Friday, March 21, 2014

Room Without a Roof




I’ve an email list I get with lots of disparate China related news.  I look to it for more detail on the environment or the economy or occasionally for matters of historical interest.  But it is essentially never relevant for matters of music.  And therefore surprised indeed was I to find this link to ‘“Happy” in Beijing.’  The tune, by Pharrell Williams, “Happy”, which remarkably catchy was, is set to a host of foreigners and lao wai dancing around in the city. 

It took me a bit to figure out who was behind it and what it was about.  I’d never heard of the man or his work.  But the clips work remarkably well together and capture a certain present day vibe of the city that I haven’t seen rendered quite that way before.  Looking it appears there are at 100000 viewings before mine.  Comments seems to start a week ago.  Is 100K viral or a mere vaccine shot’s worth?  I’m confident; I’m late to the party. 



There are no shortage of comments about the weather and the wisdom of dancing in the smog.  Thoughts turn to Public Enemy and their “Fight the Power” slice at “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  That latter Bobby McFerrin tune is prescriptive and could sound as much like a government directive as it does the advice of a trusted friend.   This Pharrell tune is, by contrast an individual assertion.  “Because I’m happy.”  It’s harder to knock someone off their own solid groove when they’re sporting that 心甘情愿[1] snowplow out in front of them.  Thoughts turn to The Beatles “I Feel Fine.”  The only entreaty is to “clap along if you feel like that’s what you want to do.” You can’t mess with that.  And “happy” repeated with a Benetton-like array of off-color foreigners and locals can easily have the feeling of something Aldous Huxley might have choreographed.  But it doesn’t feel like anything from the propaganda ministry, in large part because the tune is funky. 

I was locked into it from the first listen.  There’s a Meters-like quality to the groove and the falsetto lyrics leave enough room to imagine.  I think I liked the un-listening as much as anything as the first time, I spent the video wondering if the non descript, nerdy local gentleman who leads the clip off, was actually the voice behind the song.  He isn’t.  Locked in to the groove I wasn’t even thinking about pollution.  I was admiring the timing.  People are lip-synching lines from the song throughout.  People’s shuffling, dancing motions are astutely timed to the groove and the effort, that could easily be hackneyed, flows.  

The other remarkable thing is seeing the city one lives have a properly groovy swing to attest to all its quirky-ness.   Most of the locales are recognizable and nearly all the people oddly appropriate to the intent.  New York has had this done so many ways, so many times it takes something over the top to register a feeling as anything other than sorely derivative.  Beijing, at least as funky grooves are concerned is a comparatively clean canvas.



Looking further on line, I surmise that not only I, but Beijing must be late to the party.  The original video by Pharrell has had over 130M viewings.  That’s rather different.  And the original video has its own thing and feels, maybe just a bit more like something the immigration authorities might show on a “welcome to America” video while you’re waiting for your luggage.  Again, I guess its because its almost impossible to render various Americans, stomping around in the U.S. in a fresh way.  L.A. looks like someone making a video in L.A.  People clapping in Grand Central, is a video in Grand Central.  Ritan park works differently.

The man himself is interesting to watch.  Handsome in a lithe, elfin manner, he looks a bit like some mix of Q-Tip, Sonny Rollins and a former student of mine in some effortless, charming mix. He’s a pleasure to watch skip about with people and he convincingly channels this good-time Motown vibe that you want to be part of.  Listening for the 13th time, I’m fascinated by the process of digging a new, rather than time-honored, super simple, super catchy groove.  I suppose it’s not unlike some of Cee-Lo pop profundity.  It remains swinging to my ears.  Remarkable.

Now there seem to be a host of these made for other random cities around the world.  The one for Singapore seemed kind of lame to me, but perhaps I’d feel different if I lived there.  The one for Hong Kong is better, but still tepid.  The New York one is out of focus!  OK, this is the last one, the one for Salzburg’s familial and informal.  But I’ll submit that (out of that remarkably broad sampling,) my town nailed it.  I especially like looking at all that winter clothing that we just shook off like some “bad news.”  Ha.  We all earned this.

All right, my task is to harness and emanate the vibe for the rest of the day.  And continue reading “A Brave New World” with the older one.




[1] xīngānqíngyuàn:   delighted to (do sth, idiom) / perfectly happy to do / most willing to do

No comments:

Post a Comment