Jewish Artists – The Influence of Exiles | Arts 21
Uploaded on Nov 13, 2011
It’s well known that many Jewish scientists and artists fled Nazi Germany. Less well known is their cultural influence in the countries that took them in. A major study by the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam focuses on just that. We spoke with the Center’s Director, Julius H. Schoeps.
Published on Nov 30, 2012 by slatester
For the newest James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” English singer Adele recorded the title song. Adele speaks with a strong English accent (her speaking?) but her singing voice sounds more American than British (her singing?). Why do British vocalists often sound American when they sing?
Because that’s the way everyone expects pop and rock musicians to sound. British pop singers have been imitating American pronunciations since the Beatles and the Rolling Stones began recording in the 1960s. These musicians were largely influenced by the African-American Vernacular English of American blues and rock and roll singers like Chuck Berry. Imitating an American accent involved both the adoption of American vowel sounds and “rhoticity”: the pronunciation of Rs wherever they appear in a word.
Linguist Peter Trudgill tracked rhoticity in British rock music over the years and found that the Beatles’ pronunciation of Rs decreased over the course of the 1960s. The trend also went in the opposite direction as new genres developed: American pop-punk vocalists like Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day took on a British-tinged accent to sound more like seminal artists such as Joe Strummer of the Clash.
Contemporary singers tend to adopt accents according to their genre: Keith Urban, who is Australian, sings country music with a marked Southern accent.
Even when singers aren’t trying to imitate a particular vocal style, regional dialects tend to get lost in song: Intonation gets overtaken by melody and vocal cadences by a song’s rhythm. Which makes the British Invasion seem a little more American.
Published on Oct 12, 2012 by VOAvideo
South Korean audiences have had a rare chance to attend the screening of a North Korean romantic comedy. The movie Comrade Kim Goes Flying was shown twice this week at the Busan International Film Festival. Reporter Jason Strother went to the southern port city to check it out.
The Pentagon’s still spending huge amounts of dollars to convince young Americans to sign up for the Army. Its close ties with Hollywood and the video games industry is helping turn military service into an attractive deal with the economic crisis and unemployment working alongside. RT’s Anastasia Churkina reports on how it’s all playing out for America’s youth.
Even in the wild world of recreational drug use, sometimes the real thing just isn’t enough. Sometimes writers need to imagine a narcotic with new effects–or new combinations of effects–to suit their needs. In this week’s Inventory, we explore Glint, Spank, and Melange.
You’ve heard that Jesus is the reason for the season, right? It’s easy to forget Him when confronted with what we like to call “Morally dubious holiday entertainments.” These are the seasonal greetings that dilute or ignore messages of hope and peace normally associated with the holidays. In other words, if your favorite holiday movie is Home Alone, you’re kind of a sicko.
Not all movies are designed to please everyone, but some go even further, igniting controversy wherever they play. This week, we look at three films protested for very different reasons: the killer Santa movie Silent Night, Deadly Night, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation Of Christ, and Basic Instinct.
You know the ones: You can’t stand them, and yet you (or your significant other) insist on trying to enjoy their life stories. But so many characters in rom-coms not only don’t deserve love, they would actually inspire serious annoyance/borderline hatred in real-life situations.
AFRICA
