Do You Have To Shower In High School

Noon: geographies Partenopop

This article, written with Mimmo Russian, appeared on a number 01 Catastrophe , Spring 2005.

" ... The music is first of all emotion. Love, betrayal, revenge, sadness, prison, drugs, echo between the crowded alleys of Naples, frenetic rhythms are woven with lyrical voices of street vendors. And 'the soul of this partenopop. Our hearts vibrate with the bass of the 127 special, heave transported to the city by the notes of Popcorn and chips. We are in the mid 80s and the streets there is a real challenge to the last decibel. The break with the writer of Mario Merola is unassailable: Nino D'Angelo is the new king of the Neapolitan song ... "

(from a fan site)

arriving in Palermo, Miles Davis is heading towards a taxi waiting for him. The driver knows that the back seat is going to get one of the greatest musicians in the world, and intimidated by the fact really wants to lower the radio volume, in which a tape of Nino D'Angelo. Climbed into the taxi, Miles picks up the melody in the background that strikes it. Asks the taxi driver to turn up the volume: "I heard something good, let me hear." The driver obeys the greatest living jazz trumpeter, always looking for new musical adventures, enters for the first time in contact with the world of partenopop. The meeting folgorante: il divino Miles chiede che il tassista lo porti immediatamente in un negozio di dischi, per acquistare in blocco le opere di un simile genio. Il taxi passa davanti Ricordi, ma il conducente informa il celebre passeggero che nei supermarket della musica non si trova roba buona, e lo porta al mercato della Vucciria. E’ qui che Miles ha finalmente la possibilità di acquistare seduta stante l’opera omnia di Nino D’Angelo, rappresentata per l’occasione da una pila di audiocassette rigorosamente di contrabbando. Non molto tempo dopo, poco prima di morire, in una celebre dichiarazione Miles affermerà: “Nino D’Angelo è il più grande cantante italiano.”

Nino D'Angelo is the tip of the iceberg. It 's the most famous face in Italy, of a real parallel world, a planet called partenopop submerged. A world that seems to repudiate the same Nino at present, it is taken from his grotesque recycling in key singer-songwriter, instigated by the usual hypocrites by critics and connoisseurs of scandal, low art that becomes high art. In injury time trash, Nino has earned his canonization. The institutional recovery, however, was careful from sinking his arrogant hands in that world of which Nino was cantor for years, preferring to insist other aspects of the story, series B icon who finally frees himself to "grow" and be so critically acclaimed "serious". To this criticism, the presumed maturity of Nino is the true golden age of the artist. Compromising too, for the special heights of the dark-social phenomena spectacular, recalling the years ranging from 1981 to 1987 or so, too embarrassing to resurrect the body of the scandalous partenopop: these people seems to say that it's okay to rehabilitate the garbage, but that c ' is garbage and trash, there's Series A and Series B, in response to the fact that attitude rather slyly that claim to be overcome. In all, there is a limit, we joked that's what they tell us. The word is not even enough of Miles.

Nino D'Angelo is one of the great revolutionaries of the melodic song, not only Neapolitan in Italy, despite giving it his utmost to make us forget the blond bob d stroke 'Gold is a character known and known from 1981. In more recent times, the phenomenon of so-called "neomelodici" exploded once again with the case Gigi D'Alessio, other actors, on a different level of partenopop, musical genre that Nino D'Angelo finds his father and inventor. Nino was scripted before the Neapolitan song as traditionally understood in the old way, but the young people of the southern suburbs were in need of other types of messages, other sounds, different idols. These are the years dell'europop, synthesizers and the new dance music, disco and new wave hit after the British. Nino D'Angelo understands that it is time to modernize the antiquated Neapolitan song. Intuition, apparently, is simple: to bring certain sounds, distorted due, in a tradition recorded in the DNA of young Neapolitans, and not just those. But in so doing, Nino destroys the tradition itself, putting everything back under discussion, from the texts, which are closer to the youth, exploring the issues, praising the deeds and sentimental tone participates in the same manner as their counterparts in the land of Albion. At the dawn of the '80s, it ran out of time for family dramas, as well as mandolins: now is the time of electronic keyboards, drum machines and bass pumping. It 's a sound that finally does justice to the powerful hi fi 127 mounted in special fashion at the time, prevailing styles of genuine exasperation, and immediately found an attentive and enthusiastic.

Like all genres of music, the audience partenopop has a very particular niche would say if it was not the size of this audience are anything but small. With the advent of Nino D'Angelo a genre that explodes now has branches in many other streams, each with its own symbolic name. Usually these are names known mostly from Naples down to Sicily: the partenopop transfers the teenage issues of Anglo-American pop songs in a very peculiar, that of the districts of the south. On topics as specific, its success is for a specific audience equally, that of the South, less than an intellectual effort empathic by listeners in other parts of Italy, allowing them to immerse themselves in a world that in some ways resembles a sort of parallel nation. The musical experience that is closest to a situation of this kind, it is perhaps that of the North American raps road: both are music that speak of the daily lives of "street urchins" who live on the mind of the road, who speak a language understandable in this country underground, and above all music in which the protagonists are directly derived from that particular socio-cultural context. Music "from the ghetto to the ghetto," authentic, credible. The partenopop, conceptually, is perhaps the closest phenomenon al rap che l’Italia abbia mai conosciuto. (A tal proposito vale la pena sottolineare come ultimamente la classica canzone partenop abbia subito modifiche strutturali di non poco conto, molto spesso avvicinandosi sensibilmente al più classico rapping.) Un altro elemento importante ai fini della comprensione del fenomeno, è naturalmente quello della lingua. Il partenopop è cantato rigorosamente in napoletano, indipendentemente dal fatto che alcuni dei suoi protagonisti siano siciliani, pugliesi o quant’altro. Il napoletano quindi assurge al ruolo di lingua internazionale, capace di imporsi a un pubblico altro esattamente come, su più ampia scala, l’inglese è la lingua ufficiale del pop di massa. Un caso simbolo è quello Sicily, the authentic source of partenopoppers, currently home to the scene and perhaps more active in this field; Sicily immediately became the target market, the land where the Neapolitan invasion boasts the most numerous proselytes. The language of Naples became a standard thanks to the work of Nino D'Angelo: If you must bring a certain type of song, with certain topics (first love, but also the underworld, the inaction and so on.) Language to be used, by convention, is Neapolitan, as well as for the rock standard language is English.

Sicily is home to one of the protagonists of partenopop: Gianni Celeste. Celeste exacerbates further the concept of "southern pop" was coined by D'Angelo: with him the pop becomes paroxysmal, the basses that can vibrate the whole house, so that in recent tests Celeste arrives at the threshold of techno. The texts of Celeste are extremely simple, bordering on the banal, and boundless pleasure in vernacular. The themes are classic: the spirit that moves them can be summarized in the phrase "I heart song n'omm co rint'o Piett", played by Mario Merola in a dramatic gash Film Sgarro the Camorra. The rhythms, most often a tight and pressing, they rebound to vividissime images and bursting with color. The atmospheres are those "ru vic", and it is consumed in the lane that can definitely be considered one of the masterpieces of Gianni Celeste, U ' Strip, where all these components are their happiest expression: desire, excitement, but wildly theatrical mix carefully in the touch of the master. Beyond appearances, which would throw light on the ridiculous character, the best way to understand the phenomenon Gianni Celeste is to listen sing his songs from his audience. Just go in the districts on the outskirts of Palermo to see how participation to have lived his stories of everyday life. Although at first glance the partenopop Celeste may seem grotesque, unbelievable, what amazes me is the technical preparation of the character and the musicians accompanying him: the discourse, as well as Celeste, holds for most of partenopop, music on balance made refined, as well as his audience: here, we must not fall into the rough to take the phenomenon for what little serious. The audience listens partenopop , is a very attentive audience, which is not content to throw songs at random: lends an ear Touch of low, is attentive to the sound of the guitar, recognizes when the battery performance is worthy of note.

The classic songs of Heaven, can serve as a paradigm to understand the whole phenomenon: a mixture of sentimentality, arrogance, a spirit of revenge. The protagonists of his songs are often forced to sell kids in the suburbs or to steal, but that basically remain good uaglioni, who believe in love and feeling. Characters who are placed in an aggressive manner towards life and who rejects them, especially in the field of emotions. The typical attitude is summed up in postures of the characters that come close to invective proud, like, "Okay, do not you love me, but do not know what you lose. I maybe I'm wrong, but a love like mine do not you can give anyone else. " In general, subjects are told to do with pure and with a great abundance of colorful expressions, as if it were to transpose music in a bar normal discourse between four young men forced intentions to tell their (alleged) sexual quality, as in the song Love Red Light . Now Celeste has some success, but do not forget their origins, as the of Jennifer Lopez Jenny From The Block .

Sicilian Other noteworthy is Angelo Cavallaro. The best way to approach the character is certainly the videotape From unleashed a daring, well that does justice to his approach "extremist": pictures of him show us a Cavallaro dressed in shorts and shirts in imitation of flowers was Best Company, the peculiar voice, which is at its greatest in the higher tones (the threshold of the falsetto), makes it unique singing style. Cavallaro's music ranges from traditional and more intense partenopop, whose highest expression is the song in Sulu ta cell is (a real anthem in Italian prisons) to cover the big hit American and British, until you reach the Sicilian tarantella in songs like Mom and daughter better ra, where Angel tells the story of a mother in love with the daughter's boyfriend (the moral is that the protagonist ends up living an adventure with the mother of his girlfriend despite not feel too attracted to her, just to prove a particular emotion: pure neo-realism imbued with postmodern cynicism). The texts usually go beyond any rule metric: Cavallaro says what he likes, being able to put any phrase in a verse with a technique difficult to describe in words, seems essentially to stick rhymes and phrases letteralmente a calci, in una costante sfida alle regole base della canzone melodica.

Cavallaro, con i suoi remake di pezzi da discoteca come Mi si intrasuta drinto o core ( This is the Rhythm Of The Night ) e Sì lo so ( Please don’t Go ), ci permette di affrontare un altro fenomeno tipico del partenopop: la cover in napoletano. E’ una pratica diffusissima, che esprime l’esigenza del ragazzo di borgata di partecipare alle innovazioni commerciali delle fasce più scolarizzate, ma dal proprio punto di vista (caso esemplare è l’album intitolato Angelo Cavallaro canta il meglio di Non è la Rai ). In questi brani viene messo in scena un continuo confronto/anelito verso le icone del mondo ufficiale, patinato, mediatico. L’attenzione alle mode del momento (così come la voglia di viverle ed esserne partecipi) è enorme, ma altrettanto grande è l’esigenza di tradurle, così come negli anni ‘60 i più famosi pezzi beat avevano una propria versione italiana. Il processo che porta Cavallaro a incidere Sì lo so è identico a quello che portò i Corvi a riprendere I Had Too Much To Dream degli Electric Prunes per farla diventare Sospesa a un wire, the difference is that the authors speak of a world unknown partenopop mass Italy, a world where values \u200b\u200band mythologies are parallel to the official: in the districts of Naples and Palermo patrenopop is practically the only music reference, the trends are regional, the national language is not entitled to citizenship, and the outside world is viewed with curiosity and perhaps with envy, but without any kind of identification.

a discourse in itself deserves Gigi D'Alessio, now converted to the Baglioni, but early singing purely and strictly partenopop. His contribution is mainly a musical composition: the technical level with D'Alessio becomes very high, since the character has graduated from the conservatory, and his expertise makes the concepts typical of partenopop acquire a very sophisticated look. The advent of Gigi D'Alessio on the southern market stalls was a shock, "Nino D'Angelo has now surpassed" was commonplace. The songs of "Gigi supplant Nino" were sung loudly through the narrow streets of the neighborhoods and streets of the market, the phenomenon came about to represent a real D'alessiomania . As said the public is prepared partenopop, and masters of the genre will appreciate the undoubted quality of such a voice. Before his conversion to the wretched song of Sanremo, the culmination of D'Alessio was certainly the concert stage in front of St. Paul to 80000 people - a figure that would dwarf any international rock star. Be noted that the intellectualization of partenopop in D'Alessio is not just about music: as for the other characters described in this article, a key concept of his lyrics is that of the village boy in love with a woman of high level, but in her case she graduated from high-level or even attending university (!).

Other refined interpreter of the standards of this kind is Maria Nazionale, Naples la Mina: his attempts to quit the music genre to give himself a higher thickness are numerous, but the importance of Mary is especially in the "female perspective" of his songs: Maria Nazionale essentially addresses the typical problems of the woman's village, to do with passionate and sincere, and this explains its huge success at the women.

By Gigi D'Alessio, Maria Nazionale, then we see a certain standardization of the genre, but the fact remains that much of the focus still on issues partenopop admittedly "low". Tony Tammaro, from Naples, is the ultimate in forced: his "poetics of tamarro" is the apotheosis of cultural guerrilla musical intelligentsia, as well as Totò Borgese, famous veejay partenopop, do not lose the opportunity to stress his ignorance and the fact that it has achieved only in the third grade, detail that does not stop him anyway specify presumption that he is always as straight and as clever, according to the usual spirit of revenge mentioned earlier.

pertonopop Another issue is dear to the underworld: classics like prison cell is only to intra and The fugitive, Tommy Riccio, are authentic hymns in the homelands -galleys. Once again, we must emphasize the total identification of authors and topics: the songs do not deal partenopop arguments ever so much for doing this, as opposed to the actual life lived of who interprets them, often to do with autobiography. Carmelo Zappulla, another Sicilian of this row, was a case in point: i suoi problemi con la legge lo portarono direttamente nelle aule di tribunale. Accusato di reati di non poco conto (omicidio della moglie per fatti di gelosia), Zappulla ha sempre professato la sua innocenza, sostenuto naturalmente dal pubblico che non ha mai smesso di professargli devozione totale. La carriera di Zappulla continuò per qualche anno in clandestinità, dal momento che il cantante era in latitanza. In ogni caso, al termine del dibattimento Zappulla fu assolto con formula piena: la sentenza, pronunciata dal giudice, fu quindi messa come apertura dell’album che segnò il suo ritorno sulle scene.

Eviteremo qui di parlare della canzone “folk-goliardica” authors such as BriganTony and Mr. Max, despite the public to be the same as partenopop. The main difference here is that genus with the standard is falling, is no longer the official language but that of Neapolitan origin, because the songs deal with the daily cazzeggiano of the performers, who then refer idiom of the place of origin. Despite this, the spirit often arrogant and proud of partenopopper remains intact, as well as the authenticity of the authors.

sincere music par excellence, the underground partenopop is not (because it has a wide audience), but not overground (because music is not music recognized by the establishment). E ', as mentioned above, a parallel world, hidden, although it is clearly visible to anyone, and emotion is the music of the ghetto rebels sentimental, of a spirit - like it or not - continues to inspire the districts of metropolis of half of Italy. The partenopop, is perhaps the last of credible music of our time.