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  • Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

    Today while driiving around Kauai, I was flippin' through radio stations only to find a majority of them were playing current hits by local--I wouldn't go as far to say artists--entertainers. Has the best years of local music passed us? Everyone sings about meeting women at bbq's or the beach and one night stands. If not, they're doing covers of songs that shouldn't be touched--and they butcher them! Hip-hop, pop, R&B, and rock seems to be suffering the same right now. Thank God for jazz!
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  • #2
    Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

    me..i noticed a lot of jawaiian music are just remakes of all the old stuff. it seems like they can't come up with any originals on their own. granted that there are few local entertainers that write their own music and have made it but it seems so far and few between..jus my pennies .

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    • #3
      Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

      Very true...

      Sadly original music is not well supported in Hawaii. Unless it's reggae or Jawaiian. Even then there needs to be a healthy amount of covers involved.

      It's nearly impossible for a band to make any sort of money here unless covers are played. The band I'm currently playing for is learning covers hand over fist so we can make money to go on tour. Bars and clubs will not pay unless you play covers (or bad jawaiian).

      Not sure what it is about Hawaii that makes it so hard on original acts. This is especially true for rock and hardcore bands.

      I would suspect there are a lot of bands out there that have original material, but are prohibited by the clubs from playing them.

      If you want to hear original music, go to clubs and bars, talk to the managers, and tell them that you won't go there to hear bad versions of classics.

      God knows we hate playing them...

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      • #4
        Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

        The sorry state of what counts as "contemporary local music" is a longstanding lament among my friends, some of whom are bright students of music. Here's a post at HawaiiStories from 2002 citing a few notable offenders.
        Is it just me, or was it the mark of every single new semester in UH whenever ANOTHER local band would do ANOTHER brand-new cover of "Brown-Eyed Girl"?

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        • #5
          Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

          I don't listen to most modern "island music" radio stations or contemporary "entertainers". If I want to listen to Hawaiian/contemporary music, I go to my iPod and listen to the oldies: Gabby, Hui O Hana, C & K, Kalapana, Na Leo, Aunty Genoa, Olomana, etc. I like many can't stand the remakes of former rock and pop hits by local entertainers, especially the ones that are "jawaiianized". ugh ----

          If I do listen to Hawaiian music on the radio I tune into KKNE AM 940. They seem to have a good mix of older music.
          I'm still here. Are you?

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          • #6
            Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

            I have a need to plug in some great Hawaiian/Island music made by the youth today, which are the CDs I play in my car, all produced this last year:

            -Lilikoi, by Paula Fuga (she has a soulful, if young, voice.)
            -Holunape's first CD (great harmonies, string sound, old style)
            -Heart & Soul by the Kekai Boyz. Theirs is original material. Great lyrics and great pipes!
            -Reborn by Damon Williams

            As for good Hawaiian raggae (not cover joes), Mixjah and Moemoea have great CDs.

            I cannot speak about radio politics, but I have a soft spot in my heart for local kids making their music, and believe that there is a lot of talent out there.

            pax

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            • #7
              Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

              Oh, absolutely, there's a lot of talent out there. It's just not given the kind of exposure a lot of... other stuff is given. Dick makes a good point, too. Even if you, as a musician, have great original material, you might not be given many opportunities because of the expectation of cover songs. It's a bit of a Catch-22.

              One of the things I loved about doing my local podcast (which isn't dead, I promise!) was looking for, listening to, and then sharing original, local, independent music. And thanks to the Internet and this whole "Web 2.0" business, it'll only get easier for listeners to find good stuff, and for artists to share good stuff, free of the filters of corporate media.

              I'm currently waiting patiently for Pali's new album...

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              • #8
                Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                Forgive my ignorance but what has reggae got to do with Hawaii? When did this Jawaiian thing get started?
                “First we fought the preliminary round for the k***s and now we’re gonna fight the main event for the n*****s."
                http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/review...=416&printer=1

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                • #9
                  Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                  Originally posted by sinjin
                  Forgive my ignorance but what has reggae got to do with Hawaii? When did this Jawaiian thing get started?
                  Boy. A novel or two could probably be written on this question. Where's a cultural anthropologist when you need one?

                  Well, I'm wholly unqualified to answer, but that's never stopped me before. Reggae, or Jamaican music (or Jamaican-styled music, I should say) is immensely popular in Hawaii. This might seem natural, a sort of kinship with another semi-tropical, island people. Reggae, in general, is often linked to beach and surf culture (among other things). I'll tell you this... when my wife and I attended UH Hilo, it seemed like a mandatory requirement that you listen to Bob Marley. To this day, any Marley tune reminds me of Hilo.

                  Anyway, it would seem almost inevitable that local artists would infuse what they know about Hawaiian music (which, admittedly, can be very little) with their love of -- or at least the popularity of -- reggae music. You have the distinctive beat, the standard themes, but with local references. Hence, Jawaiian. Commercial radio gold!

                  Of course, commercial radio puts you in a bit of a feedback loop. The public likes it because that's what they hear, the station plays it because that's all the public thinks to ask for. Put Bob Marley and a few dozen forgetable local Jawaiian covers in high rotation, and you've got... well, you've got a pretty dark decade or two in local music, that's for sure.

                  Here's a great piece in the Star-Bulletin from 2002 with a short riff on Jawaiian music:
                  The division between reggae-beat music and other styles of local music will continue to be the great divide in the music scene here. No type of music here evokes stronger feelings pro and con. Jawaiian is to local music what disco was to the national music scene in the late 1970s -- new (since 1990), different, controversial. The "Disco Sucks" movement has its counterpart here in the bumper stickers that show the word "Jawaiian" covered by the international symbol for "No." "Island music" has become a synonym for "Jawaiian" but the island culture represented is Jamaican, not Hawaiian.
                  The piece goes on to say, though, that Jawaiian will eventually be a significant part of the history of music in Hawaii, for better or worse.

                  Things are getting better, fortunately, with or without radio.
                  Last edited by pzarquon; July 11, 2006, 07:47 AM.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                    Reggae got the world's attention in the 1970's, but what gets little media attention is how popular this musical form became to the peoples across the Pacific. From the Maori in the south to Papua New Guinea to the west and here in Hawai'i, the music--its beat, its messages--have sunk in.

                    Dating myself, I am in my late 30s. I owned every Kapena, Ka'au Crater Boys, Mana'o Co. and Ho'aikane cd I could get my hands on. I also loved Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Yellowman and Peter Tosh, to name a few. I was in my late teens and early 20s when these guys grabbed the attention of local airwaves. Before then, radio only played pop/MTV music. But there were no music videos that spoke to this music form (that I could get my eyes on, anyway), so I stopped looking at the tv and ran the radio and cd player.

                    Today, this is one way that me and my kids bond. We love the same music, which is perhaps more unusual than the norm. I will take them to any concert featuring local music, and have since they were babies. Luckily, in Hawai'i we have enough concerts that are family-friendly to make this possible.

                    pax

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                    • #11
                      Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                      Jawaiian is a term that gets no respect. People like me use the term "island music" and thus ends the gripe. Plus, "jawaiian" cannot contain groups like sudden rush, whom I have long admired (and I own their cds as well).

                      "brown eyed girl" aside, there are few cover versions of any song that catch my ear, but if I must name one, then the remake of TLC's "waterfalls" by Pana'ewa is almost haunting.

                      pax

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                      • #12
                        Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                        Originally posted by Pua'i Mana'o
                        Jawaiian is a term that gets no respect.
                        I heard some of it when I was last in Hawaii this past Christmas. Made me a little sad to hear truth be told. Another invasive species is all I could think of. I wish all reggae fans could spend a little time in Jamaica. An eye opener for me.
                        “First we fought the preliminary round for the k***s and now we’re gonna fight the main event for the n*****s."
                        http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/review...=416&printer=1

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                          Originally posted by sinjin
                          Another invasive species is all I could think of.
                          At first is was the oli. Instruments were those items of the land and the sea. The shells. The sticks. The gourds. Our rythmns came from nature.

                          Then with contact came the choral arrangements. But Hawaiians still made that music their own, and we know it by himeni, or mele. Catch a KS song contest and you will see what I mean.

                          As the 20th century zoomed in, there came the braghina. Hawaiians picked it up and started calling it the ukulele. With the kika, Hawaiians tuned it funny and we have the steel guitar and slack-key.

                          And so it is with reggae. Hawaiians are still taking those outside influences and making it our own. It is in our blood.

                          pax

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                          • #14
                            Re: Anyone else disappointed with some local music?

                            Originally posted by sinjin
                            I heard some of it when I was last in Hawaii this past Christmas. Made me a little sad to hear truth be told. Another invasive species is all I could think of. I wish all reggae fans could spend a little time in Jamaica. An eye opener for me.
                            There's some cross-pollination going on. Check out Ziggy Marley's "Beach in Hawai'i" (featuring Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele) on his new "Love Is My Religion" CD.

                            http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...41&i=160967594
                            Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū ā ē ī ō ū -- Just a little something to "cut and paste."

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                            • #15
                              Unofficial Jawaiian history as I saw it

                              Around 1985 or 86, when I was in high school, reggae was still considered an "alternative" genre. We would tune in to the weekly Saturday night reggae show on KTUH to check out stuff we hadn't heard much of. It was about that time that it was cool to own a copy of Bob Marley's "Legend"., which was a greatest hits album. From my view, "Legend" was should I say, a "gateway" album to other reggae artists, like Steel Pulse, Third World, Jimmy Cliff, and others. Not to mention the the symbiotic relationship of a certain plant associated with reggae music and its availability in Hawaii, making it the "thing", and now there's a whole new audience of reggae fans. And so as the 80s ended, many local bands added their twist and thus Jawaiian was born.

                              But yes, Jawaiian music rules the airwaves when it comes to local music, but there is a building renaissance in local music involving the use of the Hawaiian language with artists like Holunape, Raiatea Helm, Kaumaka`iwa Kanakaole and others. And while I haven't listened to it yet, I've heard that Henry Kapono's new album that melds traditional Hawaiian songs with rock arrangements sounds wonderful. For better or worse, Jawaiian has proven itself with its audience, but there's some exciting things happening in Hawaiian music.

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