The Deficiency of
an International Studies Program
that Neglects the
Potential of Music and Dance
to Influence
International Relations
I
participated in an international studies program 30 years ago in graduate
school. A couple of years ago, I wrote
the following letter in 2010 to the Dean in charge of that program expressing
some recent thoughts. Decided to post them here. Haven’t checked
the links to see if they still work.
Michael Jackson
I first
became interested in this topic while studying the life history of Michael
Jackson, shortly after his death.
Michael
Jackson rose to prominence at age 10, around the time when Martin Luther King,
Jr. was assassinated. He looked out in
his audiences and saw black and white people holding hands and singing and
dancing together. This was the beginning
of his interest in the response of people to his performances.
When
interviewed in his early twenties about what he saw in his audience, he
remarked that he saw love and that even the politicians could not achieve what
he saw out there.
He went on
to perform in 40 countries, receiving an overwhelming response everywhere he
went.
The recent Boteach book
[i]
about him quoted him as saying that audiences all over the world were the
same.
They lit lighters in the same
places.
They cried in the same places.
They even fainted in the same places.
He liked to
turn the cameras on the audiences.
If
you look at videos of him singing “Man in the Mirror” on his “Moonwalker” movie
[ii]
or his internationally broadcast concert in Bucharest
[iii],
the audience footage is incredible.
The
audiences are of a size that is almost beyond imagination and the few that one
can see in front are in a state of emotional frenzy, singing, dancing, crying,
fainting.
I was a
science major.
I wonder, looking at
these people, what science knows about the biological/medical effects of being in
such crowds.
The pheromone levels must
be astronomical, when adoring fans all look together at their preferred
performer.
[iv] What are the long term effects?
Michael
Jackson imagined the potential of the audience reaction as a kind of chain
reaction that might, under the right circumstances spread to the whole
world.
In his song “Cry”
[v]
he encouraged the whole world to “cry” together, though the video for this song
shows them singing and holding hands.
In
the movie, “This is It,” there is a sequence where dancers doing a military
dance called “Drill” are multiplied through CG magic until they reach the
horizon
[vi].
In fact,
there has been an impressive worldwide response to Jackson’s work. An estimated
world wide audience of one billion people watched his memorial service at the
Staples Center in Los Angeles, which ended with a moving rendition of his song
“Heal the World.” A prison in the
Philippines uses his music and dances to rehabilitate prisoners. A woman from Sri Lanka who I met on the
Internet told me that his song “Heal the World” is in the official elementary
school music textbooks there. That’s
penetration!
Instant international
communication
I was
struck, during 2009, how panic spread instantly throughout the globe, both for
the economic situation and for the swine flu.
Stock markets plunged simultaneously. Masks appeared on people’s faces
in Hong Kong as they were appearing on people’s faces in Mexico City.
Music and
dance spreads just as instantly as someone like Lady Gaga becomes an international
sensation.
Some of Michael Jackson’s fans have
been trying to organize a world wide event where the entire world sings the
same song at the same time – not so different from the “Hands Across America”
event we had in the US 20 years ago – though they have been unsuccessful so
far, yet it is conceivable that such an event might succeed.
The Singing Revolution[vii]
During the
summer of 2009, this same period of time, I saw the Estonian documentary
entitled “The Singing Revolution.” This
documentary described the non-violent revolution of the Estonian people against
the USSR. This movement was based around
singing a patriotic song at a music festival.
Unlike Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia was able to negotiate peacefully
with the USSR. Their story was just as
moving as the stories of Mahatma Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr. in
the USA.
The
filmmakers, like Michael Jackson, noted the power that singing had to unite
people, so that they could not be easily quieted by police action.
One of my
friends observed the same thing recently during Christmas festivities at
Rockefeller Center. When the crowd was
singing “Silent Night” and the police tried to disband them before they were
finished, they resisted and more and more people joined until the police gave
up.
“Silent
Night” was also the carol that allegedly provoked the “Christmas Truce” an
event during World War I, which you said you had heard of.
Kris Phillips
Another
performer I found on YouTube was this very intriguing half American half
Taiwanese pop singer, who is the king of pop in China, while nevertheless apparently
maintaining a residence here in New York and being virtually unknown in the US.
[viii] Phillips has an incredible ability to leap
over the Great Firewall and bring culture into the Middle Kingdom.
Phillips
was born in Taiwan, but his post secondary education was in the USA. His father was an American diplomat, while
his mother was an entertainer in Taiwan.
After training to be a singer and dancer, he established a career as a
pop singer in Southeast Asia.
His mother’s mother was still in
China. He decided to go to China both
because he and his mother wanted to see his grandmother and also because he
wanted to Chinese audiences to experience western style pop music.
He was given the opportunity to
perform at on an important national television program in 1987
[ix].
This broadcast was controversial both because
the government of Taiwan wanted its citizens to boycott the mainland and also
because the disco dance that Phillips performed in his second number was
regarded by many in the mainland as decadent and capitalist.
Nevertheless, the performance was very
successful and Phillips sold 10 million albums in one week afterwards.
He has continued to perform and
sell albums there, with a hiatus in the 1990’s.
From what I have read on the Internet, he remains the performer with the
most albums sold in China, and is regarded as having been a significant
friendship ambassador between Taiwan and China.
His continued efforts to bring
culture over the great firewall have included introducing China to Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s works
[x]
and performing a rendition of Michael Jackson’s song “We are the World” with a
group of famous international pop singers – notably no other Americans – at the
Shanghai World Expo
[xi]
only about a month after a group of American pop singers made a 25
th
anniversary performance to raise funds for Haiti.
I would love to see your school get
this man to talk about his views of the potential for music and dance to
transform international relations.
This
Philippine performer was recognized three years ago by Oprah Winfrey as the
world’s most talented girl.
Thereafter,
at Oprah’s urging, she was given an international recording contract by David
Foster.
Her recent successes, after
having grown up in poverty and homeless in Manila and entering singing contests
to earn money for food, has been cause for a major patriotic outpouring in her
home country
[xiii]
Apparently, US recognition for one of
their singers is a major ego validation there.
International music tours
& YouTube
In fact,
many popular musicians are our most-travelled citizens. They voyage all over the world. With the Internet, they are increasingly in
direct contact with their fan base. Their
fans are passionately devoted to them.
Their music and their dancing defy boundaries, language and
culture. Their work is an international
language that requires little interpretation.
Some of
these performers have incredible international experiences. Many of them would also make interesting
speakers, relating to what they might have observed in their travels.
No international anthem of the United Nations
The U.N.
lacks an effective international anthem.
A friend of mine who used to work there told me that there was once a
song, but its credibility was undermined by factionalism. Doesn’t every functional nation have a
national anthem? How can one hope to
have world unity in the absence of consensus on a song to sing together? I find this deficit appalling – and yet its
significance seems to be completely ignored by the diplomats who spend their
time there, arguing.
[i]
The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate
Conversation
[iv]
After all, when a bird sings in a forest, it is a mating call.
If a man sings in a crowded stadium, what
happens?
[xi]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecXl82ZdHY
Includes “Vitas” a top Russian singer who also has made a specialty of vaulting
the Great Firewall, “Rain” the top pop singer of Korea, and “Laura Fygi” a ½
Dutch, ½ Egyptian singer popular in Europe, two Chinese performers, but notably
no other Americans other than Kris.
The
news blackout in the US regarding the Shanghai World Expo has been rather
disappointing.
