Re: Progress on Hawaiian Grammy

Date: 27 Feb 2003 18:06:45 -0800
Newsgroups: alt.music.hawaiian
Size: 3,526 bytes

Auntie Maria <email-address-deleted> wrote in message news:<email-address-deleted>...
> A shout out to island musicians -- please record a _Hawaiian_ CD this
> year so we can
> get our own category in next year's Grammy's!
Yes! Now if only we can define "Hawaiian music" so that the artists
have some direction.
This debate goes back 30 or 40 years or more and was battered around
this newsgroup long, long ago - back when this newsgroup was
interesting. So, what defines "Hawaiian music?" If not the language,
then what?
Participants in this newsgroup are already fans of Hawaiian music and
therefore most likely have at least some cursory understanding of
Hawaiian culture. But take the music of Hawai'i out of that context
for a moment. Pretend that you are from the American heartland and
have never heard music from Hawai'i before. What would stand out
about it - make it different from what you listen to in your
midwestern home or on the radio? If you heard one of the
English-language songs by Bruddah Iz, Keali'i Reichel, Ernie Cruz, or
Willie K, you would think you were hearing another American "pop" song
by an artist you had never heard before. Slack key guitar might come
across as just more "sleepy New Age instrumentals" or might be
mistaken for Adrian Legg, Leo Kottke, or even Chet Atkins. Any tune
with a steel guitar out front could just as easily have been recorded
in Nashville as in Honolulu. And the seminal Hawaiian group - the
Sons of Hawai'i - might simply be considered "bluegrass" if you took
away the lyrics.
So there are two points to consider:
- The question isn't "What IS Hawaiian music?" The question is "What
makes Hawaiian music UNIQUE?" Music from Hawai'i that could just as
easily be mistaken for music from the mainland can hardly be
considered "unique." The eligibility rules for existing Grammy
categories for world music from other regions - like Latin American,
Tejano, and even Polka - refer both to instrumentation AND language.
My understanding is that recordings eligible in these Grammy
categories must be at least 51% in the native language.
- If language is NOT a requirement for defining Hawaiian music, then
artists from Hawai'i would have an unfair advantage at bringing
Hawai'i home one Grammy in whatever the agreed-upon "Hawaiian"
category becomes. By "unfair" I mean that, if an artist from Hawai'i
releases a CD that sounds not at all unlike any CD from the mainland,
shouldn't it be judged against similar CDs by mainland artists?
Should Glenn Medeiros be judged in some new "Hawaiian" category or the
"Pop" category? Should Gabe Baltazar be judged in the "Hawaiian"
category or in the "Jazz" category? It has to be about more than the
state where the artist resides or where they recorded the album. If
the music ultimately doesn't define exactly what about the culture of
Hawai'i makes Hawai'i more than just another state in the union, then
shouldn't there be a Texas category, a California category, or a
Tennessee category?
You and I know that the 'ukulele, steel guitar, and slack key guitar
were born in Hawai'i, but they won't SOUND different to the uneducated
listener - and we don't have another 100 years to try to make the
world-at-large understand the difference.
And while we're on the subject of exclusivity, should residency really
be considered a requirement for Grammy eligibility when a good
Hawaiian language recording by an artist from another state or country
is not eligible for a Na Hoku Hanohano award?
Bill Wynne