I first encountered M.I.A (Mathangi Arulpragasm). through her song "Galang" on the internet. I think I had heard that she was Sri Lankan and it was interesting to me that she was doing a song using a title drawn from Jamaican patois. Seemed like it might be interesting. I found "Galang" to be a mildly interesting pastiche of dancehall reggae, jungle, and various sonic elements from around the world--catchy but ultimately pretty lightweight. Still, it provoked curiousity, which was stoked by the flood of internet buzz and media attention that began mushrooming. M.I.A. was of Sri-Lankan background, based in the UK, beautiful, allegedly a visual artist and fashion designer, a semi-rapper/vocalist who drew on a vast multi-cultural palette of music and politics. She was, it seemed, a new international being transcending national boundries, cultures, genres and old media limitations. She was portrayed as an activist on behalf of the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka; her father had been a "freedom fighter" with the EROS and Tamil Tigers liberation movements, suffering harrassment and ultimately imprisonment which led to M.I.A.'s family to emigrate to London as refugees. All that made me very curious to check out her debut album, ARULAR, when it came out in 2005. Unfortunately ARULAR was disappointingly insubstantial. All the interesting elements were there but they weren't put together with any kind of inspired artistry. It was like watching one of those movies where you wait for something to happen but nothing ever does. In a word, "disappointing."
A couple of years later the internet was buzzing about M.I.A.'s new video/song "Bird Flu" from her upcoming second album, which was recorded in various far-flung locales around the world, utilizing elements from many of these locales. Again, sounded interesting; again the actual recording was disappointing. It just never came together in any coherent way. Nonetheless, I dutifully checked out the second album, "Kala". It seemed better put together than the debut but such elements as melody,
coherent lyrics and substantial rhythms were largely absent. There was one cut, "Paper Planes" that made an impression; there was a semblance of a melody and it was catchy in a loopy sort of way. A re-mix of the track was even better. By luck it was included in the improbable hit movie "Slumdog Millionaire." M.I.A. was now a global sensation of sorts, the beneficiary of endless media attention which attached all the right buzzwords to her--political activist, visual artist, multi-culltural, globalized hip-hop etc. Unfortunately it takes real talent to pull together disparate elements into something cohesive, compelling and substantial. When that effort fails, the results are simply vapid. Nonetheless Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2009--a truly absurd annointing considering the paucity of her actual accomplishments.
Now, in 2010, the third M.I.A. CD appears, heralded by the video "Born Free", shot by the son of the maker of the film "State Of Siege," a ground-breaking 40 year-old political film. "Born Free" is an overt attempt to make a political statement; it features a series of scenes in which red-headed people are rounded up by storm troopers and brutalized in various ways, highlighted by scenes of graphic violence and nudity. The only problem is the film really makes no substantial, coherent statement beyond the rather obvious point that a minority populace may be be oppressed and/or brutalized by a state controlled by the majority, a point that is not exactly news at this point. The film is something you might see from a precocious high school student. The violence and nudity seems gratuitous since in the film they don't serve any meaningful truth.
I haven't heard the new album yet. The single is the most accessible thing she's done. It has something approaching a melody. But it is simply ordinary.
M.I.A. has in ommon with such artists as Madonna, Erykah Badu, Lady Gaga, and Macy Gray a keen sense of style and cultural currents, an ability to reference these currents in her persona, and a great talent for provocation and self-promotion (which in these times are one and the same!). I am not at all equating these women...they have different kinds of appeal, different levels of talent and different quality in their music. However, the appeal of all of them goes beyond music to style, persona, and an ability to manipulate their image in the media. But when it comes to making music, it does help to have genuine musical talent of one sort of another. It is not necessary to be an accomplished musician but if not musicianship then vocal ability or compositional ability needs to be there if the music is going to be substantive. Lady Gaga reputedly does have musical talent (i have not listened enough to her to know). Macy Gray can truly sing. Erykah Badu has created some recordings (not many) that are uniquely affecting and/or powerful. Madonna as little or no musical talent beyond an ability to recognize a good pop song; M.I.A. seems, so far, to lack even that ability. It's no easy trick to make something out of a thousand bits of musical/cultural effluvia. M.I.A. seems to be trying. Maybe one day she will succeed.
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