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Does your music need a designer label?
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San Diego Union-Tribune, Does your music need a designer label? >>
-by George Varga
Do clothes make the singer? Or does the singer make the clothes? And does it even matter, when the singer's real concern ought to be making every song they perform into a singular (if not transcendent) moment?
These questions seem especially apt on a weekend that will see consecutive San Diego performances by both Zap Mama (Saturday at the Belly Up) and Beyoncé (Sunday at Cox Arena).
Despite their marked differences -- Beyoncé is a reigning pop and R&B superstar with her own clothing line, Zap Mama a quintessential World Music cult act -- they share at least one key similarity. Both began in all-woman vocal groups, Beyoncé with Destiny's Child, Zap Mama's Marie Daulne as the leader of an a cappella quintet that eventually evolved into, well, just her and a backing band.
Beyoncé will leave the Cox Arena stage repeatedly for costume changes. Daulne will just as likely remain in one outfit at the Belly Up. Likewise, Beyoncé will achieve the look of a model with perfectly windblown hair, thanks to several discreetly placed onstage fans, while Daulne will have to make do with a towel and the Belly Up's ventilation system.
What do all of Beyoncé's accouterments have to do with music? Nothing, and that's the point. While she is an undeniably talented singer, Beyoncé seeks to entertain her audience by striking one MTV video-like pose after another. Every song she performs is choreographed to the nth degree, as is her onstage patter. The result is a glitzy, eye-popping spectacle, which sums up the pros and cons of pop music in 2007 as well as anything.
Daulne, born in the Congo and raised in Belgium, sings in French, English, Swahili and Wolof. Her concerts, while entertaining, focus on her borders-leaping music, not her outfits or her hair. As anyone who saw her perform here with the original Zap Mama lineup at the 1994 edition of Street Scene can attest, Daulne is capable of electrifying an audience with nothing more than her marvelous voice.
Discussing Daulne and Beyoncé in the same breath might strike some as an unfair, apples-and-oranges comparison. But it is precisely the differences between these two gifted artists, and how they approach their craft, that makes them so fascinating when placed side-by-side. One strives to make her every move seem bigger than life; the other is happy to achieve an earthy global village vibe at her performances.
Which is better? You decide. 08/23/07 >> go there
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