Anthony Peters
April 1, 2011
English 4
Prof. Stein
Global Island: Hawaiian Music’s impact on the global music scene
Growing up around my father’s family, I learned to appreciate Hawaiian music. Through the music of Melveen Leed and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole my family taught me to be proud of my Hawaiian heritage. At family functions Hawaiian music would be played while my grandmother made traditional Hawaiian food and all my aunties and uncles discussed what it was like back on the Islands. I remember feeling left out that I was born on the mainland and not Hawaii. For me and the rest of my cousins that were raised in California, Hawaiian music was a way for us to feel like we were apart of the Islands.
Hawaiian music serves as the folk music of the Hawaiian Islands. When Christian missionaries began to settle on the islands and try to convert them, Hawaiians began to write music based on the hymnals of the missionaries. Until that time, Hawaiian music was primarily chanting with few if any instruments. After Hawaiian music began to infuse the music of the missionaries with the story-songs of their culture, modern Hawaiian music was born.
Now, Hawaiian music can most easily be indentified by the unmistakable sound of the ukulele. The ukulele, which is the unofficial instrument of the islands, is the most recognizable piece of the Hawaiian music genre. The very sound of the ukulele instantly transports the listener to Hawaii. Through the years, the media has combined the sounds of the Ukulele with images of a white sandy beach in Hawaii. These combinations of image and sound have come to define how the American public sees Hawaii. Some Hawaiian artists only perform with a ukulele. Jake Shimabukuro who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii is a solo artist who only performs with a ukulele
Another element of Hawaiian music is the use of the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian music is one of the few places where the Hawaiian language is still spoken. Though most Native Hawaiians can speak Hawaiian, most only use some key phrases or speak pidgin which is a mix of Hawaiian slang and English. In that way, the music of the islands has become a way for the Hawaiian language to stay alive.
Other elements of Hawaiian music are keyboards, drums, a bass guitar, and guitar. These elements are not completely needed but are usually seen in most bands. One of the most popular bands of the 1970’s in Hawaii were the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau, employed a standup acoustic bass, a six-string guitar, a 12-string guitar, and a ukulele.
Hawaiian music through the years has become a way for Hawaiians to pass down the pride of being Hawaiian from generation to generation. Most songs of the genre glorify the Hawaiian culture and put the culture on display for the world to see. Having listened to these ideas growing up, I definitely believe that they had a direct impact on the way I view myself and my heritage. They made me proud to be Hawaiian and proud of all things Polynesian. I am not the only one that feels this way, my brothers also feel this way. To the point that we all share a Hawaiian inspired tattoo.
In America, Hawaiian music has come to represent the easy and slow pace of life in Hawaii. Whether it’s a scene on a beach and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “White Sandy Beach” is playing in the background or if it’s his cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as the lead character of a movie has found inner peace. Hawaiian music is used to reflect the relaxation of being on the islands.
Living on an island where the average temperature hovers between 82 and 76 degrees Fahrenheit, the natives tend to take life a little slower. A construction job that would normally take around two months to complete on the mainland takes about four or five months in Hawaii. Hawaiians feel no rush when it comes to life. Every day is a lazy summer’s day for them. This take on life is reflected in the music of the islands with its slow tempos and laid back feel. American popular culture has recognized this wrinkle in the genre and has used it to portray life on the islands.
Movies that are set in Hawaii often use Hawaiian music to help the viewer suspend belief and become apart of the movie. Most Americans never listen to Hawaiian music on the mainland and couldn’t name one Hawaiian artist. However, when they show up on the islands for a vacation it’s all they hear. So, it becomes easy for them to feel like they are back on the islands as soon as they hear Hawaiian music since there are no other places they have heard it. The music becomes synonymous with a Hawaiian vacation almost by default. And since Americans vacation to Hawaii to relax and get away from the troubles of their normal lives, their time on Hawaii equates with stress free feelings. When you look at it in that light it becomes easy to see why movie and television producers use the Hawaiian music genre to take people on an imaginary trip to Hawaii.
Through globalization American pop culture has seeped through to the global consciousness. Middle class white kids in France are break dancing on the street corners; Iraqis are learning English by from metal bands like Lamb of God and Metallica. Every where you go in the world now cultures are sharing their ideas with each other through their art and the Hawaiian music scene is no different. Right now, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole is the number one downloaded single in Germany. The world is getting smaller and people in Europe who may have only seen Hawaii in movies or on the internet are now beginning to feel what its like to be in Hawaii and live that way of life through the music of the islands.
Though Hawaiian music has been around the global music scene for decades, it never became a heavy hitter until Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” hit the radio waves. Israel took an authentic American classic and made it into a Hawaiian staple. Thanks to its use in films like Finding Forrester, Meet Joe Black, and 50 First Dates, the song entered the American popular culture and soon after that it entered the global consciousness.
Over the last few years Europe has fallen in love with the song. It has been used in commercials for cars, the Norwegian lottery, and a body spray. In 2004, Lynx, a body spray company much like Axe, ran a commercial featuring “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” In the commercial, a couple wakes up from a presumed one night stand and begin retrieving the clothes that they had stripped off during their tryst from across the city. Though the commercial implies that if you wear their product you will increase your chances of wooing women into your bed, I feel that the use of Israel’s song was used to convey the feeling of hope that someone has after they meet somebody new. The hope that this new person is going to be the one that helps erase the stresses of the world, that everything is going to be alright. If a product gave me a chance to feel what was implied that he felt through the song I would definitely spend my money on that product.
In 2006, the European car manufacturer Peugeot made a commercial that also includes “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Unlike the Lynx commercial which implies new found love, Peugeot implies a long lasting love. The commercial begins in a junkyard with a man watching a car get demolished into a cube. After the car has been destroyed the man takes the cube back to his garage. After a moment or two of staring at it, the man begins to wipe the car down with a rag. The next scene shows him with the cube walking around town with it in a Radio Flyer red wagon. Walking in the streets like he is driving, it is easy for the viewer to understand that this man is holding onto his most prized possession. The common thread through the commercials is love. Love for someone new and love for someone (or something) that has been in someone’s life their whole life.
This brings me back to the overall feeling of Hawaiian music which is a sense of happiness and contentment. The tempo and soothing sounds of the ukulele takes the listener on a sonic trip to paradise, whatever that paradise may be. For someone like me, paradise might be sitting on a beach on the island of Kuai with my girlfriend. Other people might think that paradise is skiing in Aspen. Whatever the paradise might be, songs like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Aloha Oe” are able to allow people to reach it in their minds.
With the use of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in commercials in Europe, the popularity of the song has been exploding over the continent. A few years ago, a German record producer named Wolfgang Boss bought the rights to the song and released it as a single in Germany, the result was something that nobody saw coming. The song was released in the fall of 2010 and in a stunning eight weeks it had gone platinum, selling more than 300,000 copies and reaching number one on the Top Singles list. A month later France followed suit and the song also took over the number one singles spot.
Now, what is it about a 70-year old song written after the Great Depression, made famous by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” and covered by a dead 400-pound Hawaiian that is enchanting Europe over a decade after his death? In 2008, much of Europe was caught in the global financial crises which saw every economy take a hit. In 2010 when the song was released in Germany, the German economy began to turn around and climb back in. Germans were being filled with hope and optimism. So when, the song was released Germans latched on to both the lyrical message and the musical feelings of hope. They felt as though all the bad times were behind them and that they could achieve anything they could dream of. The song captured the heart of Germany so much that on top of it becoming the all time most downloaded song, beating out the likes of Lady Gaga and Shakira, “Somwhere Over the Rainbow” won the ECHO award for “Hit Song of the Year.”
The success of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is just one instance of globalization’s impact on Hawaiian music, as many cultures are beginning to cover Hawaiian music. Both “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the Queen Liliuokalani penned “Aloha Oe” have garnered covers by the likes of Elvis Presley, Tia Carrere, Johnny Cash, the cast of Glee and many others. The fact that someone of the caliber of Johnny is covering “Aloha Oe” shows exactly how influential Hawaiian music is becoming. “Aloha Oe” was written by Queen Liliuokalani in the 1800’s and has since become one of the unofficial anthems of the islands. What makes the song so special is that Queen Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom and is a direct descendant of King Kamehameha the Great, who unified the islands of Hawaii. So, to cover that song in some ways gives respect to the Native Hawaiians and their culture.
The best cover of “Aloha Oe” in my opinion is Johnny Cash’s cover on his album American VI: Ain’t No Grave. Cash takes one of the most traditional Hawaiian songs and turns it country. With his deep voice he completely takes the song and makes it his own. What made it really eerie was the fact that this was the last song on the final album that he recorded before he died. With that hindsight it becomes very apparent that Cash knew he was on his way out when he made the record and may have chose this song as a way to say goodbye to his fans and the world.