Dire Straits
it's 11:06 PM eastern, and I'm listening to Normandie FM through my computer while I try to work on some proofreading I'm doing for a company based in Belarus.
Normandie FM is a radio station out of Alencon, France. I like it because I like to listen to people speaking French, and because the songs are almost always upbeat, and in between them there's often this cheesy little sing-song jingle, "nor-man-dee-eff-emmmmmm" that could just as easily be "dubble-yew-kay-arr-pee-in-sin-sin-aaahhhhhh-teeee." there's some cross-cultural/universal need for radio producers to create these jingles, and it makes me smile and feel like the world is small and that's okay. it's like seeing some African nation's president in traditional garb but with Reeboks on his feet. My point is, I find it charming, not disturbing--whereas the McDonald's inVersailles is disturbing.
So here's the thing: I'm sitting in Northampton, Massachusetts. I'm listening to a live radio broadcast from halfway around the world. Without a radio. And I'm writing to you in Salt Lake City, but this morning I wrote to you in San Francisco, and you wrote me back, from a restaurant and then from an airport. And when I click Send, all of these words will travel as bits of data out of the cable that comes up through the floor in my office, out of my house, through who knows how many little transfer stations--hop, hop, hop--and virtually instantly it will arrive in your inbox. and since you have this stunning ability to be online at all times thanks to the (now famous) KR1 router and your cell phone, you'll probably be reading this before I've even had time to listen to another song from France. Which, right now, is "money for nothin." It's almost 5:30 a.m. in Alencon, France and somewhere in that town, some late-night/early morning DJ decided to spin, of all things, the Dire Straits.
I remember this song vividly. It's inextricably connected to my memories of the summer I turned 13 (but most definitely not connected in any way to my ideas about France). It's not just the music--it's the video I so distinctly remember. I am having a *visual* memory of a *song.*
This is because I was the perfect age for the dawn of MTV. From 1981 on, I soaked up music videos like the little adolescent sponge that I was. And this Money For Nothin' video was on heavy rotation.
So now, here I am. It's twenty years later, and I'm listening to Norrr-maaann-dee eff-emm through my computer, where a song from 1985 is making its way back to me, in ways I never could have imagined possible back then. Ways I don't totally even understand right now.
When it first came on, I thought, isn't that bizarre (tres bizarre) and silly, that I went seeking relief from American radio and what I got from this obscure little French station in the middle of the night was not French pop, or folk, or even techno. What I got was a song practically synonymous with the concept "American pop phenomenon."It's even *about* one of the most significant pop phenomenons of our era--MTV.
That video, it turns out, was considered groundbreaking at the time, for its use of computer animation. And, it was the first song ever played on MTV Europe. Recorded by a British band (in the West Indies, London, and New York), it broke technological ground with its video, set international sales records as a single, and was performed most famously at Live Aid, that unforgettably giant concert attempt to end world hunger.
I can't help but enjoy the song as it plays. My foot is tapping and I'm singing along with guest-vocalist Sting, at every chorus: "I want my, I want my, I want my em-tee-vee." But when I think about where it's coming from, I am also reminded of the disappointment I felt when I fulfilled a lifelong dream and strolled down the Champs-Elysees for the very first time. I thought it would be a beautiful experience--a very French experience. But when I got there, I didn't even feel like I was in France. I felt like I was in America. Worse than that, I felt like I was in an American stripmall. Madonna T-shirts, Nikes, American brands abound--there was even a Ben & Jerry's.
American consumerism is like a virus that we're spreading across the so-called "free world." Our products are like invasive non-native species that, once introduced to a virgin landscape, will grow and spread and choke out everything else. I was nine when that little animated astronaut landed on that TV moon and planted his MTV flag, changing the world forever--so much more so, I might argue, than those actual, real life astronauts. Ask anyone from my generation who did the moonwalk, and i guaran-damn-tee you, they will not mention Neil Armstrong (or that unfortunate runner-up Buzz Aldrin). They will tell you, of course, that it was Michael Jackson, and that they first saw it on...MTV.
Normandie FM is a radio station out of Alencon, France. I like it because I like to listen to people speaking French, and because the songs are almost always upbeat, and in between them there's often this cheesy little sing-song jingle, "nor-man-dee-eff-emmmmmm" that could just as easily be "dubble-yew-kay-arr-pee-in-sin-sin-aaahhhhhh-teeee." there's some cross-cultural/universal need for radio producers to create these jingles, and it makes me smile and feel like the world is small and that's okay. it's like seeing some African nation's president in traditional garb but with Reeboks on his feet. My point is, I find it charming, not disturbing--whereas the McDonald's inVersailles is disturbing.
So here's the thing: I'm sitting in Northampton, Massachusetts. I'm listening to a live radio broadcast from halfway around the world. Without a radio. And I'm writing to you in Salt Lake City, but this morning I wrote to you in San Francisco, and you wrote me back, from a restaurant and then from an airport. And when I click Send, all of these words will travel as bits of data out of the cable that comes up through the floor in my office, out of my house, through who knows how many little transfer stations--hop, hop, hop--and virtually instantly it will arrive in your inbox. and since you have this stunning ability to be online at all times thanks to the (now famous) KR1 router and your cell phone, you'll probably be reading this before I've even had time to listen to another song from France. Which, right now, is "money for nothin." It's almost 5:30 a.m. in Alencon, France and somewhere in that town, some late-night/early morning DJ decided to spin, of all things, the Dire Straits.
I remember this song vividly. It's inextricably connected to my memories of the summer I turned 13 (but most definitely not connected in any way to my ideas about France). It's not just the music--it's the video I so distinctly remember. I am having a *visual* memory of a *song.*
This is because I was the perfect age for the dawn of MTV. From 1981 on, I soaked up music videos like the little adolescent sponge that I was. And this Money For Nothin' video was on heavy rotation.
So now, here I am. It's twenty years later, and I'm listening to Norrr-maaann-dee eff-emm through my computer, where a song from 1985 is making its way back to me, in ways I never could have imagined possible back then. Ways I don't totally even understand right now.
When it first came on, I thought, isn't that bizarre (tres bizarre) and silly, that I went seeking relief from American radio and what I got from this obscure little French station in the middle of the night was not French pop, or folk, or even techno. What I got was a song practically synonymous with the concept "American pop phenomenon."It's even *about* one of the most significant pop phenomenons of our era--MTV.
That video, it turns out, was considered groundbreaking at the time, for its use of computer animation. And, it was the first song ever played on MTV Europe. Recorded by a British band (in the West Indies, London, and New York), it broke technological ground with its video, set international sales records as a single, and was performed most famously at Live Aid, that unforgettably giant concert attempt to end world hunger.
I can't help but enjoy the song as it plays. My foot is tapping and I'm singing along with guest-vocalist Sting, at every chorus: "I want my, I want my, I want my em-tee-vee." But when I think about where it's coming from, I am also reminded of the disappointment I felt when I fulfilled a lifelong dream and strolled down the Champs-Elysees for the very first time. I thought it would be a beautiful experience--a very French experience. But when I got there, I didn't even feel like I was in France. I felt like I was in America. Worse than that, I felt like I was in an American stripmall. Madonna T-shirts, Nikes, American brands abound--there was even a Ben & Jerry's.
American consumerism is like a virus that we're spreading across the so-called "free world." Our products are like invasive non-native species that, once introduced to a virgin landscape, will grow and spread and choke out everything else. I was nine when that little animated astronaut landed on that TV moon and planted his MTV flag, changing the world forever--so much more so, I might argue, than those actual, real life astronauts. Ask anyone from my generation who did the moonwalk, and i guaran-damn-tee you, they will not mention Neil Armstrong (or that unfortunate runner-up Buzz Aldrin). They will tell you, of course, that it was Michael Jackson, and that they first saw it on...MTV.
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