Babies Associating Ethnicities with Different Music and Emotions

Abstract: We used a novel intermodal association task to examine whether infants associate own- and other-race faces with music of different emotional valences. Three- to 9-month-olds saw a series of neutral own- or other-race faces paired with happy or sad musical excerpts. Three- to 6-month-olds did not show any specific association between face race and music. At 9 months, however, infants looked longer at own-race faces paired with happy music than at own-race faces paired with sad music. 

Nine-month-olds also looked longer at other-race faces paired with sad music than at other-race faces paired with happy music. These results indicate that infants with nearly exclusive own-race face experience develop associations between face race and music emotional valence in the first year of life. The potential implications of such associations for developing racial biases in early childhood are discussed. (Xiao et al., 2017)

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- Xiao, N. G., Quinn P. C., Liu, S, Ge, L. Pascalis, O. & Lee, K. (2017). Older but not younger infants associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music; link

- photograph by William Eggleston via

Ambient Ageism. The Ageist Sound of AgeTech Advertisements

AgeTech companies market smart home technologies designed to help older adults stay in their homes and keep them safe. These companies usually market their products constructing ideas of age and using ageist representations of ageing and older adults. For instance, Vermeer et al. (2019:27) explored online marketing strategies for surveillance technology designed for people living with dementia living at home and for their care providers. The advertisements directed their messages at families and care providers, not to the people living with dementia dehumanising them as a "problem to be managed" and categorising them "in the same class as wallets, keys, young children, dogs, and/or prisoners".

One of the ideas promoted is that ageing in one's home with autonomy is an essential part of healthy ageing. "Marketing is designed to play on underlying fears that consumers have been socialised to associate with ageing, as well as on our underlying social values."

AgeTech marketing discourse has been critiqued for its ageist constructs of ageing and older age. Advertisements rely on associations between older age and illness, decline, frailty, and forgetfulness. These associations in turn inform the definition of “needs” and justify the use of stereotypical representations of older people on marketing platforms (Neven and Peine, 2017; Peine and Neven, 2021). The problem of ageism in the media has been called “visual ageism” by Loos and Ivan (2018), which refers to underrepresentation and misrepresentation of older adults in the media, and “new visual ageism,” which refers to the “obsessive representations of older people in looking unrealistically young” (Ivan et al., 2020, p. 10). Acknowledgement of this has led to a call to push back against visual ageism in digital media content. Indeed, Einsend (2022) noted that the inclusion of older people in advertising has not been given enough attention by academics, calling for more research in this area.

Visual ageism is not the only aspect of interest. The soundtrack of commercials is also regarded as an important means of communicating with viewers. Music is "a tool that impacts viewers' emotions, cognition, and interpretation of the brand's message", it can attract attention and set the mood in comercials. 

In her study, Graham (2022) collected data through an online search for AgeTech advertiseent videos for ageing-in-place technologies posted from 2015 to 2022. The author came to the conlcusion that visual and acoustic ageism work together ranging from negative stereotypical portrayals to overly positive ones. Here are some excerpts:

Negative stereotypes of older adults were common to the AgeTech advertiseents. The vision of the older adult woman in the Essence Care video most profoundly reflected the dystopian, fourth-age imaginary of dependence, impairment, and lack of agency, not only visually, but also acoustically. As discussed above, the background music set the scene for the viewer to perceive passivity, lethargy, and deterioration. The acoustic dimension of the negative fourth-age imaginary is characterised by slow-moving, descending and decaying musical lines that are simultaneously passive (un-agentic, in Gilleard and Higgs' terms), and ominous. Just as Neven and Peine (2017) state that the ageing-and-innovation discourse stigmatises older people as old, so, too, can the musical discourse of AgeTech advertisements.

The Essence Care ad portrays the older adult woman more negatively than the older adult man by focusing attention on her face in a “scene of empathy” (Tan et al., 2007) and her audible exhausted sigh. Together, these representations reinforce the association between ageing and decline. Interestingly, it has been noted that these overly negative portrayals of the much-dreaded fourth age alienate older adults from technology because they identify technologies as being for “old people,” a social category with which they do not identify. Thus, both visually and acoustically (which this paper highlights), barriers to technology engagement are created through negative portrayals of older adults.

Following the binary pattern of dystopian-utopian imagined futures, the Vayyar advertisement provides an example of a utopian, agentic, third-age future with smart home technology. The background music is carefree, uncomplicated, almost toy-like in its simplicity and ease, setting a scene of leisure and play. Craton and Lantos (2011) note that upbeat music can symbolise fun entertainment products in advertising soundtracks. Framing the technology as an “entertainment technology” may help to bypass the tensions associated with surveillance technology. The music sets the stage for the audience to perceive the older woman as an agentic, third-age consumer who adopts technology to make life more enjoyable and less onerous (Gilleard and Higgs, 2022). This fits with common stereotypes of the “Golden Ager,” the “Perfect Grandparent,” and “the Productive Golden Ager” who is portrayed as full of “zest” and living in intergenerational harmony (Ylänne, 2015, p. 371).

The subtle changes in the background music of the SofiHub advertisement are an example of how music reinforces the normalisation of surveillance technology. There is no dramatic “crisis” in this advertisement, but there is still a construction of a need that key routine behaviours (late to bed, late to rise, and long duration in the bathroom) require monitoring and reporting to care providers. The inclusion of the more energetic drum track primes the viewer to perceive the technology as supporting successful, active everyday life and watching out for any sign of decline. According to Van Leeuwen (1999), ascending melodic motion is associated with energy and brightness, suggesting that the inclusion of electric guitar slides provides a happy and hopeful ending to the advertisement, ensured by the use of technology. In this case, everyday life with technology is pictured as good—the older woman gardens safely, the older man maintains his privacy. Interestingly, the change to the music occurs when a younger adult woman successfully transfers from her wheelchair to her couch, accompanied by a well-timed shift in the music to a louder, more energetic mood through the addition of a drum track.

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- Graham, M. E. (2022). Ambient ageism: Exploring ageism in acoustic representations of older adults in AgeTech advertisements. Frontiers Sociol, link
- photograph (Foothill Acres Nursing Homes, Neshanic, New Jersey) via

"What do you think is the most interesting development in dance music these days?" Asking Armand van Helden.

"The development has been acceptance. If you would have told me in, lets say the year 1998 that in the future, Dance Music (WATCH/LISTEN: Barbra Streisand) would be at the forefront of all pop music I wouldn’t have believed you. Back then we had some much going against us: “its not radio friendly, its (sic) gay music, where are the vocals?, there is no real song here, if its not rap, R&B or rock we don’t support it, disco sucks, this isn’t “real music”, where are the musicians?” and on and on. 

Its astounding how all of that has gone by the wayside and the youth doesn’t care about any of that at all. There will always be your critics but personally I love it, the youth are supposed to aggravate the elders, thats evolution baby! In life, were all here to dance. I think its wonderful that genre smashing has become the future and everybody just wants to dance together."

Armand van Helden, Duck Sauce

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image (Duck Sauce) via 

"Has being a queer artist become more significant than before?" Asking Andrew Butler.

What’s amazing is going to places where people don’t have the same liberties that we have or even in parts of the Western world where certain legislations have passed that seem very backward. It’s amazing to see young people in the audience respond to the music and afterward having them tell us that it means the world to them that we came and played this music. It means something that we’re up on the stage playing the songs we’re playing because it helps them find the strength to be who they are. The music encourages them on a daily basis, they feel proud, they don’t feel alone.

Superb:

::: Hercules and Love Affair: Blind (LISTEN)

We’ve played quite a few shows in Russia which looks like a really inhospitable place for queer people, but we have packed houses of young, queer people and I think it is an important role. With that said I do think this record in some ways is about not just focusing on my own specific identity, but rather talking about getting to the core of our humanity, and talking about parts that all of us should be concerned about.

There are issues that are quite significant and pressing that the whole world is facing. We’re looking at horrible things happening to the planet, terrifying wars taking place that are displacing enormous amounts of people, there are famines that make people become refugees, we’re looking at people parading around, pounding on their Bibles or Qurans, or whatever book of knowledge they might be carrying, saying they know the way everyone should live. They’re saying certain people are abominations or have no rights, hundreds of years of oppression in the US are affecting race relations. Hundreds of things are happening outside of one specific identity, they’re beyond me as a queer person, they speak to all of us as humans. In the record, I talk about our souls and what we’re supposed to achieve while we’re here. Perhaps we’re supposed to connect to each other, find alliances, and it’s really hard to find allies or to adequately show up as an ally. Perhaps the voices of people who have historically been silenced need to be heard. They might have solutions for some of the bigger problems we’re all having. It’s been a long time coming, but it would be great to see a woman in power, perhaps a woman of color, or a transgender woman of color in power. 

Andrew Butler, Hercules and Love Affair

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photographs of Andy Butler via and via 

The Numbers Shouldn't Matter

"Of course, everyone would like to stay 35 forever, and in my mind I kind of do. But I can't get caught in that trap of thinking, 'I've got to do this or that.' The way I live, the way I work, the way I feel, I'm going to make every moment count. I may live to be 100 or I may die tomorrow, but whenever that is, I will know I died trying, and I will know I've done everything I could to make the most of everything. As long as I stay healthy, the numbers shouldn't matter. I don't feel my age, I don't work my age, I don't think my age, and hopefully, I don't look my age!"
Dolly Parton

photograph of Dolly Parton (1973) via

Born this day ... Camilla Ella Williams

"Who would have guessed that a little black girl from Danville, Virginia would make such a wonderful debut."
Camilla Williams

Camilla Ella Williams (1919-2012) began singing at the age of five and joined her church choir when she was nine. At twelve, she started training with Raymond Aubrey, a voice teacher who taught music to white students at Averett College but also instructed Black students in private homes. After graduation, Williams began teaching, then left for Philadelphia to advance her career. 

Williams auditioned with the New York City Opera for "Madame Butterfly" and became the first Black woman to appear in a major US-American opera house performing Cio-Cio San in 1946. Williams was also the first Black artist to receive a contract from the Opera and the first Black singer in a major role at the Vienna State Opera. In 1948, she had the lead role of Aida for the New York City Opera. Three years later, Williams recorded Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" but refused to portray Bess in staged productions since she did not accept the stereotypical casting for the opera. In 1963, before the historic speech "I Have a Dream", she sang "Star-Spangled Banner". After retiring from opera, Williams continued her teaching career and became the first Black woman appointed at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the first Black professor of voice at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (Talibah, 2020).

Her decision to ‘seize the time’ was a bold one for a young black girl from the South. Many accolades followed her arrival in Philadelphia. She became the first winner of the prestigious Marian Anderson Award, a vocal scholarship established by Miss Anderson, in 1943 and again the next season. In that same year, Camilla won the Philadelphia Orchestra Youth Concert Auditions, which offered an opportunity as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, directed by the distinguished Eugene Ormandy.

Growing up in a small southern town in the 1920s and 30’s naturally implies the canopy of racial segregation and its ubiquitous and complicated codes of social perception and political behavior. These same codes would continue to plague her for the next sixty years of her life. As a mature woman, she realized that she had often been naïve to the prejudicial attitudes she frequently encountered. A select few had protected her from harmful attitudes and negative episodes on her journey.

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- Talibah, M. (2020). Camilla Williams. Danville Museum.
- photograph via

Born this day ... Ellis Haizlip

Ellis Haizlip (1929-1991) was the creator, executive producer and host of the TV show Soul! The vision was not to just entertain but to display and promote the variety of Black American culture and  to self-critically reflect various aspects (via) offering viewers "radical ways of imagining - of hearing, feeling, and seeing - black community". For instance, Haizlip refused to divide Black arts into high and low culture and made room for both. The show was extremely successful. In 1968, more than 65% of Black American households watched it regularly (via).

(...) the hour-long variety show was nominally meant to showcase an intrinsically Black perspective on art and politics. In practice, it proved to be something far more radical. (via)

Before Oprah, before Arsenio, there was Mr. SOUL!” On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, one fearless black pioneer reconceived a Harlem Renaissance for a new era, ushering giants and rising stars of black American culture onto the national television stage. He was hip. He was smart. He was innovative, political, and gay. In his personal fight for social equality, this man ensured the Revolution would be televised. The man was Ellis Haizlip. The Revolution was SOUL! (via)

In the late 1960s, the federal government "sought to redress the grievances of Black communities by giving Black people a louder voice (or simply a voice at all) in publich media". In this very atmosphere, "an unusual show" with the mission to present "a panoramic display of Black artistic sensibilities and political expression" was born: Soul!. (via)

Most pivotally, “Soul!” was a hub of candid, ranging, and often radical Black social and political discourse. Melissa Haizlip explained to me that the show’s producer, host, and creative architect—her uncle Ellis Haizlip—had “an expansive approach toward Black culture.” At a time when a burgeoning Black nationalist movement called upon Black Americans to coalesce under a single ideology of liberation, Haizlip said that her uncle saw to it that “Soul!” presented the true “fluidity of Black thought and Black identity.” (via)

The primary function of Soul! is to give alienated black people a voice. And since TV probably is the most popular medium today, Soul! tries to fill the void for blacks who aren't urned o by any other medium. With this black priority, we don't have to become a multi-purpose program. Black people turn us on every week because they know they will see an undiluted black show. (...) I feel that RB music, especially with many of its new lyrics, forms the floor for black pride. It is totally ours and cannot be purchased or properly imitated by anyone else.
Ellis Haizlip, 1968 (cited in Ebony, March 1972)

(...) unrivalled music, dance, and poetry programming weren’t being deployed just in the service of making good television. Week by week, show by show, segment by segment, Ellis knew that he was helping shape notions of what being Black in America could even mean for hundreds of thousands of people. (via)

When accused of reinforcing stereotypes of "happy folks who just love to sing and dance", Haizlip responded:

Our job is to present black culture, and R&B music is a vital part of that. Entertainment can be a deep business, it's not all just finger-propping time. We give exposure to black artists of all types - people whom you practically never see on 'white' TV, and I feel good about what we're doing. 
Ellis Haizlip (cited in Ebony, March 1972)

We've actually presented black poets from the very beginning of Soul! and that has been revolutionary. Just name one other consistent TV outlet for those black poets who have been playing such a major role in helping black people deal with today's reality.
Ellis Haizlip (cited in Ebony, March 1972)

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photographs (Haizlip in his office at Channel 13, 1970, by Alex Harsley) via and via

Quoting John Lydon

"I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate."

John Lydon

photograph via

John Lydon, His Wife, and Alzheimer's

John Lydon competed to represent Ireland at the 2023 Eurovision song contest to raise awareness of Alzheimer's since his wife, Nora Forster (1942-2023), had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2018.

I’m doing it to highlight the sheer torture of what Alzheimer’s is. It gets swept under the carpet, but in highlighting it, hopefully we get a stage nearer to a cure.
John Lydon

“Forty-eight years together isn’t enough. But even in illness we’re still finding out new and great things about each other. With Alzheimer’s, they can’t always formulate the words but the real person is still in there. The saddest thing you can do is cut them off.”
John Lydon

“As I say in the song, old journeys end and some begin again, but this is the beginning of a new journey with us."
John Lydon

“And, oddly enough, as bad as Alzheimer’s is, there are great moments of tenderness between us. And I tried to capture that in the song, and so it’s not all waiting for the Grim Reaper."
John Lydon

“I can see her personality in her eyes, she lets me know that it’s the communication skills that are letting her down."
John Lydon

“And I’m just blessed really that I can be there and catch on to that and maybe share that information as this progresses, as we know it will, to its ultimate sad demise. "
John Lydon

“Pass something useful on to other people. It’s a subject now that I’m so firmly tied up and wrapped up and connected to that I care now for all of its victims. Particularly to spouses that have to endure this.”
John Lydon

“We’re not dealing with the walking dead. It’s a matter of memory fusing in and out."
John Lydon

“I had those issues when I was younger, coming out of meningitis. So I’m absolutely in the right place for it. It makes us love one another even more, no question." 
John Lydon

“We’d never be: ‘Oh dear, time to lock you away’. No.” But locating advice as to how to cope with the mental decline of his “significant other” has not been easy. "
John Lydon

“It’s tough to deal with advice from people who absolutely mean well. But I have people who talk to me about their mother or their aunt, who are going through dementia. And it’s not the same for me because Nora’s my significant other. It’s a huge world of difference. And there’s no real literature out there or expert advice to help me.” 
John Lydon

“We find a place in comedy. We’ve always had a good sense of humour. That’s absolutely vital. I think humour keeps you smart.” 
John Lydon

“Alzheimer’s is dreadful. She has to relearn things every day and you must never lose your patience with it."
John Lydon

“No matter how many times you ask the same question, give the right answer. Don’t fob them off. I’m learning a lot about myself this way. It’s a strange blessing, I suppose, because oddly enough it’s bringing us closer together. "
John Lydon

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photograph (1977) via

Mina's Priorities

"I'm not interested in being immortal. I like ageing."
Mina

photograph via

"I wanted to look ambiguous."

"I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves."

Annie Lennox

"Why are we not valuing the word 'feminism' when there is so much work to be done in terms of empowerment and emancipation of women everywhere?"

Annie Lennox

"Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries."

Annie Lennox

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photograph via

Chuck Berry is Black

"You’re trying to say, ‘Is Chuck Berry black or white?’ Well, I’ll tell you, Chuck Berry is black, and he’s beautiful."

Chuck Berry

“When I first heard Chuck Berry. I didn’t consider that he was black. I thought he was a white hillbilly. Little did I know he was a great poet too." Dylan, 2015

"I mean, people that never seen it, after the record come out and such a big hit and we went on this tour, not knowing — you know, never seeing a picture or nothing of Chuck, they mistook it that Chuck was white. And we would walk out on the stage, there'd be a lot of ohs and aahs and whatever because he's a black man playing hillbilly music." (via)

The song "Maybellene" had sort of melded the black and white identity and made listeners believe Chuck Berry was white. Berry, despite being popular, did not always make it as far as the stage. One night early in his career in Knoxville, Tennessee, he was turned away by the club's manager who was shocked to see his skin tone and explained: "It's a country dance, and we had no idea that 'Maybellene' was recorded by a Negro man." Letting Berry perform would be against a city ordinance, he continued. So Berry listened to a white replacement band playing his music (via and via).

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photograph via

Cross-cultural perspectives on music and musicality

Abstract: Musical behaviours are universal across human populations and, at the same time, highly diverse in their structures, roles and cultural interpretations. Although laboratory studies of isolated listeners and music-makers have yielded important insights into sensorimotor and cognitive skills and their neural underpinnings, they have revealed little about the broader significance of music for individuals, peer groups and communities. This review presents a sampling of musical forms and coordinated musical activity across cultures, with the aim of highlighting key similarities and differences... 

 

...The focus is on scholarly and everyday ideas about music—what it is and where it originates—as well the antiquity of music and the contribution of musical behaviour to ritual activity, social organization, caregiving and group cohesion. Synchronous arousal, action synchrony and imitative behaviours are among the means by which music facilitates social bonding. The commonalities and differences in musical forms and functions across cultures suggest new directions for ethnomusicology, music cognition and neuroscience, and a pivot away from the predominant scientific focus on instrumental music in the Western European tradition. (Trehub, Becker & Morley, 2015)

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- Trehub, S. E., Becker, J. & Morley, I. (2015). Cross-cultural perspectives on music and musicality. Philos Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biol Sciences, 370, full text: link
- photograph of George Harrison via

"John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie"

She is known as an artist but - perhaps even more - as the woman who broke up the Beatles:. In an interview, Ono offers a different perspective: “I was used as a scapegoat, a very easy scapegoat. You know, a Japanese woman and whatever.”
“You think some of it was sexism, racism?” 
“Sexism, racism. But also just remember that the United States and Britain were fighting with Japan in World War II. It was just after that in a way so I can understand how they felt.” (via). An Esquire magazine article published in 1970 used racist language to mock her accent and called her "John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie".

 

photograph of Yoko Ono via

Sleep Sound... Deaf Dancers Moving to the Silence

“I was on a train listening to music, getting deep into it, and this girl started staring at me, After a while I took my headphones off and she came up to me, started signing and then wrote me a note to say that she was deaf but could almost feel the music by my movement.

The relationship between silence and music is a big part of what I am trying to express with my work. The first kid in the video, Archie, was bliss - all of them were amazing. I hope this is a project I can develop further.”

Sofia Mattioli

::: Sleep Sound on YouTube: WATCH

Inspired by this "chance encounter, Mattioli was asked to create a video for the member of The xx and Grammy-winning producer of Alicia Keys, Gil Scott-Heron and Drake. During the course of one day, she danced with 13 members of the Manchester Deaf Centre with ages ranging from five to 27 years old, who responded to the movement of the artist and the vibrations in the air given off by the song." (Nowness)

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image via

John Coltrane, the Daily Struggles of a Black Musician Believing in Moving Forward Uniformly as a People

“Outside of the musical knowledge and exposure, Coltrane also apprenticed in the daily struggles of black musicians on the road. Segregation was a dominant factor in the majority of performance venues, as well as the surrounding geographical area. This determined where one could eat, use the bathroom, get gasoline, rent a hotel room, or even get a drink of water. And there was always the threat of racist police encounters. These cultural experiences were a part of his mentoring on the road and influenced the evolution of his conscious intent to use music as a force for goodness.”

Leonard Brown

Excerpts taken from an interview with John Coltrane's widow Alice Coltrane:

A lot was going on in the ’60s—black empowerment, civil rights, new jazz music was becoming the New Thing, which also had a political edge. How did John look upon all of that at the time—especially race (sic) politics? Was he with Dr. King or more with Malcolm [X]? 

He was very interested in the civil-rights movement. He appreciated both men from their different perspectives. He did see the unity in what they were trying to achieve, basically almost the same thing, taking different directions to reach that point of achievement.

He knew that Dr. Martin Luther King was an intelligent man, who would’ve probably found his quest in civil rights more horrible, more horrendous, by going through the system as a lawyer or a professor. John felt that [King] as a preacher could reach the heart of the people. And he felt that this was very good, that it was an asset, that he would be able to lead the people based on the spiritual sense instead of the civic, intellectual, legalistic. John felt if you can talk to their heart you’ll get their support, and you’ll get them to believe in what you’re doing.

About Malcolm, I know John had attended some of his talks that were in our area. Once he came back and I asked him, “How was the lecture?” and he said he thought it was superb. Different approaches to the same goal, telling the people [to] be wise, try to get some kind of economic freedom, be self-sufficient, depend on yourself, strengthen your family ties. Things like that, not even involved with religion, just basic areas of improvement so that you can make yourself a strong force for the good that needs to be achieved. He told me that he appreciated the way that when the really tough questions were asked from the audience, every one was answered with an intelligence which the people could comprehend.

I know that some musicians who were around at the time were more militant. How did John feel about that?

He would not be a part of it, and this is what many people wanted him to do. They’d say, “Why don’t you take your horn, use it as an instrument to rally people together, to awaken consciousness in these people to really stand and fight for their rights?” He just said, “That’s not the way for me to go with this music.” It was not the way for him, to take his music into a militant zone to try to stress a point. If anything, we saw him going up. I would imagine his philosophy would be closer to Martin Luther King Jr.: Let me try to reach your heart, your spirit and your soul, and then we can move forward uniformly as a people and accomplish great things.

He didn’t prefer violence to peace, and he was very disturbed by the consequences [of the riots in the mid-1960s] and all the people who were getting hurt in the rioting. I believe he called us once [when] he was out of town when those [riots] were happening. He was mainly on the phone with his mother, because she was with us at the time and she was quite upset about it. 

Alice Coltrane

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- photograph via

"Please don't create another old person." Yoko Ono's Open Letter

At my age I should be in a certain way. Please don’t stop me being the way I am. I don’t want to be old and sick like many others of my age. Please don’t create another old person. 

So even when I am rocking on the stage, they are totally hard on me. They demand the musical standard of a classic musician and attack me for the rhythm or some notes which are not precisely in tune. I am not concerned with what my voice is doing. If I was, what you experience would not be. My voice will be dead, once I am concerned about it, in the way you are asking me to. Go to a classical concert, if you want to hear a “trained” voice. What I escaped from when I was very, very young. I created my own niche. If I tried to present you classic music it won’t be what I created. You don’t get that way, with Iggy for instance, a grand rocker, who is creating his own brand of Rock, just as I am.  

Let me be free. Let me be me! Don’t make me old, with your thinking and words about how I should be. You don’t have to come to my shows. I am giving tremendous energy with my voice, because that is me. Get my energy or shut up. 

A critic of my show I did on my 80th birthday. You wanted me to be coming in at the same time on the top of the bars with the tracks. Well, I like to syncopate my voice to come in before or after the music notes, not right on top of the tracks, you see. That’s done in classical music, also. Remember? Yes. I don’t mind using what I learnt from classical music. 

Just let me be free, so music will come out as my voice in the way it wants. Otherwise, it will not be beautiful. My music is unworldlily beautiful. It is a mixture of all the generations I went through on this planet: when I was born seeing the world with wonderment, when I was a wise infant, full of original ideas with not too much intimidation yet, when I was a energetic and rebellious teenager, when i was a sexy twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and now. Plus all the folk music of the world, the Voice of people, never intimidated – and plus some music coming from another planet or planets! I respect that, cherish it, and am always thankful of note by note that comes in me and out of me. 

Another criticism: That my short pants in my video BAD DANCER was very short. Was that bad? You are not criticizing other dancers whose pants are worn short. Do you have a separate standard for a person of my age even in the way our outfits are cut? 

I am afraid of just one thing. That those ageism criticism will finally influence me, I would succumb to it and get old. So I am covering my ears not to listen to you guys! Because dancing in the middle of an ageism society is a lonely trip. Don’t stone me! Let me be! Love me plenty for what I am!

Yoko Ono Lennon, 18th of February 2015

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photograph (AP/Allen Tannenbaum) via

World Radio Day

"Radio is a powerful medium for celebrating humanity in all its diversity and constitutes a platform for democratic discourse. At the global level, radio remains the most widely consumed medium. This unique ability to reach out the widest audience means radio can shape a society’s experience of diversity, stand as an arena for all voices to speak out, be represented and heard. Radio stations should serve diverse communities, offering a wide variety of programs, viewpoints and content, and reflect the diversity of audiences in their organizations and operations." UNESCO

photograph (Tony Blackburn, Stuart Henry, Ed "Stewpot" Stewart, John Peel, Dave Lee; Radio 1 first airing on 30 September 1967 with the inaugural disc "Flowers in the Rain") via

F***ing Nerve (Lamont Humphrey, 2000)

When I'm born I'm black 

When I grow up I'm even more black 

When I'm in the sun I'm still black 

When I'm cold, guess what: I'm black 

And when I die I'm f*cking black too 

But you: When you are born you're pink 

When you grow up you are white 

When you're sick, man look at yourself, you're green 

When you go in the sun you turn red 

When you are cold you turn blue 

And when you die you look purple 

And you got the f*ing nerv to call me colored (...)

(lyrics via)

::: Tongue Forest ft. Lamont Humphrey on YouTube: LISTEN/WATCH

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photograph by John Vachon (1938) via

Quoting Damon Albarn III

“I was brought up an internationalist and my dad’s dad was a conscientious objector. Both my parents were very much part of the sixties in their mindsets. I didn’t feel any sort of nationalism. I didn’t really understand what it was. I remember when I first went to comprehensive school, Scotland had been in the World Cup in ’78. I bought a Scotland top and went into school, and I got the s*** kicked out of me. I soon learnt about nationalism after that one.” That’s a true story. I didn’t know you weren’t allowed to support other teams. Literally, because it had never been part of my upbringing.”
Damon Albarn

YouTube Selection

::: Hollow Ponds: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Polaris: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Out of Time: LISTEN/WATCH
::: The Universal (Matera, 2019): LISTEN/WATCH
::: Everyday Robots: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Royal Morning Blue: LISTEN/WATCH
::: On Melancholy Hill: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Lonely Press Play: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Hostiles: LISTEN/WATCH

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photograph via