Blog posts by year and monthOctober 2011
Posts (95)
The Passion scoops theatre award
Michael Sheen and Bill Mitchell have been basking in glory after winning the best director award at the Theatre Awards UK ceremony in London. The pair shared the gong, which is one of the top accolades in British theatre, for their epic 72-hour performance of The Passion, staged over the Easte...
Blowing my own trumpet: music and euphemism
The news today that radio stations are to be given extra guidance to avoid playing sexually-explicit songs got me thinking about euphemism in pop music and the seemingly diminishing art of cloaking the rude in nuanced language. AC/DC, masters of innuendo No longer can radio stations profess innocence in examples such as Brick FM stating they thought a particular slang term invoked panini - toasted sandwiches. And no longer can stations play live concerts that are littered with expletives, even if they flag the risk first. Jolly good, I say. I find overt swearage in songs to be far more often embarrassingly crass than artistically meritorious. It's normally unimaginative - unless it's one of the few examples in which a single swearword can elevate things (think the end of Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine for a good example). It's also often simply ephemeral. There's no reason for rude words when things can be far more entertaining while retaining a sly salaciousness. If we look at popular music, even the term 'rock 'n' roll' is a euphemism for sex. Teenagers as a concept were only realised in the post-war world of the 1950s and that generation took to the potential freedoms with aplomb. Building on the filthy undercurrents of blues (check out Robert Johnson's lyrics) rock 'n' roll exploded in euphemisms for both sex and drugs. The musicians who peddled their wares to this new demographic in the 50s and 60s were expert in writing about rude subjects in order to get their songs into the homes of their audiences, past the censorious power brokers of the radio stations and even their own record labels. The head honchos at EMI might have blanched had they looked below the surface of songs such as The Beatles' Please Please Me. Come the 1970s the euphemism became an art form in itself, no longer a wink and a nod to those in the know, but a full-on pun fest. Acts such as Kiss and especially AC/DC built careers on such risqué behaviour. It reached its apotheosis in the genuinely laugh-out-loud humour of Spinal Tap's songs. If there's a funnier collection of euphemisms than Big Bottom or Sex Farm I have yet to hear it. These days media is less concerned with sticking to their social and sexual mores of a Christian hegemony, and it's possible to see just about any video on late-night music TV; so there's less need to mask meaning through lyrical inventiveness. On the flipside, some musical euphemisms have made it into such sites as The Urban Dictionary - especially from the world of rap. They have developed a life of their own. So where do we stand now? Perhaps the knowledge that out-and-out obscenity stands less of a chance of getting past Ofcom these days will engender more songwriters to think more inventively about their lyrics. I'm sure the twin preoccupations of drugs and sex will continue to occupy the minds of young people making music - so let's have some great euphemisms. What are your favourite euphemisms? Or can you think of any Welsh examples? If you want to have your say, on this or any other BBC blog, you will need to sign in to your BBC iD account. If you don't have a BBC iD account, you can register here - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of BBC sites and services using a single login. Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.
Art meets science in new exhibition
A new visual arts exhibition that opened in Cardiff Bay today explores genetic studies related to mental health and the ways in which such research is relayed into the wider society. Works by two artists, Julia Thomas and Rhys Bevan Jones, went on show this morning in the exhibition entitled T...
Grassholm gannet nests
Grassholm Island or 'Gwales' in Welsh was the first RSPB reserve to be established in Wales back in 1948 so it's fitting that in this centenary year RSPB wardens - Lisa and Greg Morgan are fighting to combat an issue that affects the third largest gannet population in the Atlantic - plastic. ...
Sŵn Festival: my highlights
I know it's been another lifetime since Sŵn Festival already, and some reviewers were able to file live reviews from various venues on the spot. I've gone away, had a good chew over the amount of music I heard over the four-day festival, and have a little summary of some of my unexpected finds a...
Pop-Up Play Shop
Trailing round the shops with the kids is not everybody's idea of a relaxing Saturday, particularly if any amount of hunger, crowds and bad weather are involved. But a new venture which sees empty shop fronts turned into craft spaces for all to enjoy could be about to change all that. The Po...
Shakespeare and Wales
"I am Welsh, you know" - Henry IV So little is known about the life of William Shakespeare that scholarly debates continue to rage nearly 400 years after his death. Our scant biographical knowledge has been augmented by theory, supposition and guesswork, but we will probably never know more t...
Clocks go back this weekend
It's been a changeable month weather-wise as you'd expect at this time of year. It started off with a heatwave and record breaking temperatures on 1 October followed by rain, gales and flooding in Pembrokeshire but apart from a little frost it's been mild. In fact this October will be one of ...
Crunch 2011 at Hay-on-Wye
The line-up for next month's Crunch Festival (18-20 November) has been announced, with an eclectic range of artists joining the Hay event. British Sea Power Some of the music highlights include Abi, Hamilton and Yan of British Sea Power playing some of the band's favourites and rarities in a semi-acoustic style; 65daysofstatic's Paul Wolinski playing as Polinski with "a heady science-fiction inspired soundscape of beats and noise"; Mara Carlyle; Franz Nicolay, formerly of The Hold Steady; Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo and Beaty Heart. A full line-up can be seen on the official website. Produced by the Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI) and held annually in Hay-on-Wye, Crunch "brings together leading artists, philosophers, commentators and art world professionals from the principal to the subversive in a dissection and celebration of the arts in contemporary society." There are debates, talks, workshops, exhibitions and live performances all available over the weekend. A spokeswoman for IAI said: "From a Welsh perspective, an interesting highlight is Siôn Russell Jones, who will be supporting Mara Carlyle. He is a rising Cardiff singer-songwriter on Jonathan Powell's label. "Arts Council Wales chair Dai Smith and artistic director of the National Theatre Wales John McGrath are both coming to Crunch; among other things they'll be doing a talk titled The Dragon's Heart - 'From the Gorsedd of Bards to the National Eisteddfod, Wales has a history of grassroots participation. Smith and Director of National Theatre Wales John McGrath ask whether the rest of the UK can learn from this paradigm.'"
Hallowe'en and Galan Gaeaf
Hallowe'en. A time when people avoid churchyards and cross roads, places where, in ancient times, spirits were thought to gather. A night of spooks and demons, witches, ghosts and ghouls - at least, that's how children see it. A pumpkin lantern These days the night before All Hallows D...
