Charanga Habanera and Eddy K: The Big Ones?
- Submitted by: admin
- Arts and Culture
- Music
- 01 / 26 / 2007
By Daniel Alejandro Benítez Quiñones
Popular sayings are as wise as can be its creator and follower: People. They are seldom wrong and they have a keen eye to detect wrongs. Of this living source and its dialectic movement, I will recall a sentence, ancient but useful and demonstrative, which reads sort of this: Tell me what you boast about and I will tell you what you lack.
Charanga Habanera and Eddy K latest video clip, singing together, fits perfectly to this axiom, the issue repeats itself in demonstrating, excuse me to say so, that they are the big ones and the school. They are certainly right about that they are completely the noble well-educated lords of triviality and aesthetics completely foreign to the principles of our national identity. And the video clip is there to prove so.
The video portraits the boys from La Charanga and Eddy K engulfed in a sensationalist atmosphere which drag along codes totally foreign to our culture. Am I Cuban, am I popular? They seem render ridicule to this phrase, largely exploited, when their clothes are not the most adequate to show signs of Cuban distinctiveness, and I don't mean to sing reggae and timba in loose-fitting shirts! What I mean is they are being the bad copies of mediocre foreign cultures, focused on the image rather than in the content.
The proposal is poor in terms of drama; neither highlights our Islands values, with the use of gray and black tones evidencing a marked foreign influence rather than the heat and features that characterize the Caribbean and the tropic. Many singers do exploit these means of light and the result is an excellent invitation to share with Cubans, far from the dark suburbs and marginal areas. The key to success not only lies in looking Cuban, but in being it and demonstrating it. With that seal the Orishas were a blockbuster success in half of the world and Buena Vista Social Club became a phenomenon of record houses and radio stations worldwide.
Then why trying to be copies of bad artists? Why not taking advantage of our roots? Its dreamlike to think that dribbling a basketball ball we are Michel Jordan or we were born in the Bronx. Its sad to use a language that is not ours just to stand out.
The words of the song are neither accurate in the video clip, far from reducing the gaps in the video structure, it increases them and triggers the discussion, before a fact that seems a phantomlike vision, singing and praising to each other. Unbelievable!
Who told Charanga Habanera and Eddy K they were positive examples to look after? Is it policy to set to these two groups as references of our culture? Its a pity that maestro Sergio David Calzado doesn't invest his talent in a less chauvinistic and self-praising music. Calzado has demonstrated his worth as an artist and musical producer, however he runs off with an orchestra where the exaltation for the self and the creation of pseudo-figures, seems to have top priority.
Popular sayings are as wise as can be its creator and follower: People. They are seldom wrong and they have a keen eye to detect wrongs. Of this living source and its dialectic movement, I will recall a sentence, ancient but useful and demonstrative, which reads sort of this: Tell me what you boast about and I will tell you what you lack.
Charanga Habanera and Eddy K latest video clip, singing together, fits perfectly to this axiom, the issue repeats itself in demonstrating, excuse me to say so, that they are the big ones and the school. They are certainly right about that they are completely the noble well-educated lords of triviality and aesthetics completely foreign to the principles of our national identity. And the video clip is there to prove so.
The video portraits the boys from La Charanga and Eddy K engulfed in a sensationalist atmosphere which drag along codes totally foreign to our culture. Am I Cuban, am I popular? They seem render ridicule to this phrase, largely exploited, when their clothes are not the most adequate to show signs of Cuban distinctiveness, and I don't mean to sing reggae and timba in loose-fitting shirts! What I mean is they are being the bad copies of mediocre foreign cultures, focused on the image rather than in the content.
The proposal is poor in terms of drama; neither highlights our Islands values, with the use of gray and black tones evidencing a marked foreign influence rather than the heat and features that characterize the Caribbean and the tropic. Many singers do exploit these means of light and the result is an excellent invitation to share with Cubans, far from the dark suburbs and marginal areas. The key to success not only lies in looking Cuban, but in being it and demonstrating it. With that seal the Orishas were a blockbuster success in half of the world and Buena Vista Social Club became a phenomenon of record houses and radio stations worldwide.
Then why trying to be copies of bad artists? Why not taking advantage of our roots? Its dreamlike to think that dribbling a basketball ball we are Michel Jordan or we were born in the Bronx. Its sad to use a language that is not ours just to stand out.
The words of the song are neither accurate in the video clip, far from reducing the gaps in the video structure, it increases them and triggers the discussion, before a fact that seems a phantomlike vision, singing and praising to each other. Unbelievable!
Who told Charanga Habanera and Eddy K they were positive examples to look after? Is it policy to set to these two groups as references of our culture? Its a pity that maestro Sergio David Calzado doesn't invest his talent in a less chauvinistic and self-praising music. Calzado has demonstrated his worth as an artist and musical producer, however he runs off with an orchestra where the exaltation for the self and the creation of pseudo-figures, seems to have top priority.
Source: CubaSi
Comments