Mono-Genre Watch: Pitbull Riles the World Cup
When it comes to mixing music forms with no regard for the autonomy or integrity of the respective genres, Latin rapper Pitbull is popular music’s prime culprit. As evidenced in the massive hit “Timber” performed with pop star Ke$ha, his willingness to take the boiled-down shuck of just about every genre and mash them together for maximum Top 40 appeal has no bounds. Recently Pitbull’s handiwork surfaced on a remix of country star Jerrod Niemann’s heavily EDM-influenced hit “Drink To That All Night”, and the rumor mill has a video for the remix being released soon.
With Pitbull’s massive world success and popularity, it is no wonder he was tapped to perform the theme song for the upcoming World Cup being held in Brazil called “We Are One (Ole Ola)”, but the decision and the song itself is not sitting well with many Brazilians and others around the world concerned about the presentation of Brazilian culture through the soccer tournament, which will undoubtedly put the South American country at center stage for the rest of the world.
The United States is notorious for exporting it’s monoculture to other countries, but in such a moment of nationalistic pride as hosting the World Cup, it has made the situation especially concerning for the host nation. Despite being a South American country, Brazil’s primary language is Portuguese, not Spanish, which neither Pitbull, born and raised in Miami, nor his duet partner on the song, Jennifer Lopez, sing in fluently. Furthermore the song seems to disregard Brazil’s bossa-nova style of music for a more Americanized take on Spanish-style samba, subverted by Pitbull’s rapping, EDM influences, and a general lack of Brazilian flavor, aside from a final stanza sung in Portuguese by one of Brazil’s popular stars, Claudia Leitte. “We Are One (Ole Ola)” was written by Pitbull with help from eight other credited songwriters.
No different than American country music fans concerned about the influences of other genres creeping into their music, or American hip-hop fans concerned about the same thing, Brazilian culture feels challenged by “We Are One (Ole Ola)”, and other songs on the official World Cup album being released by Sony called One Love, One Rhythm. Most of the songs’ lyrics are in English or Spanish, and non Brazilian artists like Avicii, Santana, and Wyclef Jean make appearances while native Brazilians are only given token moments to sing in their native tongue.
“The music of the World Cup is not very Brazilian,” the former chairman of South and Central America for EMI Music Marcelo Castello Branco tells Billboard. “The ball is on the ground, and anything may happen, but I do not think we have, so far, any Brazilian repertoire that has a true chance to be a hit – not locally, not internationally. The feeling is that we all lost a huge opportunity to show the world a new Brazil, musically speaking ….”
Part of the problem is the prevalence of misconceptions about Brazil. Many around the world assume they’re a Spanish-speaking country, and despite not being seen as a global superpower, Brazil has a population of nearly 200 million, and is the world’s 8th largest music market. However unlike many counties, Brazil’s musical culture remains mostly autonomous from the rest of the world. 90% of popular music in Brazil is from Brazil, and many of Brazil’s big stars do not pursue careers outside the country.
Meanwhile Jennifer Lopez has canceled her appearance at the World Cup opening game to sing the controversial “We Are One (Ole Ola)” with Pitbull on Thursday in Sao Paulo, and many are predicting a rain of boos for the performance.
The United States and European perspective regularly lumps music from around the world together as “World Music,” offering no distinction between Brazilian bossa-nova, and African-inspired calypso for example. And as Pitbull and “We Are One (Ole Ola)” are proving, the mono-genre is not just a problem for North America, but is at risk of being exported to the rest of the world.
June 9, 2014 @ 9:12 am
The problem with America is we have a one size fits all approach in everything we export, from American music and culture to our freedom and democracy for everyone foreign policy that has worked so well in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq. Our whole approach leaves no room for even noticing the particularities of other cultures, all we’re capable of noticing are cliches and stereotypes.
June 9, 2014 @ 11:05 pm
Very true.
June 9, 2014 @ 9:44 am
I think that a big part of the problem is the lack of knowledge Americans have of anything outside their country, being the poster child example of the ignorance that Brazil is a Portuguese speaking nation.
I anyway hope that we see great soccer in this next World Cup.
Brazilians even have their own type of “country” music known as Seratenjo, though I wonder if it was ever influenced by it’s American counterpart or not.
June 9, 2014 @ 1:35 pm
Eduardo, it’s a combination of stupidity and geography. Americans are geographically isolated and share the same language/customs. Unlike South America or Europe or Africa and Middle East etc. Do you have any favorites of the Seratenjo genre?
June 9, 2014 @ 6:09 pm
I don’t really know much about the Sertanejo genre, except for artists like Paula Fernandez and Michel Telo, who had a hit song not too far back known as “Au Se Ti Pego”.
The genre borrows more from Latin American folk music than anything, though I have read that it was also influenced by American country music at some point. Though the specifics of how and when I don’t know.
June 9, 2014 @ 1:18 pm
Trigger, you seem to hit a lot of things on the head all the time, but. I think you’re totally wrong on this mono-genre thing. Or at least in saying across the board that it’s a bad thing. Waylon was the first to mix rock-and-roll beats with country music which resulted in a whole mess of artists copying that blend and country music becoming that. Hank Jr was the first to embrace bands like the Allman brothers and Skynyrd and bring their sound into his country resulting in the boundaries being expanded. (Yes, this became exploited later in bands like Montgomery Gentry, but like any good idea, it’ll get turned into a corporate mess, as rap has these days for the most part.) Hank III was one of the first to blend metal into country. Shooter Jennings is the first I’ve heard blending someone like Giorgio Mordoer into country music. All of this is very healthy and an evolution in my opinion. Avicii latching onto Mumford’s bringing of irish folk into pop music, and bringing country, blues and folk into EDM should not be something that is viewed as a negative impact. Genres are wrong in the first place, they always have been there for marketing. People bringing in all the influences of world music into an unidentifiable mash is brilliant if done by the right people. Paul Simon bringing in African music into pop, the Beatles bringing Indian music in. Country came together with the bringing of Irish folk and other pre-American cultural influences. I think making a big point about this “Mono-genre” thing, is actually hurting your cause, because ultimately the blame lies on who is doing the blending of genres. Hick-hop isn’t an offense of mono-genre, it’s the same thing as Rascal Flatts covering a Metallica song. The offense is in the hands of who is doing it and why they are doing it. Country radio has become Pop music, much like Adult Contemporary and all these people like Scott Borchetta who are “at fault” really are just like their predecessors, corporate sludge. This will always happen. Avicii is actually an artist. Daft Punk brought in Paul Williams for a song, not because the world is coming to an end with a giant “Mono-Genre” but because they are fans of Paul Williams’ influence on the world. Waylon’s grandson being heavily rooted in hip-hop bringing in his grandfather not only is an education to people who have never heard Waylon (and his choices were in many cases surprising and tasteful I thought), but is something of an artistic statement. In my opinion the “Mono-Genre” is what we could hope for because then it would be like music is an international currency. Then these people could not “cash in” on sounds and perpetuate the problem. IMHO only, but I do think that this angle makes you seem like you are confused in your battle. If radio would quit separating Genres maybe an Artist such as Hank 3 would have had an opportunity to rise to the top with the likes of Jack White or Mumford and Sons. Jack White just recorded with Jay-z. That doesn’t seem like a MONO-GENRE ALERT ALERT ALERT! it seems a lot more like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash or Run DMC and Aerosmith working together.
Just my two cents.
June 9, 2014 @ 2:40 pm
That’s a pretty interesting take… I suspect it won’t be super popular but it’s one good way to look at things.
June 9, 2014 @ 2:45 pm
I understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re making a lot of assumptions about my opinion of what the mono-genre is, and how it is affecting music.
First off, I have never said that the blending of genres is bad thing on the surface. In fact I’ve gone out of my way to clarify that point, though I understand you may have not seen those clarifications. The blending of genres is not the problem. The destruction of diversity in popular music is the problem. Though you list a lot of what I would consider independent acts, really the mono-genre is a phenomenon happening specifically in popular, Top 40 music. You can assume mono-genre talk is an attack on anyone mixing two genres, but taking the example the song and artist this article was written about, and the clear concern coming from a majority of Brazilians who say the song is an attack on their cultural identity and sovereignty, and I think you can take this as a clear example that the mono-genre presents a danger to the diversity of popular music, and aids the homogenization of culture throughout the world through the forum of the World Cup.
“Evolution” and “creativity” are the buzzwords that are always used to attack people who want to preserve the diversity in popular music. The only reason artists have the ability to blend genres is because genres exist. For example, if you want to mix a bucket of paint, you start with white, and then add the colors. You destroy genres and the regional coding of music, then you have no colors to add to your palette, you just have one big melting pot of influences that you can attempt to deploy in different ways. Try to pull those colors back out of that bucket of white paint and you will find it’s impossible.
Genre is not what is keeping and artist like Hank3 off the airwaves. Hank3 is keeping Hank3 off the airwaves, because he doesn’t care. Many times the blending of genres becomes a lazy excuse for “creativity” when artists are out of ideas, or are looking for attention. And in the mainstream, it is simply a way to maximize audience to make as much money as possible. That was the goal of the Pitbull song, and it was disrespectful to the culture of Brazil, which must stay pure if it is to be used to be blended with other influences into the white paint of a truly creative project in the future.
June 9, 2014 @ 6:28 pm
Your paint analogy explains the issue quite well Trig! And that’s the thing of it; the monogenre is about subtly blending a couple of different colors together to make a distinct shade, its about dumping everything in an indistinct mass that’d have made Jackson Pollock turn up his nose in disgust. While the creative meeting of different genres will generally produce something new and exciting, it is an endeavor which must be embarked upon by committed musicians from both sides. Ya let a bunch of money grubbing corporate suits call the shots and you’re gonna end up with the shallowest, most clichéd elements of the music just hodge podge tossed together in a completely slip-shod manner.
True craftsmanship can always be seen in the joinery; whether it be the work of a luthier, a finish carpenter, or a song-smith, one can always tell the master by the way he joins together the disparate elements of his creation. For instance, the fashioning of a bottle by a glass-blower will be superior to that which is made in a mass produced mold, primarily because the craftsman leaves no seam down the middle of the bottle. The same with a master wood inlayer; all one sees are the pictures and patterns he creates though joining together different types of wood. One doesn’t notice where these disparate parts are joined because they are seamless.
On the other hand, when a bunch of heavy handed corporate hacks try to blend genres, they gather together the most obvious clichéd examples of each genre and then just slap it all together in a song which is joined together more by a hammering beat than any kind of intrinsic melody which draws the different parts of the song into a whole. At a certain point this chaotic toss up of sound just becomes so much indistinct static as undifferentiated as an old overused painters palette.
June 9, 2014 @ 6:30 pm
Typy, that should read, “the monogenre isn’t about subtly blending a couple of different…” Sorry.
June 10, 2014 @ 6:18 am
“Genre is not what is keeping and artist like Hank3 off the airwaves. Hank3 is keeping Hank3 off the airwaves, because he doesn”™t care.”
I’m interested in hearing you expand on this. Do you really think that Hank3 could make a hit record that still sounded anything like Hank3? I can imagine him having hits, but to do that, he’d need to smooth out his voice back to an easy croon, clean up his sound, and stop singing about heroin, getting drunk, and Satan. (oversimplification alert!) In other words, he’d have to make a sincere, smooth country record. I think more accurate would be, “what’s keeping Hank3 off the airwaves is his desire to make the kind of music that he enjoys making.”
June 10, 2014 @ 5:10 pm
I think Hank3 had the potential to influence the mainstream of country music around 2006 and the release of “Straight to Hell”, but that would be more about the mainstream sort of bending in his direction than vice versa. If you listen to that album, there’s a song on there called “My Drinking Problem”. It wasn’t written by Hank3, and would have been perfect as a radio single. I’m half convinced that is why the song even made it on the album, to have something to release to radio in case the album blew up, which it kind of did. But of course, Curb wasn’t going to put any promotion behind a single (or the album), which is essential to get radio play these days and have a “hit.” So it remained underground.
Now I don’t think Hank3 is in a position to ever be able to make a hit record or song unless he really wanted to do a complete 360 with his sound, work with a producer, and maybe even agree to some co-written songs. Really, the same goes for Shooter Jennings. These guys had their high-flying eras, and probably peaked years ago. Creatively and independently, they could still do some great, important things. But that ship has sailed. Their names will always make them big-drawing acts and get them attention, but I think the upside potential of people like Sturgill Simpson, the Turnpike Troubadours, Jason Isbell, and even someone like Whitey Morgan is probably higher than Hank3. At least for now. That’s not a knock on Hank3, it’s just sort of the reality of his position in music at the moment.
June 10, 2014 @ 4:30 pm
Well said. I don’t mind if some artist does hip-hop in a cowboy hat to make money; what I mind is that in the music industry it seems to be “all or nothing”. If the teeny-boppers are downloading “bro country” by the bucketful, the thinking seems to be that nothing else should see the light of day. I know I sound like a broken record but I ought to be able to turn on a country radio station and hear a country song at least once in a damn while. I buy records too.
June 9, 2014 @ 3:01 pm
The one thing I can absolutely respect about Pitbull is the following.
If you scrutinize the tropes, motifs and disposition that he has peppered his records with since the inception of his recording career, he has been remarkably consistent; who as far back as his debut record “M.I.A.M.I.” has insisted that he is not a rapper, but a hustler.
Thus, he has been the first one to admit that he is no artist, but a businessman. That his intention is not to create, but to sell you something. That candor and self-awareness is actually refreshing to me, and I can respect Pitbull for struggling for six-seven years before breaking out just before the turn of the decade while also following the same template (granted his records have gotten increasingly slick and expensive-sounding over time, but when you lend an ear to them, they have always been driven by a rhythm-heavy dance-rap cadence.
*
That said, I fully agree Pitbull is one of the most instrumental names in entertainment advancing the mono-genre effect, to my chagrin.
At the end of the day, however, I can’t give Pitbull too much flak. At least his intentions are transparent as a self-professed hustler and tycoon. In contrast, in much of “pop country”, we have many entertainers and industry executives who will sell you something but abjectly deny it: claiming “No no, this is how we really live! This is how we roll!”
June 9, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
Then is FIFA or whoever made the decision to make Pitbull the poster boy for the music of the World Cup to blame for putting a self-described “hustler” in such a position? I agree to an extent that if Sony comes calling for you to pen the World Cup theme song, you’d be a fool to turn it down. Jennifer Lopez has walked away because her name is in the fine print, and she can, and has a well-liked world reputation, especially in South America to preserve. Arguably Pitbull benefits from the controversy, because he’s controversial and polarizing to begin with. In other words, the World Cup just got hustled. Que no?
June 9, 2014 @ 5:23 pm
With Pitbull, it’s essentially “What you see is what you get!” (as much as that phrase is such a broken record to say the least)
Think about it. Four years ago, the official World Cup anthem blessing was handed to Shakira. Why? Because despite the fact that South Africa was the host nation in 2010, this sporting event is most popular across the Latin-speaking world (not discounting of course soccer’s popularity beyond Central and South America as well). They were well-aware of Shakira’s marketability as well as her Latin heritage, so they sought her out as the anchor; NOT, say, Simphiwe Dana or Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Pitbull, too, was chosen for much this reason. Despite the fact that he is Cuban-American and has no direct connection with Brazil specifically, his core listening demographic is made up of Latinos who are much as likely to enjoy soccer as a choice sport as well. It’s all about commerce, first and foremost, as opposed to appealing to cultural heritage.
June 9, 2014 @ 9:58 pm
I was wondering if you would bring this up. As a fan of Brazilian music. I find this rather laughable and insulting especially since The World Cup is not that a big a deal here in the states. So it really comes off as more hustle than homage. I also find it odd considering the way Latinos and their music have been sidelined in the mainstream American music scene through cliches and stereotypes that a prominent Latina would sign herself up for a project that basically slaps another Latin culture in the face and shells out stereotypes and cliches of their music. I can only HOPE this kills Pitbull’s career.
Even the album title “One Love, One Rhythm” is kind of insulting as if Samba is all Brazil has got. No Farro, Axe, Bossa Nova… Not to mention Samba itself is an umbrella term for many kinds of samba from slow to fast to festival samba to jazz…
And wow Baha Men? Really who let those dogs out?
Daniela Mercury would’ve been the obvious choice over Jennifer Lopez but I assume she has artistic standards. I saw her live a couple years back and it is one of the top ten shows I ever witnessed. Live vocals while she danced something fierce for 95% of a 2 and 1/2 hour show and she is in her 40s!
Ivete Sangalo, Alcione, Margareth Menezes, Gal Costa, George Ben… so many better and BRAZILIAN acts they could’ve gotten for this. Hell, even Gloria Estefan can sing in Portuguese, why not recruit her? It is also interesting to note that the top selling Brazilian music acts in Brazil are in large part women and this album has a real token Brazilian female presence. Three are Brazilian singers non of them top tier acts and the others women are Puerto Rican, Norwegian, & Colombian… as if Americans can’t tell a Cuban from a Mexican from a Brazilian.. UGH! I’m all for cross cultural anthologies and collaborations. But it looks like whoever put this together has no clue about Brazilian music and the acts that best represent the country.
AND this just proves my feelings that ALL GENRES are being hit with this kind of laziness and disrespect. It is just that on this blog we focus on country music. But got to a decent hip-hop blog and you’ll see the same complaints I’m sure. Sorry for the rant but you know… passion for music and all.
June 9, 2014 @ 10:50 pm
I have to give credit to Jennifer Lopez though for backing out of the live performance of the song scheduled for Thursday. Yes, it may be too little, too late, but at least it’s a token gesture that she believes the song went too far.
June 15, 2014 @ 9:46 am
The main problem with choosing Daniela Mercury is the simple fact that she recently came out as a lesbian, which is still a huge taboo in a hypocritical society. By the way, none of these artists you listed would sing in “We Are One”, because they don’t feel like it – Claudia Leitte is hungry for international acclaim and I guess she would sing whatever it takes to reach it (unsuccessfully, of course. She is considered very mediocre). This song is a generic one that really does not represent brazil’s rhythms, just like the ones you said: Forró, Axé, Samba…
June 15, 2014 @ 9:40 am
Claudia Leitte is absolutely not popular.