interested in confronting the world as it really is – at least not in their entertainment. That’s why “You Light Up My Life” is #7 on Billboard’s All Time Top 100.
In Việt Nam they have a word that corresponds to sappy – sến. I think Bourdieu in his book Distinction helps clarify the dilemma. That people make decisions in the cultural products they consume in order to define their own self-image and places themselves in distinction with others. And often that means that if I am “up” in cultural status somebody else is “down.”
I think you would agree that it’s important to understand people where they are and not where they should ideally be (according to the prevailing norms of the ideals set forth by the gatekeepers of high culture). I am actually refreshed that people continue to be so innocent that they can un-ironically enjoy things that are sappy or sến. I have a friend who is an experimental artist who partakes of so-called “sến” songs, but he does so as a form of kitsch. I’m not entirely comfortable with that attitude.
Has the world been / is the world really moving towards something better? The world has no agency and mankind works in mysterious ways. But I think a simplified Buddhist explanation is helpful – the world has constructive forces and destructive forces and both are necessary. Is sincerity – even sappy sincerity – constructive or destructive? Maybe in fact it’s also a little bit of both. After all sincerity could be destructive when it represents not facing up to the glare of the facts of life. What did it say that the land of John Denver was expending ordinance, treasure and human lives in an ugly conflict that it didn’t want to really face up to? But at the same time new growth comes from death. People continue to crave a simplicity and sincerity that many find sappy and I’m glad they do, even if I can’t join them.
Great comments. What you wrote makes me realize that I’m not really sure what it is that I’m trying to say.
I’m a fan of sappy/sến, and try not to make decisions about cultural products. It’s all good (or there are at least times when we enjoy it all).
I think I didn’t like PP&M because of something instinctual. We had a record cabinet, and I remember my mother would suggest that I listen to PP&M or Pete Seeger (“safe” music that would mould me into a “good little boy”), but for some reason or other (and I don’t think this was a decision about cultural products to define a self-image, because I didn’t actually know what the words meant) I would put on songs that had lyrics like “Well she was just seventeen, you know what I mean. . .” No, I didn’t actually know what that meant, but resisting parental control did, I think, make some kind of sense to a six year old.
So I guess what I was thinking of was less sappiness and more the social conservativeness that a song like that represents (to me).
I’m not saying that’s bad. And I’m not trying to advocate an alternative. I just have moments when I think about how crazy life is, such as when I see a video like that one or when I walk through a shopping mall in say Phnom Penh, Hanoi or Bangkok.
And in those moments I would like to go back to say 1968 and visit people on “both sides” (as you had people struggling to move their societies in certain directions throughout the region at that time) in such places and say to them, “You know what? 45 years from now everyone is going to be sitting in air-conditioned shopping malls texting smiley faces to each other while ‘You Light Up My Life’ echoes through the mall’s sound system.”
What would they think/say?
Pol Pot: “Damn! You mean the Capitalists are still exploiting the people?”
Sihanouk: “Damn! You mean they’re not listening to sappy French songs?”
I later also came to recognize something intolerable in PP&M and Pete Seeger – it was so much like the smiley faces, have a nice day, and even we shall overcome / give peace a chance of that time. I feel like that generation really squandered the incredible wealth and opportunity of that time.
The result 45 years later – that’s interesting. It’s basically – “market forces triumphed” meaning a little regulated pursuit of individual gain with powerful forces sucking in a lot of the available resources. The old notion of the affluent becoming a civilizing aristocracy does work out so well, though it does have its moments.
What cultural products do other societies choose from our cultural cornucopia? In Asia a lot of the time it’s music that is less rhythmic, less syncopated. A clear melody is important. It has to did with the youth milieu of a given time and place – what kinds of much do college students gather around. Nowadays it’s a lot of rap and rock. K-pop is making great inroads – another filtering of Western pop that takes the edge off of rhythm and blues.
While they are texting smiling faces, there are lots who are getting run over by events and have no reason to smile. There’s a brutal world churning underneath.
http://taybui.blogspot.com/2013/08/anh-khong-niu-keo-i-wont-force-you-vi.html
I fascinating to observe events that are unplanned and unpredictable, which is the current situation. It’s interest to track what’s bubbling up from below. At least the multi-nationals have little control over the domestic music markets in these countries.
Yea, I don’t like making statements about cultural influence, because I usually get strong reactions – “No! This is Vietnamese!!!”
But having said that, I swear that the Koreans are responsible for the theme of “good people getting beat up” in music videos in Asia these days. Why do people in Korean music videos always have to get beaten up/run over by a car??? I have no idea, but even “girl videos” have girls beating up other girls.
Something is definitely churning there.
Can you send a link to some Korean “good people getting beat up” videos, especially “girls beating up other girls.” I’ll bet that’s the next movement in Vietnamese popular song.
Sorry, I can’t remember who that was. I think it was a couple of years ago that I saw it. It was in a school setting, so “bad girls” in school uniforms were beating up the “good girl.”
I just remember thinking at the time, “What it is with Koreans and violence???”
Very interesting post and responses! Thanks.
As you talk about sappy/sến music/genre, I am reminded of the many English songs I listened to when I was growing up. Songs such as “Everything I do I do it for you”, “Please forgive me” (Brian Adams), “Making love out of nothing at all” by Air Supply, and many songs by Pet Shop Boys, Modern Talking, Scorpion, etc were those that were brought to us those days. They were shown on TV and played on radio every week, and played in many households, shops and cafes. My friends and I just learnt by heart these songs and I at least was proud of my English music knowledge. I sang many of these songs to my friends and recorded them in my song book.
Then one day I had a conversation with some friends from Canada who had no ideas who Brian Adams was. And another friend from the US told me that the many songs I had been listening to were ‘sappy’ and ‘uncool’ and ‘not of high taste’ by the educated’s standard. Wow wow wow!
It was kind of brutal hearing that your kind of familiar music was ‘of low taste’, and it was more brutal thinking of myself as being well educated :(. But the truth is, doesn’t matter how many years has gone by, the rhythms, melodies and lyrics of such songs are still dancing in my mind. I don’t think I ever associated them with a particular genre of music, but with my late teens days. Sappy doesn’t have to be meaningless.
And you’re right here. We make meanings out of what is available to us at a particular point in time, and of course meanings vary. So does taste.
Not sure if all this makes any sense, but just something to share.