Don’t get me wrong. Britain is one of the most important places in the history of popular music. Everyone will find a British band to their taste – from The Beatles to Macc Lads. If you find Iron Maiden too noisy, Capercaillie is there to calm your nerves. But Britain is not the only place where good music is produced. And you guys miss a lot of really good stuff.
I remember a discussion with a proud champion of BBC 2 Popmaster. He was appalled when he found that the only Procol Harum song I can name is “Whiter Shade of Pale”. He said that I have no idea about pop music. But why should I listen to Procol Harum if the Hungarian band Omega is much better? He could not answer. He had never heard even their biggest hit, “Gyöngyhajú lány”. Names like Czesław Niemen, France Gall, Bijelo Dugme, Звери, Umberto Tozzi, Океан Ельзи or even Rammstein meant nothing to him. Ok, he heard the name Laibach, but he thought they were from Germany. So perhaps he was a British Popmaster, but any European would know about music in general much more than he did.
But why is that? Why does British radio never play foreign music? I think it is the issue of language. For years I’ve been listening to the radio for hours every day and I can still count on my fingers all the times when I hear non-English songs being played. And that includes BBC’s reportage on Eastern European music which contained four. Even classics are played in their English language versions – it will never be the original “Comme d’abitude”, it has always to be “My way” (which, by the way, is not even a proper translation). Britain is enclosed in an Anglo-phonic bubble. This cannot be good for music – if you only listen to songs sung in English, you miss a lot of gems that could bring you some inspiration. And maybe this is why as a person who loves music from all over the world (Estonian Tanel Padar sings “Võta aega” from my speakers as I write it), I find contemporary mainstream British music dull and repetitive.
But this is not only about music. It is common knowledge that Britons are not that good in foreign languages. I know, it’s hard to be motivated if your own language already makes it possible to communicate pretty much everywhere in the world and you rarely get a chance to try your skills abroad as everyone hopes to practice their English on you – even I get this, and I speak much worse English than I would like. But it’s not only that. Once I heard about a British long distance driver who had no phone roaming in Romania and could not find anyone who speaks English. She panicked and drove 600 km to Germany to catch a signal. It was a terrible experience for her. I was amazed to see how senseless her reaction was, but my English friend who lives in Poland explained it to me. He said: “You, Europeans, are exposed to foreign languages all your life. For Briton being unable to understand people around him is a terrible, unknown experience. They are like those bunnies who got caught in the middle of the road and too terrified to move”.
I think he might be right. I grew up listening to songs in several languages and my TV picked Polish, Russian and Czech stations. Foreign movies were either voiced-over or subtitled. You were surrounded by things you couldn’t understand and it seemed perfectly normal for you but on the other hand, you were constantly picking some words here and there. For Britons, it’s a new experience. Other languages are like the “hic sunt dracones” area. That’s why foreign voices heard in public transport cause discomfort even to such open-minded Britons like a certain MEP who work in Brussels and then come home to his German wife. No wonder ordinary people who are taken out of their comfort zone put all those mean comments on Facebook when STV publishes an article in more than one language on their web page…
There used to be some exchange – even Edit Piaf was recording in English and The Beatles were singing “Sie liebt dich, je, je, je”. Frank Sinatra himself was singing in (bad) Polish and even the most British thing ever, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, was shot also in German. Now it works only one way. Foreign bands who want to break into (still most important) the British market sing in English. British bands who cover some foreign songs do it in English. Even Eurovision is now all in English, taking away the last mainstream chance for Britons to hear a foreign language song.
And when I think, for example, that most Britons only ever heard a slurry Sugababies “Too lost in you” and don’t even know that feeling when the profound lyrics of its original version “Quand J’ai Peur De Tout” in the deep voice of French singer Patricia Kaas send shivers down one’s spine, I simply feel sorry for them.
