Monday, September 23, 2013

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - the voice of velvet fire


Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,  "The Long Road"  from the film Dead Man Walking

Listening? Read on...

Source



"Part Buddha, part demon, 
part mad angel...his voice is velvet fire, simply incomparable"
 Jeff Buckley, 1997




Global cultural flows involve transnationalisation and deterritorialisation, and a chief example of this is World Music, where music from one or more traditional cultures is produced (not necessarily in country of origin) and disseminated throughout the world, far away from its original context and geo-location, and often in hybrid forms and mashups (Connell and Gibson 2004, p342).  Klein acknowledges American ‘popular interest in many forms of Asian culture’ and her definition of Hollywoodisation, albeit based on the motion picture industry, can be extrapolated to the music industry: the knitting “together through the transnationalisation of audiences, labour pools, distribution networks and production capital” as well as “material and stylistic integration” (Klein 2004, p362).

Image source
Tim Robbins’ 1996 film Dead Man Walking introduced me to the music of superlative Pakistani qawwali musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997), who achieved international prominence in the 1980s and ‘90s through collaborations with Western musicians, including Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder.  Qawwalli is sacred Muslim devotional music “derived from ancient Sufi religious poets, with accompaniment by harmonium, tabla drums and backup singers” (Bessman 2001, p22).

Khan’s rise on the global stage was assisted by performances at WOMAD festivals in the 1980s but notably it was his contributions to the Hollywood films Dead Man Walking, The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ, and Natural Born Killers that secured his place in the global cultural sphere (Jacoviello 2011, p324; Hajari 1996, p55; Hagedorn 2006, p492).

Image source
Locally in South Asia, Khan’s identity was as a religious musician rather than “qawwali star” but his participation in the World Music arena drew secular audiences that gradually endowed him with the Hollywood concept of “stardom” (Qureshi 1999, p91). Khan was an innovator amongst qawwals (qawwali singers), where songs can last up to 30 minutes and concerts (or qawwali parties) can last for hours, shortening his songs and changing the rhythmic cycle to a more western sound (Jacoviello 2011, p324).

Transnational production and distribution channels of the Western music industry such as collaboration with “consumer products companies and specialist marketing firms” along with “aggressive retail marketing programs that include listening stations and prominent displays” assisted the spread of Khan’s music to the wider world (Jeffery 1997).

While not entirely Hollywoodised (he remained a true qawwal singing the poetry of the Sufi saints in Urdu), I would claim that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s fame was commensurate with the notion of “star”. 




References:
Bessman, Jim 2001, “Qawwali Vocalist Khan’s American/Legacy Debut Continues Uncle’s Tradition”, Billboard, 17 March 2001, Vol 113, Issue 11
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=b9ae172d-7917-4fe4-a99b-21ecd96ea761%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=4182572 viewed 20 September 2013

Buckley, J 1997, “Nusrat”, http://www.liquidgnome.com/JeffBuckley/nusrat.html

Connell, J and Gibson, C 2004, “World Music: deterritorializing place and identity”, Progress in Human Geography, June 2004, Vol 28, Issue 3, p342-361
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b3e175cc-dc22-40aa-b1ef-ac0e0874b267%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=115

Jacoviello, Stefano 2011, “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: the strange destiny of a singing mystic. When music travels…”, Semiotica, Vol March 2011, Issue 183, p319-341
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=093c6231-bd72-47e0-836f-e30eb2948e05%40sessionmgr113&vid=3&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ufh&AN=59338747 viewed 20 September 2013

Jeffrey D 1997, ‘If you play it, they will buy’, Billboard, 00062510, 06/28/97, Vol. 109, Issue 26
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5a9cf094-a114-4068-be2b-af8a8fa10f60%40sessionmgr114&vid=4&bk=1&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=9707062099

Hagedorn, K 2006, “ ‘From the one song alone, I consider him to be a Holy Man’ Ecstatic Religion, Musical Affect and the Global Consumer”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dec 2006, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p489-496. 8p.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0712502b-a6ab-48ea-ba22-2c7ed4ddd0d3%40sessionmgr104&vid=4&hid=115
viewed 21 September 2013

Hajari, Nisid 1996, Courtship of Eddie’s Fateh, Entertainment Weekly, 12 January 1996, Issue 309, p.55
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-f.deakin.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=0ed71574-1d8a-4920-8b1d-720ee533a93b%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=9602051382
viewed 21 September 2013

Qureshi, R B 1999, “His Master’s Voice: exploring Qawwali and ‘Gramophone Culture in South Asia”, Popular Music, Vol 18, January 1999, p63-98
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/853569.pdf?acceptTC=true&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true viewed 22 September 2013
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5 comments:

  1. emiliethomsenSeptember 23, 2013 at 6:22 PM

    Hi Mary-Anne
    Great example of how it is possible for someone from such a small niche in the industry to be able to make it in the big world - a big part due to a hollywood production. This is a very personal example and I like your engagement with our provided material and the new sources you have referred to.

    I liked the quote in the beginning, your presentation is really great and you have such an impressive use of references.

    You should definitely keep on blogging after this.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2013 at 10:09 PM

    Great post which associated music industry with transnationalisation in film industry! People always say music is becoming a worldwide industry. However, I think it just refers to certain genre which means people who have different background, speaking different language are listening to very similar songs, and those songs are hollywoodised. The example you choice is representative in terms of how non-western music collaborated with western music industry and got success around world as Klein suggests. But on the other hand, based on the song you attached in the post, I believe Khan did more adaption than you mentioned, and that may be a case which local culture negotiates with globalization or dominate western culture. You can do more research on it.
    Anyway, good post and like qawwalli you recommended a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DanaSeptember 24, 2013 at 12:20 AM

    This post really delved into one very strong focal point for your argument, with a very clear and personal example of an international music artist. Your post was full of information and was very well researched with a large amount of references to support your points. It was interesting to see such a specific example whereby a local artist with a small following was able to make it in the world music scene, partially through Hollywoodisation. If the artist’s music wasn’t in the film, would he still be a successful global music artist? The points in your post certainly made me think twice about how much of an impact Hollywood has had on the success of global music artists and where they would otherwise be in the music scene if the advancement of Globalisation had not created such changes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pierce RickardSeptember 24, 2013 at 3:27 AM

    This post was very interesting to read because of the strong argument based around the Hollywoodisation of a lesser known part of Asian culture - qawwali songs. This blog post, I feel, would be a really good one to pursue for the final assessment because of the depth you have gone into about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and given one example of Hollywoodisation in the Asian industry of music.

    Picking music was a good choice because it is more difficult to ascertain whether there is an influence of one culture or many, but you explained it very clearly here about the Hollywoodisation of Khan's music, and I would have liked to of seen more examples on this case.

    I also think that at least one example of the other side - The Asianisation of Western music - would be very interesting to have to compare with this. While the content was good, and it was explained very well, the expansion of such a subject would be fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LauraSeptember 26, 2013 at 7:36 AM

    This a fantastic post in my opinion! The way you have laid it out incorporating images and video really flows and as a reader is easy to follow. Your example and personal experience helps to illustrate that which you have drawn from the readings and the inclusion of many other external sources related to the topic is great. I really enjoyed learning about this artist and it was very interesting post to read. I also really like how you began the post with the stand alone quote at the top, a nice touch.

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