Japan...Vietnam..Not the same thing, but oh well.

So, while I was reading the chapter from Noise/Music entitled "Japan," I was reminded a lot of the performances I've seen via VHS from Vietnam. Although I've never really considered what I heard to be noise I could definitely see a connection, especially when describing the performer/audience interaction.

Let me first explain what I've seen. Everytime I go to my Ba Ngaoi's (grandmother's) place, she always has these VHSs or DVDs playing that she got in Vietnam. The music I hear is typically far from genius and very poppy in characteristic---and I don't jut mean the music, but also the clothes, the audience interaction and the movement. Talk about cheesy. But, whatever, the audience seems to dig it. What cracks me up the most is that a lot of the time they will sing covers of American songs and I can almost swear that the singer doesn't even really know what they are singing...to them, they are just words.---And this brings me back to the Noise/Music chapter, entitled "Inept."

Everybody wants to be a rockstar.

It seems to me that this genre and culture of music that I've seen throughout my life--not of my own willingness--demonstrates a demographic that I, perhaps ignorantly, mimic along with my sister. It's so easy to make fun of the fact that other than the singer there are no musicians playing typical instruments on stage, yet the crowd is going crazy. At the same time, however, I have to admire the fact that the interaction between the stage and the audience is one of two-way admiration. It doesn't seem to matter in the end how the performance is done...the fans are there and they are there to support the performer. This support system is such a huge part of why musicians do what they do, whether inept or not...it works.