Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
Find me on Facebook 2013
Paris Journal ← Previous Next
→ << Back to the beginning
|
Last night, the Commerce Café had background music playing on its sound system. It wasn’t very loud, but just loud enough that I could hear it, and hear that it was American music. We’ve been hearing American music in almost every restaurant we go to, it seems. Is it just restaurants, I began to wonder? So, I decided to check out the French talent show videos on YouTube. One of the shows in France is called “La France a un Incroyable Talent,” or France has Incredible Talent – but the show has two channels on YouTube – one under the French name, IncroyableTalentFrance, and one called France’s Got Talent. I watched quite a number of the most-viewed videos. You guessed it – most featured American music. But most were dance acts – especially hip hop dance, and also acrobatics – no so many singing acts. The total numbers of views on the top videos aren’t anywhere near as high as on other, similar shows. Did you know that these talent shows now exist in about 60 countries? Yesterday, I saw an incredible pole dancing act on the YouTube channel for the talent show in the Ukraine . . . 45 million views! But I digress. The channel called France’s Got Talent has more views than IncroyableTalentFrance does. For international copyright reasons, I am not allowed to view some videos on IncroyableTalentFrance, but I can view them on France’s Got Talent. So that accounts for some of the difference in the viewership numbers. But even the music chosen for the trailer to promote the French show’s entire 2013 season is – you guessed it, American! C’est incroyable! One of the notable exceptions is an act by Costic, a man in drag who sings, sounding much like Celine Dion. And he mimics Celine Dion imitating Edith Piaf and Shakira! The hip hop dance acts were my favorites. This dance form has American roots, as Wikipedia explains: “It includes a wide range of styles primarily breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The television show Soul Train and the 1980s films Breakin', Beat Street, and Wild Style showcased these crews and dance styles in their early stages; therefore, giving hip-hop mainstream exposure.” Some of the hip hop music lyrics that go with the dance acts are, however, offensive. I’m not sure if the French judges and audiences really understand just how offensive, but what the hey, that’s art, I guess. I most enjoyed the hip hop dance performances by Haspop, a French man who first appeared on America’s Got Talent, before he went on La France a un Incroyable Talent. After that, he appeared on Arabs Got Talent. Lately, I noticed, he has a job as a dancer and choreographer for a French show. Go Haspop!
|
Thursday, August 21, 2014
The Commerce Café at the corner of the Place du Commerce
and rue du Commerce.
Turtle that lives very near the Eiffel Tower.
Goose that lives with ducks very near the Eiffel Tower. |
