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[JWPM 1.1 (2014) 51-71] JWPM (print) ISSN 2052-4900doi:10.1558/jwpm.v1i1.51 JWPM (online) ISSN 2052-4919
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX.
Oli Wilson
Selling Lokal MusicA Comparison of the Content and Promotion of Two Locally Recorded and Released Albums in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Oli Wilson is a lecturer in the Music Department at Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he teaches popular music studies and ethnomusicology. In addition to the musical cultures in Papua New Guinea, Oli Wilson’s areas of research include music in Oceania, particularly indigenous New Zealand popular music, the music industry, recording and studio production (as creative practice) and recording studio ethnography.
Department of MusicOtago University, PO Box 56Dunedin 9054, New [email protected]
AbstractThis article examines the production and reception of local popular music in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and draws on ethnographic research undertaken in recording studios in Port Moresby, a major centre for music production in Melanesia. Specifically, the linguistic and musical content of two contrasting albums, Gera Verere by the band Waterfall Tunes and Cool As Ice by soloist Flora Suve, are compared in the way they were constructed, promoted and marketed. Both albums were released in 2009 by a newly established record label called Spaida Trakz. The label’s perspective on the relative success versus failure of the two albums (in terms of sales) informs the analysis; it was obtained through participant observations at the record company’s offices and complemented by a series of interviews with its staff. These insights demonstrate how perceptions concerning place and cultural identity were either exploited or neglected by Spaida Trakz in its attempt to connect these albums with local consumers. Through comparison, the article examines the broader sociocultural processes that underpin the operation of the recording industry in Port Moresby and explores PNG popular music’s capacity to reflect and embody indigenous knowledge.
Keywords: ethnography; Papua New Guinea; popular music; Port Moresby; recording industry
IntroductionSince the 1990s, when the last major research on the Papua New Guinean (PNG) recording industry was undertaken (see Webb 1993a, 1993b, 1995a, 1995b, 1997; Philpott 1995, 1998, 1999; Niles 1996), the music industry has undergone significant structural and technological changes. The two most
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important developments have been the relocation of the country’s recording industry centre from Rabaul (East New Britain province) to its multicultural capital Port Moresby after a volcanic disaster in 1994 (see Crowdy and Hay-ward 1999), and the rise in the number and influence of home-based record-ing studios, which have dramatically increased Papua New Guinea musicians’ access to recording facilities.1 Port Moresby’s recording studios—over twelve at the time of this research—collectively form a major centre for music pro-duction in Melanesia, and have produced hundreds of recordings catering for a wide range of PNG’s 800 languages and cultures, many based outside of the city. Most previous studies concerning the PNG recording industry were based in Rabaul, and little research has explored the inner workings of the Port Moresby recording industry. According to Crowdy (2010), studies of urban music-making in PNG have generally “dealt with the subject as part of other studies” (137), an observation equally applicable to the Port Moresby recording industry.2 Furthermore, despite studies of popular music now being commonplace in ethnomusicology, Papua New Guinean urban musical cul-tures remain under-researched compared to rural cultures, possibly due to negative preconceptions about Melanesian cities as “bad places, with good reason. They are not places people wish to call home” (Sillitoe 2000: 179).3
This article seeks to reinvigorate the scholarly discourse on recorded pop-ular music in Papua New Guinea by providing a perspective on its produc-tion and promotion, whilst exploring ideas about place and cultural identity. Central to this article is an account of the release of two albums by the record label Spaida Trakz, which operated in Port Moresby from 2008 to 2011. This focus on a particular label and period of time is significant as both represent the culmination of important technological and sociocultural developments. Spaida Trakz actively supported home-based recording studios through licensing deals and adapted its working model from its main competitor, Chin
1. Little research has been done on the cultural make-up of Port Moresby. Goddard explains that “Port Moresby has always been a migrant town” (Goddard 2005: 7). There are two minority cultural groups indigenous to Port Moresby’s confines, the Motu and Koitabu (see Goddard 1992, 2000, 2001, 2005). For older anthropological accounts, see Oram and Hitchcock (1967), Oram (1976) and Stuart (1970).
2. Other studies that address Port Moresby popular music, or musicians, have explored the “art”-music jazz-traditional style hybrid known as PNG Contemporary (Crowdy 1999; Philpott 1999); others have explored PNG musicians’ collaborations with Australian “world music” artists (Hayward 2000); and recently Crowdy published an article discussing the live music scene in Port Moresby from 1992 to 2000 (Crowdy 2010).
3. Goddard (2005) summarizes: “media imagery … about [urban] Papua New Guinea’s ‘law and order’ problems, its struggling ‘economy’ and its corrupt politicians and public servants ensures that at the beginning of the 21st century, Port Moresby remains, in the popular imagination, a town ‘built for trouble’” (21).
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H Meen (CHM), which has dominated the recording industry since the mid-1990s (see Philpott 1999).4
The two albums that feature here were licensed by Spaida Trakz when launching its business in 2009. One was a rural stringband-influenced album by Waterfall Tunes, an all-male band, and the other was a dance-pop album by Flora Suve, a young female soloist who won a televised talent competi-tion a couple of years earlier. Despite receiving considerable nationwide pub-licity and radio play, Flora Suve’s album sold only few copies, whereas the Waterfall Tunes album connected with a moderately sized audience—large enough for the record to break even—despite receiving comparatively little local or national radio play or media attention. The relative failure of one album versus the success of the other will be explored through a comparative analysis of both albums’ linguistic and stylistic content, which is informed by qualitative research into the production and marketing strategies employed by Spaida Trakz. Because the albums were Spaida Trakz’s first releases, the label openly considered them “experiments”, and I was invited to be involved in the evaluation and sales analysis for both of them. The resulting discussion explores industry perspectives on why some music sells and other music does not, and argues that meanings of popular music are best understood through local frameworks where notions linking cultural identity to geographic places are grounded in indigenous ways of thinking. The results from this urban-focused study also suggest that the main sociocultural significance of PNG popular music lies in its ability to musically and stylistically construct places that, for many of its consumers, are somewhere else. These places are usually rural villages, as many of the cities’ residents have migrated or are descen-dants of migrants from a wide range of linguistically distinct rural areas. In terms of identity, these migrants and their descendants remain socially and ideologically connected through an affiliation to specific rural places. Some scholars have indeed observed the importance of maintaining links to these places, “not just for the sake of emotional security … but also as insurance against unemployment or old age, as many migrants imagine they will return home in their old age” (Sillitoe 2000: 169; see also Goddard 2005: 13).
The methods used for the evaluation of both albums reinforce Spaida Trakz’ own interpretations and align with a growing discourse in ethnomusic-ology that prioritizes “how musicians [are] thinking and behaving in situ” over western definitions of authentic traditional culture (Cottrell 2010: 18). Theo-retically, this paper explores how popular music traditions embody local cul-
4. CHM’s music-industry facilities include a multi-studio complex, cassette factory, radio station, website and music video production facilities (all based in Port Moresby), as well as retail outlets and an established nationwide distribution network.
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ture, specifically through the musical construction of indigenous socialities that reflect local ways of knowing and viewing the world. While the findings clearly intersect with scholarly discourses concerning music, identity and place (see Bennett 2000; Stokes 1994; Connell and Gibson 2013), I argue that PNG popular music is best conceptualized as a distinctively indigenous mode of creative expression, and I consider “inventions” and localization prac-tices as a natural part of local traditions (see Linnekin 1992; Lindstrom and White 1993; Feinberg 1995; Moulin 1996). This article therefore also nuances discourses in Pacific Studies that advocate the incorporation of indigenous knowledge concerning identity into scholarly research (Hau’ofa 1975, 1993, 2000; Hereniko 2000; Henry and Pene 2001; Pihama et al. 2002; Hviding 2003; Walker et al. 2006).
Both albums were recorded by the same producers using similar electronic recording equipment. Their comparison, however, also foregrounds points of difference, including the artists’ gender, the albums’ production approaches and musical content, as well as the recording medium on which they were released. The first example, Gera Verere by Waterfall Tunes (2009), draws upon stylistic variants denoting specific rural places, and represents the conven-tional approach to marketing popular music in PNG. Waterfall Tunes’ music is best understood as electronic stringband, a “pre-independence” style of local popular music with rural connotations that I will discuss and define further in this article (see Webb 1993a; Crowdy 2001, 2005, 2006; Suwa 2001; Crowdy and Feld 2002). Songs were originally written for and performed by a string-band but feature on the album with electronic arrangements. Furthermore, the album’s social and cultural functions are similar to Crowdy’s (2005) obser-vations about the stringband-style complex, which is important to why the music is defined locally as “lokal” (see also Crowdy 2001). The album is linguis-tically diverse and features songs in the artists’ indigenous language (Rigo), as well as in Motu and Tok Pisin.
Issues surrounding gender are particularly important in the comparison of both albums. It has been documented elsewhere that women are severely disadvantaged in the PNG music industry, and gender is undoubtedly a factor that affects both reception and sales (Webb 1993a; Turalir 1995). Musically, the Cool As Ice album features no stringband influence and is intentionally devoid of references to rural places or indigenous cultures and languages. Instead, Cool As Ice contains mostly English lyrics and is based on modern urban genres such as pop, R&B and dancehall. The points of difference in the musical content and promotional strategies are more subtle, but also cultur-ally significant. The delineation draws attention to the musical and social mechanics that underpin popular music’s capacity to express indigenous identities. Lastly, the choice of each album’s recording medium (CD for Cool As
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Ice; cassette for Gera Verere) is an important difference reflecting Spaida Trakz’ perceptions about the relationship between differing markets and recording media.
The success of both albums was measured by actual sales of physical units and assumes that the act of consuming and purchasing music reflects individ-uals’ attitudes and values. This article’s methodology and scope explore these sociocultural processes, with specific focus on the perspectives of record company staff and other industry personnel about both albums and accom-panying marketing strategies. This case-study approach emerged during an extensive study of PNG popular music that took place over twelve months in 2009 and included twelve recording studios located in Port Moresby.5 These two case studies exemplify the PNG music industry’s broader sociocultural underpinnings at this time, but should not be considered representative of all locally produced and released music in PNG. Specific data for this article draw upon participant observation at Spaida Trakz and interviews with the company’s staff. Key informants included the owner and general manager, Australian-born Andrew Johnson (henceforth AJ), and three other full-time staff, Ian Boas (Artist Manager), Richard Tokiapron (logistics) and Anslom (logistics). Ian Boas and Anslom identify as Tolai (from Rabaul), whereas Richard Tokiapron identifies as mixed Hula (from the Central Provence) and German.
Spaida TrakzSpaida Trakz was set up by AJ after Richard Tokiapron and another musician named Viktor Chapek lobbied him to provide an alternative music distribution company to the main one in the field, Chin H Meen (CHM). At the time, Rich-ard and Viktor worked freelance for AJ’s advertising company called Pacific View Multimedia (PVM) and operated a home-based recording studio called Tribe Records. Richard and Viktor complained that CHM’s dominance of dis-tribution and manufacturing resulted in a monopoly, and they felt they had no choice regarding distribution.6 These complaints were common among home-based studios, and were intensified by perceived cultural conflicts (CHM is run and owned by Filipino and Chinese migrants and their descendants)
5. Recording studio ethnographies in other Pacific contexts include Denis Crowdy’s (2007) examination of a Honiara studio, and Cattermole’s Fijian recording studio study (2007).
6. For example, tensions between the PNG artist Oshen and CHM are discussed in the following websites: http://namorong.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/oshen-chm-owner-is-king-of-piracy-in.html; and http://masalai.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/oshen%E2%80%99s-ends- contract-with-chm (accessed 13 February 2014).
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and unrealistic perceptions on the part of musicians about the profitability of recorded music.7 After convincing AJ to start Spaida Trakz, both Viktor and Richard were formally employed there, and the distribution and marketing of two of Tribe Records’ unreleased albums (Gera Verere and Cool As Ice) was licensed to the newly formed studio. Spaida Trakz was the first dedicated music business AJ operated, although he had been in business in PNG since the early 1990s and was sporadically involved with the local music industry.8 In the 1990s, he was working on Mekim Musik, an EMTV9 programme featuring locally made music videos, where he worked on some of PNG’s first music videos with Titus Tilly (Hayward 1995; see also Wild 1995). AJ was also involved in some of EMTV’s other local productions, including the six o’clock news. AJ was inter-ested in the potential of combining the recording studio with his existing advertising and film-making business PVM, which was PNG’s largest television and radio advertising production company. This gave Spaida Trakz an advan-tage in the music industry, as well as direct access to marketing media and retail networks. Prior to the release of Cool As Ice and Gera Verere, Spaida Trakz had secured retail deals with several chain stores and 125 post offices through-out PNG. In Port Moresby, the studio had distribution arrangements with a number of major commercial outlets, including Brian Bell, Bislima, Trophy Haus, Mobil Petrol Kwik Stops, and the City and Chemica Pharmacies. In Kavi-eng, they had distribution arrangements with Hamamas Trading; in Kimbe, Hamamas Trading and Mega Mart; and in Rabaul, Redstar Trading; as well as stores in Bougainville and Kokopo. Of these outlets, City Pharmacy and Brian Bell provided distribution in most of the larger urban centres. Spaida Trakz’ office was situated in a central Port Moresby tower block, making it the only studio in Port Moresby other than CHM to have wholly dedicated offices and recording spaces that did not double as the owner’s home.
Gera Verere (2009) by Waterfall TunesPrior to the release of Gera Verere, the band Waterfall Tunes was virtually unknown outside of their home region. They describe themselves as village boys from Memeka Village in the Rigo inland area, located about five hours’ drive east of Port Moresby. The band’s rural identity is reinforced in their music and marketing. Paul, the bandleader, summarizes:
7. For a critical discussion about the PNG music industry, see Philpott (1999) and Crowdy and Hayward (1999).
8. While in Australia in the 1980s, AJ worked as a freelance cameraman and some of his contracts included filming musicians, notably INXS.
9. The “EM” from EMTV refers to the Tok Pisin term “It”, i.e. “It TV”, and has no offi-cial affiliation with the MTV brand.
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We were all in the village, and our main everyday life [consisted of] garden-ing, fishing and hunting, but in the evenings we sit together and we play and write music in [accordance with] our own traditional lifestyle. (i/v, Port Moresby, 26 March 2009)
All four members of Waterfall Tunes are connected through kinship ties and known to each other as wantok (a Tok Pisin term that translates into English as “one-talk” and refers to someone of one’s kin group). Three of the members’ fathers are brothers, and the fourth is connected genealogically through his mother’s side. Usually, this would exclude him from identifying with the same clan as the others, but this is not a problem; as Paul describes, “he is with us because his blood is there” (i/v, Port Moresby, 26 March 2009), reflecting the fluidity of contemporary kinship affiliations outside the home village context. The band members lived in their village until 2007, when two members, Alfred and Paul, moved to Port Moresby and gained employment as security guards.
After forming the band in Memeka Village in 2002, Waterfall Tunes saved money made from selling garden produce at roadside stalls and borrowed from relatives to pay the 1500 kina studio fee (around US $550) to record an album at Tribe Records studios. The sound engineers there specialized in electronic production and saw this as an opportunity to combine urban-style production with rural stringband songs. Paul describes the band’s musical approach prior to recording:
It’s guitar only, someone plays the lead [and] someone [else] plays the lokal way of playing the lead guitar, and the others play the rhythm, and [the lead singer] sings the high note and all of us back it. If you want to make a beat then we can get a kundu [hour-glass drum], because there is no drum kit in the village, so we get a kundu. (i/v, Port Moresby, 26 March 2009)
The album’s production is characterized by electronic instrumentation and arrangements, and produced on ProTools production software using sequencers and synthesizers. Most songs on Gera Verere are characterized by a stringband-style melody with slick computer-generated electronic produc-tion, making it notably different from most lokal music, which typically fea-tures keyboard-generated backing tracks (often created with a Yamaha PSR electronic keyboard). The songs on Gera Verere have minimalist synthesizer pads and synthesizer arpeggiators to establish tonality, and most feature elec-tronically produced drums, typically minimal. Ian describes the production values and style:
[It’s] typical Papuan music, but it has the oomph-oomph feel to it, that’s the [computer-]generated music, [it’s there] to bring it to a standard where it doesn’t sound like it’s that kind of music from the 1950s. It’s way up there with [international] market trends. (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 April 2009)
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Despite a modern production technique, their vocal and melodic styles still resemble the original stringband influences and position the album within the trajectory of lokal music from their area. Table 1 outlines the musi-cal style and languages used in Gera Verere.
Table 1: Track list order, styles and languages on Gera Verere (2009) by Waterfall Tunes
Song title Song style Language (s)
“A Feivamuni” Central lokal Rigo
“Asi Bamavini” Central lokal Motu
“A Tuamagini” Central lokal Rigo
“Sweet Honey” Central lokal Motu and Tok Pisin
“Jay Lee” Central lokal Rigo
“Gera Verere” Central lokal Rigo
“Kupiano Market” Techno Tok Pisin and Motu
“Love Solution” Central lokal Tok Pisin and Kerema
“Raldi” Central lokal Rigo
“Tamagu” Ballad Rigo
“Vavine Raramanimu” Reggae Rigo
“Kele Vavine” Central lokal Rigo
The album’s producer, Richard, retained the lokal style by capturing the vocals “live” and in accordance with an “out of tune, out of time” stringband aesthetic (Crowdy and Feld 2002). To achieve the right feel, there was little emphasis on accuracy, as Richard describes:
We recorded them over two days; they did one take, six guys singing all at once. We mic’d up just six guys, not one by one, and they sang the whole songs, every single one, no mistakes and we double-track edit[ed] all. (i/v, Port Moresby, 28 March 2009)10
The vocal delivery on Gera Verere also has a distinctive nasal characteris-tic typical of groups from the Rigo area and the Central Province. Considering the overtly electronic production, these features—the vocal delivery, melodic style and language—are the critical reasons why Waterfall Tunes is under-stood to originate from, or at least allude to, their Rigo home.
The potential for regional or local significance underpinned the studio’s approach to marketing, which focused on the promotion of the lead single
10. Double-tracking is a recording technique that involves overlaying the lead vocals multiple times by the same vocalist. It creates the illusion that multiple voices are singing and helps to strengthen the melody in the arrangement.
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called “Kupiano Market” on local radio. Efforts concentrated on two stations, Yumi FM and FM Central, both of which broadcast in Tok Pisin and play a high content of locally produced music in Central Province styles. Spaida Trakz chose “Kupiano Market” because they hoped that theTok Pisin lyrics might appeal to markets beyond the Central Province.11 Ian explains:
We chose the first song “Kupiano Market” for the first single because it’s in Tok Pisin. The music is Papuan, but because it is in Tok Pisin it will break through mainstream across PNG and it will appeal to everyone. (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 April 2009)
The song’s lyrics allude to a romance that began at the market, a popular destination for travellers along the Magi Highway. It is a well-known road in the Central Province, as it connects coastal villages from Port Moresby to Kupiano Station, about five hours via a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle, usually a flatbed truck). The Tok Pisin lyrics and translation are as follows:
Namel long POM city na Kupiano Between Pom City and Kupiano
Mi weit long Memeka Jansen I waited at Memeka Junction
Mi kism PMV na tok oslem I got a PMV and said
Mi laik cruz i go long Kupiano Market I’d like to go to Kupiano Market
Kupiano Market Kupiano Market
Yu stap wantaim bilas olgeta taim You are always beautiful
Smail blong ol solwara roses I winim The smile of the sea roses [women]
Lewa bilong mi Win over my heart
To do lau giroa,12 Kumul But I will go back, paradise of the
Bilong guni i singautim mi inland is calling me.
Wan nait long haus market One night at the Market House
Nogat sil i tulait i buruk I couldn’t sleep until daybreak
Colwin long solwara Cool winds from the sea
Mekim mi salim tingting made me reminisce
Mi no wari em i pasin bilon ol paul bodi I didn’t mind because that’s the way of others
Example 1: Tok Pisin lyrics and translation of the lead single “Kupiano Market” from the album Gera Verere (2009) by Waterfall Tunes. Translation by the author and reproduced with permission.12
11. Webb’s book Lokal Musik: Lingua Franca Song and Identity in Papua New Guinea explores the unifying potential of Tok Pisin lyrics (1993a).
12. In Motu language.
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Because of the market’s popularity, it was thought that “Kupiano Market” would appeal to an audience beyond the Rigo area. Ian explains:
We don’t see it as just Papuan music. It’s got the Papuan feel, yes, and the Rigo language, but the songs and the lyrics do not just relate to people there. Everyone has life experience, and you will find that everyone likes to hear about girls or relationships and something that everyone’s into … The song is actually promoting the Rigo area but because it’s sung in Tok Pisin, it will appeal to everyone. It will have a universal appeal. (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 April 2009)
Two months after its release, “Kupiano Market” had received moderate play on Yumi FM, some play on FM Central and sold over 1200 copies, all in the Central Province.
Cool As Ice (2009) by Flora SuveWhile recording and releasing Cool As Ice, Flora Suve, who is in her twen-ties and holds a degree from the University of Papua New Guinea, worked as an administrator for a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Port Moresby. Prior to Cool As Ice, Flora was already known for winning the first season of a PNG-wide televised talent quest (modelled on American Idol) called Ice Discovered, which aired on EMTV in 2006. Part of her prize included a recording contract for a solo album funded by the main spon-sor of the show, South Pacific Breweries. This affiliation is also reflected in the title of the album, which references their “Ice” brand beer. The job of writing and recording this album was commissioned to Tribe Records and the album was later licensed to Spaida Trakz. Cool As Ice was given signifi-cant marketing promotion by Spaida Trakz because they believed it con-tained three important points of difference from other local releases: they thought the artist had star potential, the album was composed of English-language songs, and the album featured a pop-oriented musical style. Like Gera Verere, all ten songs on Cool As Ice featured slick, electronically pro-duced backing tracks. Musically and lyrically, however, the records are notably different. Most songs on Cool As Ice are based on a dance-oriented pop style not dissimilar to western conventions (Kylie Minogue was a major influence). Some vocals are also treated with rich chorus and delay effects that accentuate the dance-pop production. The slowest songs are “Changes” and “Why”, which feature R&B ballad-style melodies, but are also underpinned by a regular electronic beat. Table 2 outlines the styles and languages featured on the album.
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Table 2: Track list order, styles and languages on the album Cool As Ice (2009) by Flora Suve
Song title Style Language (s)
“Changes” R&B/ballad English
“Got To Move” Dance/pop English
“Complicated (8 Legged Mix)” Dance/pop English
“3Dayz” Dance/pop English
“Why” (featuring South Tribe) R&B/ballad English
“Cool As Ice” Dance/pop English
“Sweet Lovin” (featuring Fred Taureke) Reggae English
“Paradise” Dance/pop English
“Rasta Party” Reggae English and Tok Pisin
“Complicated (Gypsy Mix)” Dance/pop English
Because of these differences, the promotion and release of Cool As Ice were notably different from those for Gera Verere and employed strategies rarely used by the PNG music industry. According to Spaida Trakz, their marketing targeted “employed urban females with disposable income” aged from late teens to mid-thirties. They believed that Flora had the voice and image (i.e. star quality) that would appeal to these urban consumers. AJ states, “Music is not on the kitsch list of things in PNG, people can’t really afford to get the kids off to school at the moment … to spend 15 bucks on a CD. It isn’t a prior-ity” (i/v, Port Moresby, 7 March 2009). All the tracks on Cool As Ice were writ-ten by Richard Tokiapron and Viktor Chapek and sung in English, except the ninth track “Rasta Party”, which features Tok Pisin phrases scattered among mostly English-language sentences. This is a common conversation style for urban Papua New Guineans fluent in both English and Tok Pisin. Unlike Gera Verere, the album features no indigenous languages (known as Tok Ples). The predominant use of English was deliberate, and it was suggested that English could serve a unifying role because it circumvented the indigenous (rural) language delineations evident in Gera Verere.13 Ian states:
Singing in English is the way to go. PNG artists seem to think that maybe Tok Pisin will get through to everyone, but everyone understands English [now]. Little kids in community schools sing English even if they do not understand the language, they do sing in English. We just think it’s a uni-versal language that can break barriers … And we wanted to treat her as a diva, which means someone who can sing in English. (i/v, Port Moresby, 25 March 2009)
13. This is a similar sentiment to what Webb (1993a) observed in Tok Pisin songs in the 1980s.
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As previously mentioned, Cool As Ice did not feature stringband-style mel-odies, and this too was viewed as a positive. Instead, it featured a mixture of R&B, reggae and dance styles (see Table 2), what other studios often describe collectively as “urban” styles.14 Flora’s songs also feature other pop conven-tions, including a soaring chorus and low-intensity “break-down” (or middle-eight) sections that build tension before dropping into a soaring chorus finale. Similarly, the decision to release Cool As Ice only on CD reinforced the product as “urban”, and its distribution was limited to urban centres, mainly Lae and Port Moresby.
The promotion of the album centred on an upbeat single called “Got To Move”, which describes nightclub and party scenarios:15
Stepping in the club, all the heads are turningSlave to the grind, I need to unwindLoosen up a little, life’s about living Don’t just stand there, get up and move
Ahh, I’ve just got to move, yeahAhh, just got to moveOh yeah!I’ve just got to move
Driving in my car, I got my sound system pumpingI need to get to the place, where it’s all happeningEverybody’s in the right tonight, there’s no time for wastingLet’s move to the dance floor, what are you waiting for.
Example 2: English lyrics for the single “Got To Move” from the album Cool As Ice (2009) by Richard Tokiapron and Viktor Chapek. Reproduced with permission.
The release of “Got To Move” was accompanied by a music video, and made a dramatic impact on local radio and television. Flora received signifi-cant exposure in PNG’s print media and was featured on the cover of PNG’s New Age Woman magazine. The radio plugging for “Got To Move” was concen-trated at the English-language Nau FM because, according to AJ, it “reached the working-class English-language crowd” (i/v, Port Moresby, 7 March 2009). The song’s launch at Nau FM included a one-hour interview and an advertising cam-paign on the station. The single was put on high rotation and was reportedly the most-requested song there (via telephone calls from the public) in May. The single was also played several times a night in many of the local nightclubs. My
14. Described by Diettrich et al. (2011: 103) as “ailan reggae”.15. Port Moresby features a number of nightclubs with dance floors and DJs that play
mostly western dance and pop music.
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own observations showed that the single was hugely popular in Port Moresby, especially among its target audience. However, this did not translate into sales, and after three months the album had sold less than 100 copies.
Spaida Trakz’ After-sales Analysis and EvaluationNot surprisingly, Spaida Trakz viewed the release of Cool As Ice as a commer-cial failure, whereas Gera Verere was able to recoup its recording and promo-tion costs and possibly turned a small profit. On reflection, the staff at Spaida Trakz identified five key factors that influenced sales.
PNG’s EconomyThe first explanation given was that most people lacked the disposable income to purchase music. This is a common complaint among recording stu-dios in PNG and is substantiated by the high levels of poverty in the country. Spaida Trakz’ staff believed that the PNG economy has been in decline over the last ten years, and they blamed Prime Minister Bill Skate, who during his tenure from 1997 to 1999 “nearly sent the country broke, and inflation went spiralling out of control” (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 June 2009). AJ further specu-lated, “at the time, Papua New Guineans stopped buying en mass their favou-rite local music” (ibid.).
Relatable Star QualitiesAlthough she conformed to western stardom typologies (see Holmes 2004) and was nationally known due to extensive media coverage, Spaida Trakz’ staff believed that Flora’s star qualities did not resonate with PNG audiences. Most importantly, they did not translate in a way that motivated them to actually purchase copies of her music. On the other hand, Waterfall Tunes had virtually no national media presence, yet they sold twelve times as many albums as Flora. The regional focus of Waterfall Tunes’ promotional efforts surrounding celebrity culture also pointed towards specific cultural groups, although more research may be needed to ascertain PNG concepts surround-ing celebrities and stardom, since other artists, such as the Hawaiian rap/reggae artist O-Shen and Central Province entertainer Moses Tau, achieve high sales nationwide. It should be noted that these artists write their own music, whereas Flora did not, although Spaida Trakz staff did not identify song-writing abilities as a key factor influencing sales.
GenderGender politics were identified as a critical factor. AJ elaborated, “It is a male-dominated industry, and in fact there have been [almost] no successful female
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artists in PNG, so you have a few … but they don’t sell … would I try and get female artists in the future? Right now, my answer is no!” (i/v, Port Moresby, 7 March 2009). Gender disparities in the PNG recording industry have already been addressed by Webb, who notes, “comparatively few woman musicians perform in public or record, [and] this is hardly surprising” (Webb 1993a: 157; see also Turalir 1995). According to Webb (1993a), male dominance is also reflected by male-centric themes of lokal song texts (which are outside the scope of this article), which sometimes present females as “objects of derision and conquest … or fantasy” (154). “Urban women” in particular are subject to heavy criticism and are characterized in lokal songs as having “lax morals” or are “protagonists in the demise of relationships”, “sell sexual favours”, marry “disreputable type[s]”, and are out of their husbands’ control (Webb 1993a: 157–60). These characterizations stand in opposition to the “good” morals of rural women (1993a: 164–5).16 It is likely therefore that local attitudes con-cerning women in popular music had a significant impact on the public recep-tion of Flora and affected sales. As AJ explained:
You would think that women at last might have some empowerment and have gotten behind it, with PNG’s culture of down-treading women sub-jugated and if you wanted to put an anthropological look at it, maybe women were empowered to go and get it, well that didn’t happen. (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 June 2009)
The Medium: CD or CassetteAs previously mentioned, the choice of recording medium reflected Spaida Trakz’ expectations about the relationship between markets and the way groups of consumers prefer to consume popular music. Spaida Trakz assumed that the recording medium (CD or cassette) would help to connect the music to different types of buyers who have particular habits and possess different technology.17 Ian Boas explains that:
The youth of the country, we know … in the villages and the rural areas, people invest in portable radios, and not CDs. They sit there and have steam [alcoholic beverages] and a good time, and they sing, and you know they listen to the radio or play their favourite cassettes … For Flora’s market, basi-cally, [who] we want to reach are those that are in the urban centres, because they will buy the CDs, the working class. It will penetrate the rural market, and the urban market. With Flora, we think it will only sell in the urban market, which is why it’s only on CD. (i/v, Port Moresby, 25 March 2009)
16. These characterizations also point to the more cynical issue of violence toward women in Papua New Guinea, where high rates of domestic violence are thought to be a symptom of modernization (see Hinton and Earnest 2010: 225; also Lewis et al. 2008).
17. It is interesting to note that AJ did not refer to cassette or CD piracy.
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On reflection, AJ openly admitted to not knowing why some prefer cas-settes and some CDs:
We can’t work out why some are happy with cassettes, and some are happy with CDs because the cassette players are controlled by Chin H Meen. You can’t really buy too many cassette players anymore in the other stores, but they keep bringing them in from China, and stacking them in all their retail stores, so they are actively keeping cassettes going … All the boom boxes you see in the village have got the flat CD player on top, and the cas-sette player in the face … is it actually because the cassette is cheaper? Is it a question of quality? (i/v, Port Moresby, 7 March 2009)
The Importance of Language and Rural Cultural SignificanceAccording to Spaida Trakz, the failure of Cool As Ice was largely a consequence of the lack of cultural value attributed to its urban style, while its language and lyrics did not connect to culturally important rural places (known in Tok Pisin as ples). In terms of language, AJ conceded that despite his initially view-ing the English language as a positive, the lack of indigenous languages fea-tured on the album was detrimental to Flora’s success:
Flora’s [album] is in English! I think everyone wants to get back to their roots in music. When you have two [or more] languages, what’s your first language? You have to give them music in their language, that’s my gut feeling now. (i/v, Port Moresby, 7 March 2009)
The lack of rural local significance was also alluded to during a radio inter-view at Nau FM. When Flora was asked where she was from, she responded that she was from Port Moresby. The DJ replied, “Yeah, you live in Port Moresby, but where are you from?”, and Flora then clarified that she had mixed Oro and Central parentage. The necessity for her origin to be explained highlights the problems surrounding the absence of ples-based references in her music and marketing. This, according to AJ, was the album’s biggest downfall: “The Flora [experiment] is a disaster, no one wants any modern music … it has to be culture to be sold” (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 June 2009). In contrast, Gera Verere featured musical characteristics that associated it with ples and the Central Province of PNG more broadly. Unsurprisingly, most of the latter album’s sales were in this region, whereas the album Cool As Ice, which is arguably ples-less, did not sell well anywhere. Consequently, AJ viewed Port Moresby as a place where no one buys music: “In Port Moresby everyone is listening to music on the radio, they tune into their CHM or Nau FM [radio stations] to hear their music, they don’t want to buy local albums” (i/v, Port Moresby, 2 June 2009).
The analysis of the two albums shows that the commercial viability of PNG popular music is fundamentally linked to its capacity to appeal to mar-
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kets defined by connections to rural places.The analysis also reveals that sub-stantial promotion and marketing cannot replace the significance of the local. Locally produced popular music is freely available in both rural and urban areas of PNG, either through radio, borrowing or piracy, and so the act of purchas-ing music is a significant social one. It appears that the combination of certain cultural values embedded in the music’s style, lyrics and language alongside Spaida Trakz’ choice of recording media explains the relative success of Water-fall Tunes in contrast to Flora. The all-male Waterfall Tunes’ rural stringband elements connect with people in a way that motivated some to purchase their cassettes. According to the album’s producer Richard Tokiapron, this motiva-tion is directly connected to elements that make the album and its music lokal, noting that lokal style is the key to success for most local PNG popular music, including styles absorbing urban features and production characteristics:
… This one song that really worked for us on the radio was this one track called “Lewa”, which became a huge success, and was the only reason we sold a few [copies] that also went to the rural [areas]; it was lokal, it had a lokal beat to it. It was fine-tuned and nice and easy to listen to; we sang it in lokal and put hip hop to it. But not heaps, ’cos that didn’t suit it. When you do lokal with hip hop in it, it has to be loud, and then out again, and then back to the lokal. (i/v, Port Moresby, 28 March 2009)
The components that define music as lokal therefore reflect cultural mean-ings that reach deeper than the appropriated “indigenized” musical forms. In the case of the album Gera Verere, its cultural significance is grounded in local musical style and indigenous language, indicating that stringband characteris-tics are critical to the definition of lokal styles. Waterfall Tunes’ bandleader Paul elaborates, “It’s from the jungle to the city! We are a primitive lokal band! There is … Flora and you compare their kind of lyrics and their kind of melody with [us], we are still lokal” (i/v, Port Moresby, 26 March 2009). While the parallels between lokal and stringband have yet to be extrapolated in scholarly studies on popular music in PNG, both Webb (1993a) and Crowdy (2005) have pointed to their relationship. In his study of lokal song lyrics, Webb defined lokal music in terms of its rural stringband origins as “the mildly self-deprecating term many Papua New Guineans use to describe music (usually guitar and ukulele based) of village origins” (Webb 1993a: xix). Additionally, Crowdy explained, “stringband as a style can be seen to function as a transition genre to power band [electronically produced live and recorded] music … many early power bands … are really electrified stringbands” (Crowdy 2005: 116).18
18. The capacity for lokal music to signify rural places has also been identified by Webb (1993a), who describes how lokal lyrics are an ideal forum to express regional identities mobilized between cultural groups within the country.
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As outlined in the Waterfall Tunes album, the relationship between lokal music and stringband suggests that the meaning of PNG’s popular music con-tinues to lie in highly specific, locally defined contexts. This notion is rein-forced in the meaning behind the name Waterfall Tunes, which references local knowledge known only to cultural insiders. According to the band, the waterfall refers to a particular tambu (sacred) waterfall called Goibagu that ordinary people are forbidden to frequent. Paul explains:
We were looking for a name … we thought, why don’t we get something from our land? Our land represents us, and so we talked about our land, like something belonging to us. It’s like a trademark … In our Rigo area this waterfall is well known and they’ll know what we mean. But to other Papua New Guineans, they don’t know … but in Rigo, everyone knows. (i/v, Port Moresby, 26 March 2009)
ConclusionBy comparing the content and marketing of two locally recorded albums, Gera Verere by the band Waterfall Tunes and Cool As Ice by soloist Flora Suve, this article suggests that in Papua New Guinea, the market response to pop-ular music is related to the ways that the music embodies local ideas about place and indigenous culture. The results for both albums would likely come as no surprise to Spaida Trakz’ smaller home-based competitors, many of whom cater for specific local consumers. The studio’s larger competitor, Chin H Meen (CHM), on the other hand, caters for diverse markets by employing a range of producers from different regions. According to CHM, the coun-try’s cultural diversity means that there is no homogenous market for selling music. Instead, PNG is divided into many culturally defined niche markets for popular music, each with its own lokal style and language preferences. CHM releases around 90 locally produced commercial recordings a year because of this market fragmentation and claims to have released over 3,000 recordings in total.19 The fragmented market also dictates the ways in which artists are selected by recording studios; once studios consider a new artist, they deter-mine whether or not they already have an artist from that area or language group. Music manager for CHM, Richard Francisco, stated:
The reason we put out a lot is to cater for all the different markets as well, being a country with so many different languages [and cultures] you can’t just put out a Motuan album or a Highlander album [every-where]. That would fail in the Central Province. You can’t just target one market; a country as diverse as Papua New Guinea needs releases all
19. See CHM. n/d. CHM website page: “Evolving from strength to strength”, http://tinyurl.com/qdqfges (accessed 19 December 2013).
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the time, that’s why we put out so many products all the time. (i/v, Port Moresby, 8 January 2008)
My analysis of Spaida Trakz’ experiment in the form of two contrast-ing albums is consistent with Francisco’s observation, namely, that despite being recorded and released in Port Moresby, Waterfall Tunes’ success points to their album’s rural or local grounding and references to traditional cul-ture, whereas the failure of artist Flora Suve is due to a lack of these impor-tant features. The choice of CDs and cassettes was another factor, reflecting Spaida Trakz’ perceptions about consumer demographics and consumption habits. Meanwhile, further research into the “style complex”, as observed in stringband traditions (see Crowdy 2005), would be needed to further reveal the diverse and locally specific musical and lyrical characteristics that define music as lokal. Based on my analyses of both albums, however, lokal music can be understood to embody a form of PNG culture that is grounded in rural, place-based cultural affiliations. In Port Moresby, lokal popular music clearly appears to have the capacity to connect urban communities to rural places and vice versa, which shows how contemporary Papua New Guinean identi-ties remain intertwined in complex ways.
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DiscographyFlora Suve. 2009. Cool As Ice. Moresby, Papua New Guinea: Spaida Trakz. Compact disc.Waterfall Tunes. 2009. Gera Verere. Moresby, Papua New Guinea: Spaida Trakz. Cassette tape.
