Folk Music turn into Pop Music
Last night while I was listening to music I decided to check in my iTunes playlists how accurate the "Most Played" list was; obviously it has to be accurate as it keeps track of what I listen and how many times I listen to any specific tune, but considering that my player of choice for so many years was Windows Media Player (I got an iPod 3 years ago) and I had to transfer all the music from that Media Library to the iTunes library, most of the ratings and information got lost when I transferred the library to my spanking new iPod!
Anyway, so I was checking and at the top of the list I found that my most played song (with 201 plays so far) is the song "Marta's Song" by the French duo Deep Forest, obviously this is accurate as this song has always been my favorite and for many reasons: the first time I heard Deep Forest it gave me a feeling that I still can't describe, but basically it appeals to my most primal taste for music (drums and voices) with a little bit of electronic sounds. Even though "Marta's Song" was not my first Deep Forest song, this one had something the other ones didn't have, that is, an amazing video clip of the song.
When I saw this obviously Eastern European girl wearing a pink tutu I thought of Russia and their famous ballerinas, then the music started playing and as the music started playing the camera started moving in circles to the right, which is something you see in cheesy home videos and old TV shows, but this movement made the video more interesting than any other I had seen. The voice at first was not of my taste, as it sounded too childish and difficult to define, then it hit me: that's not Russian; being as curious as I am I discovered that the song is actually a Hungarian dialect called Csango, spoken by few people in Romania, who once migrated there and kept this ancient language alive, thanks to the conditions of isolation of the area in which they lived for so long (Transylvania). This was certainly interesting, as my interest for languages made the song more beautiful to my ears, but I needed to know what the song was saying, the actual meaning of the words, so I kept looking and looking until I found the translation in a lyrics website.
Then, the song portrayed something I couldn't believe at first: the drama of a young girl who can't wear her red belt around her waist because it doesn't fit anymore. She's concerned and cries to God wondering why it doesn't fit, because deep inside she knows something's wrong with her. A pregnant young girl!
So, bearing this in mind, when you hear the song it has a whole new meaning and it sounds different too. It's a lament, a cry, a prayer of a young girl who is scared and doesn't know what to do; she's a mirror of thousands of girls around the world who are in the same situation, she expresses the innocence of youth and delivers the primal urge of human nature: I need an explanation!
Some might hear the song and think is plain boring, that it's too slow and that fails to excite your senses, however, I would dare to say that's the approach of someone who hears music, not of someone who actually listens to it, tries to understand it and feel it. Music plays with the natural rhythms of our body: heart beating, winking, walking, breathing, even the rhythms of the alpha and beta waves in our brains, but we usually never let music get really deep, and with this song Deep Forest manages to do so. The movement of the camera is explained by the fact that the belt she wants to wear is a red ribbon which is supposed to fit three times around her waist (Harom Mero -mero being a unit of measure), this is the movement brought by the camera, so if you notice all the movements in the back are circular, cyclic. Traditional music brought this way to younger generations is quite an achievement, because if it hadn't been for this song, I would've never know there was such beautiful music anywhere else.
You should give yourself the chance to listen to this song at least once!
If you want to know more about Deep Forest and their musical projects, I recommend you visit their website:
http://www.deep-projects.com/deep-forest/deep-forest-lyrics-and-meanings/
Anyway, so I was checking and at the top of the list I found that my most played song (with 201 plays so far) is the song "Marta's Song" by the French duo Deep Forest, obviously this is accurate as this song has always been my favorite and for many reasons: the first time I heard Deep Forest it gave me a feeling that I still can't describe, but basically it appeals to my most primal taste for music (drums and voices) with a little bit of electronic sounds. Even though "Marta's Song" was not my first Deep Forest song, this one had something the other ones didn't have, that is, an amazing video clip of the song.
 |
| Screen capture from the video clip |
Then, the song portrayed something I couldn't believe at first: the drama of a young girl who can't wear her red belt around her waist because it doesn't fit anymore. She's concerned and cries to God wondering why it doesn't fit, because deep inside she knows something's wrong with her. A pregnant young girl!
So, bearing this in mind, when you hear the song it has a whole new meaning and it sounds different too. It's a lament, a cry, a prayer of a young girl who is scared and doesn't know what to do; she's a mirror of thousands of girls around the world who are in the same situation, she expresses the innocence of youth and delivers the primal urge of human nature: I need an explanation!
Some might hear the song and think is plain boring, that it's too slow and that fails to excite your senses, however, I would dare to say that's the approach of someone who hears music, not of someone who actually listens to it, tries to understand it and feel it. Music plays with the natural rhythms of our body: heart beating, winking, walking, breathing, even the rhythms of the alpha and beta waves in our brains, but we usually never let music get really deep, and with this song Deep Forest manages to do so. The movement of the camera is explained by the fact that the belt she wants to wear is a red ribbon which is supposed to fit three times around her waist (Harom Mero -mero being a unit of measure), this is the movement brought by the camera, so if you notice all the movements in the back are circular, cyclic. Traditional music brought this way to younger generations is quite an achievement, because if it hadn't been for this song, I would've never know there was such beautiful music anywhere else.
You should give yourself the chance to listen to this song at least once!
If you want to know more about Deep Forest and their musical projects, I recommend you visit their website:
http://www.deep-projects.com/deep-forest/deep-forest-lyrics-and-meanings/
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