Deep Forest Critque (1)

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Anthropology

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Dec 6, 2023

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Isabella Di Tursi 1 220112538 AP/ANTH1120 Darren Gens October 6th 2023 The album Deep Forest by the group Deep Forest was an album released in 1992 and was heavily influenced by cultural tribes in Africa mainly the Pygmy tribe. The group uses a mix of electronic and techno beats and overlaps those sounds with recordings of certain people singing or talking. The group thinks of themselves as sound reporters, where they gather other voices from all over the world. (Zuckerman, 2004) I believe the album was created to make a unique sound, something the music charts hadn't seen before. So with this in mind the group decided to pay visits to certain regions in Africa and use recordings of tribes singing in their unique language, some could have even been prayers, or just them talking. It was something that hadn’t really been heard before, especially not layered over electronic beets in a song. Every single song on this album has samples from other people singing and not once were they credited for this. One specific song on the album is “Sweet Lullaby”, and it is a Buaegu lullaby from the Soloman Islands, the song is sung by a woman named Afunakwa. (Zuckerman, 2004) This specific recording was recorded previously in 1970 and was released on a CD by UNESCO. The people of Deep Forest heard this recording and wanted to use it in their own production. They talked to “The Chief of Cultural Heritage” of UNESCO and asked if they could use the samples. The chief was in support of this project but only if the “ethnomusicologist who'd recorded the pieces approved and if the original artists were properly credited.” (Zuckerman, 2004) The original recorder of these vocals had refused Deep Forest from using these recordings but that didn't stop them from pursuing what they wanted to do. This group decided to go into these people's homelands and record their voices and use them for their own gain, for their musical project, and steal other's recordings that they did not have permission to use. Without these people's voices, you wouldn't have

2 this album that we can listen to today. They did not ethically produce this album because they did not have permission to use these people's work. Upon further research, there is not a single source from these artists where they have credited who was singing on any of the eleven tracks on the album. Although when the album started to gain popularity after its initial release, climbing the charts and winning awards, that's when the group decided to make a contribution to the Pygmy fund, which is one of the tribal groups that was used in most of their songs. According to the album's Wikipedia page, a percentage of Deep Forests album profits went towards this fund, which is a California-based organization that is meant to help support the Pygmy tribes, but it is unknown how much of that money they actually see. (Wikipedia, 2023) After reading several articles one of the constant things that was talked about is how this album is thought to be “exotic and wild” because the sounds and music were taken from a foreign tribe and a culture that in mainstream music we hadn’t heard before. It directly relates to Ethnocenterism because the reason this album won a Grammy and became such a hit sensation was because these artists took advantage of these people who may have been different than themselves and less vulnerable to being able to defend themselves in the case of stealing vocals. The Pygmy people for example live a very simple life in the Congo rainforest and live in communities sharing music and stories as part of their culture, they are not advanced in the sense that the Western world could be looked at in terms of traditions. They had no way of knowing at the moment that their vocals had been stolen and used to produce a best-selling album. I believe that if Deep Forest had used cultural relativism and appreciated the simplesim of the Pygmy tribe and acknowledged the beauty in seeing what their culture is like they could have ethically produced this album. This means they would have credited every single song where credit was due. In their linear notes, they could have written a short

3 blurb on what was being sung by these people or what was being practiced at the moment to share with the world the beauty of this culture that was and probably is very unfamiliar for a lot of people. Even before writing and letting people know the deeper meaning behind all of their songs they should have gone out into the field, into these communities and asked for their permission to use their vocals. They could have shown exactly what they intended to do with them and what they wanted to achieve, which could have been exposing the world to this different culture deep in an African rainforest. In terms of doing things ethically in the world of anthropology, we can see how not only did these artists steal vocals and not credit but they also did it extremely unethically. They did in fact do harm in terms of being told no to using a re-recording and going behind their backs and doing it anyway, resulting in angry people having to write letters expressing their anger and the harm that they have caused. (Zuckerman, 2004) Secondly, Deep Forest was not at all honest and open about their work, listeners listening to this album thought that this was such an exotic and eye-opening project that was unheard of, but they were not honest about where half of their work even came from, they did not create this music at all by themselves. Deep Forest did not obtain a single permission for their recording right and did not get any consent to use these people's culture for their own production. In conclusion, the album Deep Forest is an incredibly flawed project filled with cultural appropriation, stealing, and unethical ways of production. Their hunger to produce an album that was so unique caused them to step on other people and use foreign cultures for their own musical advantage. I strongly believe that this album could have been even bigger and more significant if they had told the public about where they got their inspiration from and what they were trying to produce musically.

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4 Citations “Deep Forest (Deep Forest Album).” Wikipedia, May 4, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Forest_(Deep_Forest_album)#cite_note-:0-4. Zuckerman, Ethan. Web log. Turmeric, Pygmies and Piracy (blog), November 23, 2004. https://ethanzuckerman.com/2004/11/23/turmeric-pygmies-and-piracy/.

Deep Forest Critque (1)

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