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Tête-à-tête Hey, has anyone been following American Idol? I'm not sure exactly when I got hooked on to the show, but now my week seems incomplete without a good dose of the music, the suspense, the heated competition, and of course, the acerbic opinions expressed by the judges. Which reminds me, my mailbox this week has seen a lot of music, competition, and acerbic opinions. Let's take a gander at them, shall we? The first message is from Enigmatic, and this is in response to the mails from Rez, Electron, and Rudmila. Enigmatic says: "I don't even want to think about what's going to happen if rap ever makes it into the Bangladeshi music industry. I mean, just take a look at Black's disastrous "Prakritik". Okay, some people are gonna argue that Mark isn't even a proper MC, but it still shows that rap is definitely not suitable for the average Bangali ear, which can absorb copious amounts of Rock/Alternative/Metal and still have room left over for grunge, techno and pop. Guys, the R/M/A genres are so widespread that you can almost call them international. Rap, on the other hand, is American street trash. Take it outside the USA, and it becomes worthless. The Dhakaiya MCs are probably thinking, 'Yeah, right', but it's the truth, DMCs. Rap is basically poetry (and very poor poetry at that; the language is horrible) read at a very fast pace with some sort of light rhythm playing in the background. It contains no room for creating variations, mostly because it has no tune -- the monotony that results because of this deficiency is rap's Achilles' Heel. R/M/A, on the other hand, contains very rich tunes, and this is why it is the most regal genre of music there is. Sure, bands like Papa Roach rap like maniacs, but they always back their chatter up with furiously cool music, and they have choruses that sound great, so there you go. Let's not pochafy the local R/M/A industries. They rule. Many of them are good enough to go head-to-head with internationally acclaimed R/M/A artists...and maybe even win. Bands like Aurthohin and Artcell and Black are what are keeping this industry alive in Bangladesh. Their sounds are anything but stereotypical. One last thing -- when the first rock/metal bands of Bangladesh like Warfaze and Rockstarta appeared, they got a warm welcome from the people, because many people listened to stuff like Iron Maiden and Metallica, and were used to that type of thing. The added attraction was, these local artists were just as talented as the international ones, and they were singing in their native tongue, which meant they were more down to earth with the local people than any foreign rock star could ever possibly be. When Black appeared with their alternative music, they were also greeted with quite a bit of warmth. Loads of people listen to Linkin Park etc., and the alternative genre appeals to lots of people. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said about the rappers. For one thing, rap sounds extremely stupid in any language other than English, which means our Dhakaiya MCs will have no choice but to do their stuff in English. Problem: any English albums released by local artists ALWAYS end up in the trash bin, regardless of whether it is Cryptic Fate or Miles that release them. Also, the audience for rap in Bangladesh is so tiny (at least when compared to the R/M/A audience), people won't even notice the DMCs even if they do manage to scrape together an album. And anyway, if anybody wants to listen to listen to English rap, they can always turn to Eminem and Ice-T and 2Pac and The Notorious BIG, no problems there..." Hmm…well, once again, I wouldn't pochafy one genre in favour of the other. Enigmatic, when you're talking about the language of rap being horrible, I'm guessing that you're talking about gangsta rap and similar genres. Southern Rap (of the Outkast type) is a bit cleaner…and look at Will Smith's work…he doesn't follow the usual theme of sex and violence that's so prevalent. Some of the more interesting parts of rap, as one of my friends pointed out, and indeed, what makes it so popular elsewhere, are the beats. If you look at producers like N.E.R.D. or Timberland, You'll see that their music has a very innovative approach within rap, specifically since the beats and the music behind the rap stuff is different. Plus, it's not like rock always has great lyrics, and here, I'm not referring to Bangla R/M/A. Don't get me wrong, I'm no great fan of either rap or R/M/A, and maybe that's why I fail to see why supporters of either have to be at each other's throats. I thought music was supposed to be the universal language? Anyway, that's a lot for one week. Next week we have the rebuttal, before I close the book on this argument. Till our next tête-à-tête, take care! Send your polls,
opinions, and queries to thegirlnextdoor1@hotmail.com RS Mailbox To RS Editor, I know this is late but this had to be done! I said, defined, described, and explained over and over again each and every topic that I was being asked about. For some weird reason, a name like Rohan [I don't even know who he is!] came in the article where as names like Anjan, Indi, Ron got deleted! A lot of other stuff got deleted as well, including people with whom I organized concerts (sorry man, I guess you were hurt to god knows what limit judging from your reaction.) It is not that all names or occasions definitely have to be mentioned because I know the RS staff and I feel that you are doing an amazing job of fitting the article into a certain limited space in your paper, "BUT" unfortunately, "IMPORTANT" names and occasions got deleted thus making me look like an arrogant person and making it look like a "BAD" interview! I will not make this any longer. Once more I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the above mentioned people and my friends out there if this article gave you a wrong impression, or made you feel bad in any way. Thank you all for
your patience and understanding, Brain teasers Think
you are smart? You can find out yourself! Solve the problems ANSWERS : 1-d ,
2-a , 3H , 4-34, 5-b Press Release On the occasion of "Pohela Boishakh" EWU Environmental Social Club is organising a Bangla literary competition for the school, college, and university students. The subjects of the competition are Short Story, Poetry and Essay writing. Participants will be divided into four following groups: Group A: Students of Class four to Class six, Group B: Students of class eight to class ten, Group C: College Students and Group D: University students. Short stories and poetry can be written on any topics. Following are the essay topics for the different groups: Group A "My Parents" (Word limit 300), Group B "My Home" (Word limit 800) Group C: The Role of Student Community in Protecting Environment" (Word limit 1500) and Group D: "The Role of Family in Developing The Society" (Word limit 2000). The last day of submission of articles is May 5, 2004. The prize giving ceremony will be held sometime in May. Interested students are requested to submit their entries to the following address: Syed Sadrul Huda, Shout It Out! Hey People! Hey
people, To
Ankon, Asif, Kayes, Nashid, Absar. To
Maisha, Little
Miss Goody-Goody, Dear
Seven Suns & Urmee, Sabrina, Hey
Synthe, Reza, Razib, Mayedah, Marzia and Tikli, If anyone needs
a rapper or something, mail to Jay_C_ADK@hotmail.com / A_ReZ_ADK@hotmail.com Hi
Faria, Hi
Ghazala Miss, Dear
Sumu (SUMAIYA NEDHI), Dear
Tamanna, Hi
everyone! Hey
Cadets
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