Article
---- Peter Jenner, a legendary music agent
Over the centuries, music has helped set the tone for world events, and imprinted historic memories in mins across the globle. Can specific music help the Shanghai 2010 World Expo leave a lasting impression?
Guest Profile
Peter Jenner is a legendary music agent and manager who discovered.. among many others.. PinkFloyd. On top of his decades of experience producing hit music.. He also attended the centennial of the world's first expo.. the 1951“Festival of Britain”, and the 1967 Montreal Expo.
Q：Hello，welcome to the main talk. I am your host Amy Rutledge, joining me on the program today is legendary music producer, manager and advocate for musicians, Peter Jenner, Thank you very much for joining us.
R: My pleasure.
Q：Pleasure to have you.
Peter Jenner is a legendary music agent and manager who discovered.. among many others.. PinkFloyd. On top of his decades of experience producing hit music.. He also attended the centennial of the world's first expo.. the 1951“Festival of Britain”, and the 1967 Montreal Expo.On March 27th, 2009, the expo theme song for volunteers was finally released.. By your side, performed by Hong Kong singer Eason Chan.
Q：We have been watching the volunteer song for the 2010 expo，let me get your thoughts on that.
R: Wow, I can see you know what they trying do, I really like that. It is the involvement of community. The song itself doesn’t do anything for me. And then I don’t know what the lyrics are, I have no idea what that is about. But I thought the music is clearly not particularly interesting, but I like the idea that the involvement of people in the event. That is about the whole of shanghai, I like that. I can see what they trying to do. That is fine.
Q：The music itself as I am listening to, I feel like I heard that song before. Why is that?
R: It is because it is I think it is straight of production line. It is , I suspect, it is a very common consequence, and very common arrangement. And it is not particularly interesting original or new. But it works and in the way that familiarity perhaps, it will help it in terms of, you know, it is something, it is not a challenging song. But you don’t want something challenging, you want something, which is encompassing, you know it goes along with it. It does what it does.
Q: And you watch the video and regard it as you know exactly what it is saying. You can feel the meaning behind it.
R: I think I see, I suspect I got it right. It is all about everyone coming together, you know, showing shanghai helping and greeting, you know, which is fine.
Q：So how important is it or not important is the music for an Expo?
R: I can’t see in itself, it’s probably not very important. I can’t imagine anyone is going to an Expo because they heard of a song, but I think, you know, it could well be that the song with the video helps encourage people becoming involved and helps people who come to visit to enjoy because of that. You know the friendship there getting in the friendliness they get from the people, which is being encouraged and worked on. In that sense, I think it can help, obviously, but it’s part of the package, you know, it is like it is part of the package of the whole thing.
Q：And we are gonna to have 20000 plus performances which we are gonna to hear more music. Do you suspect that music is going to be a little bit more impactful?
R: I suspect the music would be as good as musician who come to do it, you know I mean there will be good concerts, great concerts and some awful concerts, because that is what concerts is like, you know. I think it is sort of, I think, that is always part of the event and again is difficult to get it right. You know, what do you want to do? Do you want to get music which you know really gets young people excited or do you want to get music that is really sort of resonates with old people the dangerous you’re trying to make, to provide a music which appeals to everyone all the time. That ends up with blindness and boringness. You end up with music which no one actually likes but no one really dislikes.
Our Expo, the song performed by China’s folksong singer Sa Dingding, was selected, together with other 11 music pieces as“the 2008 expo songs”. Born in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Dingding developed an early interest in the 'ethnic minority music. Her unique music won the BBC Radio 3’s Awards for World Music 08.
Q：Is this a good chance for china to showcase a little bit more of its own music, can we get other countries more familiar with it, can it put its on mark on music industry ?
R: If china can get to grips with its own music and I think find the Chineseness within the music but which works to the non- Chinese. It is a sort of delicate balance in act. You know, it has to have a Chinese quality to it, which resonates as being Chinese to people who aren’t Chinese. And so in that sense, things like Sa Dingding’s stuff, I think it is a bit more interesting, because it is using a various Chinese characteristics, original characteristics within a sort of a vocabulary which is common to the world music. The world music travels across the world, it has got something which gives you a unique character, but which isn’t so foreign that you can’t understand it. You’ve got other spirit as to travel with it.
Q：What would you like to see Chinese musicians here to do maybe during the expo that could help broaden Chinese music?
R: would like o celebrate that traditional Chinese culture, many folk music and trying to see how that could be reinterpreted in more modern way. And I think I have heard some stuff some Mongolian music has been, I’ve heard some good Mongolian music which use good Tibetan music. I certainly know, I remember one of the earliest records that I heard from outside Britain and America, was a world have a UNESCO album, some traditional Tibetan music and folk songs which I thought it really fun, I didn’t know what it was about, it was a song by young girl about sheeping upon a mountain, but it had a sort of reality which spoke to me in England in 1965 when I heard it. And that is what the greatest music does, it works for you. What worries about Chinese music is because it draws on too much western roots, too much it’s trying to be poppy, trying to be like western mushic with Chinese lyrics. I’d like to hear more of being Chinese music with Chinese lyrics which is joinining, on top of that, or infusing that western influence and so on. The thing which often is a good idea with to look for the traditional party music, often wedding music in the countryside or within the ethnic minorities. You find their songs and tunes which work in the simple way for simple ordinary people and been passed down through years and years and generations and generations. Why they just get passed down is because they work, because they are great songs, they are nursery songs, songs for children, internationally get passed down because they work. They are easily remembered, they are easily sung. And in china there will be such a wealth of different traditional songs which are there to be found, to be utilized and not to be treated as items in the museum, because they are living music with an inspiration for modern music.
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