Increasing Role of Internet to preserve our pan culture
Jan 19, 2012
I respectfully submit for discussion in the pan community.
Yesterday I only got around to reading the following article, from a few days ago : http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/sunday-january-15-2012/soca-artistes-count-losses, where essentially several artistes were complaining about lack of airplay on our local radio stations.
This is not a new problem as can been seen in Table 7 of a report showing figures from 1999 (http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/studies/pdf/study_r_henry.pdf).
Back in November 2000, there was a march through Port of Spain advocating legislation to make radio stations play at least 50 per cent local music. Also taking part in the march were some of the country’s top artistes, among them Brother Resistance, Jointpop, Singing Sandra, David Rudder, Shadow and the late Mystic Prowler, the Mighty Duke and Andre Tanker. There were also representatives from the Chutney Foundation, the Parang Association, and the Trinbago Unified Calypso Organisation.
The interesting angle on the recent Guardian article is that it shows so many artistes trying to get their music heard whenever local music peaks at Carnival time, but only a few artistes dominate the airwaves.
Where does all the music composed for Panorama fit in this picture? Well despite an increasing number of composers/artistes displaying their offerings for 2012 (When Steel Talks indicating about 50 songs), we know that these songs will already find difficulty to get airplay, in the environment mentioned above where songs for pan have little regard (except for WACK with specific programmes, perhaps there are others).
That is where we really have to be thankful for When Steel Talks website and Pan Radio, Facebook, You Tube, Pan Jumbie, Pan Podium and other websites which demonstrate a keen interest to keep the pan community informed, and gives us the ability to hear the music to be played a click away. Bands all over the world can now hear the music, download lead sheets, get schedules of events, hear and see previous performances.
I dare say that WST, all the pan sites above, and some I may not know, have in fact become more than a means to get our music played. They have become a means of capturing, sometimes in real time, a part of our culture of Trinidad and Tobago, while it dies a slow death in other ways, with our music not being played, and worse, being discarded/ignored by some of the radio disc jockeys who have no connection to our music for the national instrument, calypsoes, etc. I wonder how many people who physically attend the Panorama events would know the music being played.
I think part of our problem, is that many (even some in authority over the years) do not see the value of our culture and the role it can play in forging a society integrating our instruments, music and culture in our schools to help us understand what makes us a Trini. We lack pride and knowledge of our icons who have paved the way, with more and more of our knowledge lost when there is a passing of icons, who sometimes feel neglected, or unappreciated. I think Pat Bishop understood this very well, and tried her best to keep the culture alive in so many ways. Congrats to Boogsie, GB, the Lydians, Pelham, Exodus, 3 Canal for keeping her memory alive in such fitting tributes in music/lyrics.
Thanks again to the tireless team at When Steel Talks, Monika at Pan Jumbie, Robbie Joseph at Pan Podium, and all other valuable websites for keeping our pan culture alive. Pan Trinbago has an opportunity also to recognize the role the internet is now playing, and to keep its website in line with what may be required for the future (one example is that 14 out of the roughly 50 new compositions for Panorama is on the Pan Trinbago website). This is unfortunate as I must confess that I submitted my music to other websites first, not realizing Pan Trinbago now had a section for new music. I think that the organization should be at the frontier of information for the global pan community, as they should possess the knowledge and linkages to make the information as real time as possible.
I am also extremely disheartened to hear about a lack of a budget for Junior Panorama at this stage, another symptom of an environment which does not appear to encourage creativity to flourish or highlight our youth for the future. But that is another topic.
Food for thought.
Mark Loquan
Replies
Because of WST and this forum Pan in T & T is moving in the right direction. Pan Trinbago would loose its grip on the administration of the steelpan in the next 3 years they fail to take this product forward.
The Government would stop pumping money blindly into Pan Trinbago.
Some valid points, Mark, but what about too much trash on the airwaves during the carnival season? In my opinion, the greatest threat to the progress/development of the art forms of kaiso derives from the mediocrity of the incessant and repetitive "jook-an-wine" type of nonsense that implores the audience to wave one way or another, rather than compositions of a revealing nature and maturity. Maybe I am too old-fashioned, but Kitch and Sparrow made their careers with lyrical, comprehensible, understandable stories told in musical form, not just by gyrating and prancing on the stage telling people how to jump. Pan has the same problem. Steelbands must play a calypsonian's tune for Panorama, rather than any piece of their own choice. Why should this be the case? Why not free up the compositional creativity and capacity for arrangement of our pan arrangers, instead of constraining them? It is not the business of pan players, who make precious little during the carnival season, to promote the financial interests of calypsonians, who make more.
Peter
Good points, Peter.
Also the culture is so used to calypso and pan being seen as seasonal with Carnival as the climax, that it would take some doing to keep the public focus on the local art forms throughout the year.
The pan and calypso organizations have to figure out ways, including the use of new media, to keep the focus on the art forms alive for the rest of the year.
This may not be easy to do since it would mean having events later in the year as powerful as the ones held at Carnival i.e. the Carnival calypso shows, and the Panorama.However it can and must be done for the art forms to thrive.
We keep playing the same record and singing the same old song about the lack of airplay. Is there any reason why the pan and calypso people can't get together and start their own radio station?
Even if it is only a webcast?
Terry Samuel, you're right about the lack of vision.
I have seen some 8 to 10year olds recite a whole song by our soca artistes. Yet many of the youth up to teenagers know nothing of Kitchener and Sparrow or any of our cultural icons. Why? I wish that our educational system worked in a way to integrate our icons to promote our culture in a systematic manner instead of an ad hoc basis, even the soca artistes, but not where we become so one dimensional. A person coming through our schools in my humble opinion should be able to meet many of the icons, have knowledge of where we came from, know the music and artforms that were forged, the struggles, history, where we are, and also how things have evolved globally. Ellie Mannette and many others would be great assets to impart knowledge to students in Trinidad, while still operating outside of TT. Hence the problem goes beyond Pan Trinbago, but it is linked to leadership and having a broader vision for the country. Perhaps then someone operating a radio station would then understand the value and creativity that we are no doubt blessed with in TT and across the globe and our icons would feel more appreciated. Or perhaps then there is less discussion on whether a budget is available will be available or not for Junior Panorama at a late stage because then we would intrisically understand the value of our youth for the future in terms of ensuring the talents surface and encouraged.
I cannot say or recollect when was the last time that a steelband or steelpan program was aired on the Television station of T&T,,CTNT,,,from the inception of the Curfew in 2011, not a single day , to this present moment as i make my comment,,i could be wrong,,,other Cultural programes are given the oportunity to be aired,,, frequently,,,, STEELPAN,,,STEELBAND ,,,ah nava see,,, how is it possible then for the upcoming youths of T&T be able to see what,s one of their important culture of their homeland,,somebody can tell me dat ah lie...the truth,,,i could be wrong.
I agree with Terry Samuel too.
And Mark, we are in agreement also with regard to having our great icons (pantuners: Ellie, Guppy, Butch Kelman, etc.; as well as pan players like Boogsie Sharpe, Emmanual Riley, etc.) in our schools. Why not incoorporate these skilled artists into our curricula at UTT?
2 more cents ...Peter
The lack of vision is what killing Pan Trinbago....
Music is a product and is consumed in a marketplace. In that marketplace a number of factors determine acceptance and popularity, some of which are subject to control and direction. In this regard legislation is not an efficient means of determining or directing taste and market viability.
Mark is right though about the need for leadership. Yes PanTrinbago and TUCO must play greater roles in education, dissemination and the creation of viable markets. Implicit in this is the need to foster the improvement of standards and the creation of opportunities for the creators and performers to receive financial rewards.
Yes the Internet is playing a major role in exposure, but up to now it is not the marketplace where creators and performers are being adequately rewarded. There is a whole lot of work still to be done.
Technology and art is an old subject! In modern times it goes to distribution of the product, payment of the artistes through recognition (exposure) of the artistes and their product. Media in any form is the key. Any and all organizations that represent the pan art-form must have a dedicated "Ministry of Communication." The days of personal appearances (a la Pat Bishop) are not gone but are fading due to health, age and plain old stress. Communication lines on all levels must remain open and expanded! In our case, our youth must be involved as they not only create and consume art; they are the developers of new technology for the enjoyment of art.