Andrew Dubber     

[Video link]

My friend Saskia (from New Music Strategies) sent me a link to this trailer for a Dutch-made documentary film about young people in South Africa using music to escape or improve their situation. It’s not all in English, of course – but you’ll get the idea from the video above, and there’s a page about it in English here.

Looks like there are a few people thinking about this stuff. In fact, coincidentally, it looks like we might get to work on a kids music project in South Africa in the not too distant future. And by “we”, I mean me, Jez and Ian, my record producer partner in New Music Strategies. Just waiting for a couple of pieces to fall into place.

This documentary seems to focus primarily on remarkable kids using their extraordinary talent to get out of their situation. These are exceptionally talented individuals, by the looks of things – and while that’s a result of a lot of hard work and focus on their part – they are in the minority of their peers.

One of the things that really interests me is the idea that people without amazing abilities can improve their lives too, and one of the hallmarks of our Durban project, if we can get it going (more on that over the next few days), is that being ‘ordinary’ is no barrier to making music.

Radio, digital inclusion and the arts
On that note, one of the projects Jez and I proposed in Medellín was an online student radio station project. So even if kids can’t rap, dance, paint or create music – they can still interview and play the music of the ones who do.

And with it being online, there’s no requirement for it to be restricted to audio. While ‘radio’ will be the over-riding metaphor for what the students will be doing, the project will also involve video, text, graphics – and whatever else they want to do on the internet.

The great thing about that is that there are so many amazing musicians making fantastic stuff in the barrios of Medellín – but they can’t get it played on the radio there. The students provide a ready, willing and probably far more relevant audience for the music.

For the students making the online radio station, they have access to not only the music, but also the musicians. That wouldn’t be the case if they were trying to focus on international repertoire.

That project has been embraced by Medellín Digital and I hope to have news to report on that quite soon.

Social change without exceptionalism
Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great that kids can escape their oppressive situations by being remarkable operatic singers or ballet dancers. It certainly has the potential for great cinema.

But I also really like the idea that an enthusiasm for music – something that is almost universally shared – can provide a creative outlet and an opportunity for an incremental improvement in quality of life across a wider spectrum.

One of the things I love about radio as a medium is that it provides an opportunity to creatively express and perform a love of music without having to be able to sing, dance or play a musical instrument.

And most importantly, the idea behind the Medellín online youth radio project is that the work is done outside of school hours – in the evenings – as an alternative to the streets, and the easy draw of drugs, gangs and violence. It’s inspired by, and intended as a parallel to the hip hop school projects already being run in Medellín.

And that’s something else I hope to be able to tell you more about soon. My friend Vijay made a short documentary about the hip hop schools. I’ve seen it and I’m really looking forward to showing it to you. Soon, I hope…

Tagged: South Africa, unconvention