DJ Carl Hamm's Blog *~*~*~*~*~

....the styles of music on this show change more than the weather these days--but one thing this show definitely aims to do is deconstruct the idea of "world music"-- depending on where you are, any music can be from "some far off distant land" ... the whole practice of categorizing music.. especially as "world music" is pretty ridiculous considering how connected the world has become.. (back in the 50s, they had exotic "crazes"-- like the fanaticism for hawaiian slack key guitar, polka, tango, and rhumba.. always patronizing these styles and packaging them with this wild, primitive "other-ness" - this was the tradition, just look through any stack of lps from the early 60s and you'll see international music packaged for an audience.. of wide eyed tourists.. but today we are much more internationally aware, the average person is likely to have new music from 20 different countries on their ipod) If you consider modern genres like rock, electronica, club/dance music, reggae, salsa, rap, soul--- they're international genres... hearing the variations in the musical forms from place to place is what makes this show so thrilling for me to produce every week... of course, each culture has it's own voice and its own unique language - and these differences are important to recognize, and respect, and preserve, by all means... but there are many similarities between cultures as well... music is the universal language.. and it speaks in a way that words never could.. (the show title is also inspired by a brilliant track by the same name on the Clash's "Sandinista" album-- the first record I ever owned.. check it out... ) "If Music Could Talk" 7-9pm EST Sundays on WRIR- www.wrir.org, and locally on 97.3FM ... check the blog for more details and a huge podcast archive going back about 3 years!! http://turquoisekid.blogspot.com thanks to www.radio4all.net for hosting the show podcasts and thanks to WRIR... www.wrir.org for being Richmond's one and only independent radio station... people of the world--- please support independent media !!!