![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcAs my interest in Eurovision progressed from interest to addiction (an interest is something you do or follow; an addiction is something you must do, whether you want to or not), I started coming across a new word.
Schlager
At ESCToday (the world's #1 Eurovision website, of which I"m the Australian Editor. Maaate!), a number of forum members call themselves schlagerheads, or schlager queens (there's a lot of gay men who are addicted to Eurovision and all it's campy-goodness). But whenever I asked anyone to explain what schlager was . . . nothing. Going to Istanbul helped though--a lot. When a song was performed I would ask several European homosexual men "is this schlager?" Their answers were remarkably uniform, so I feel I too can now discern schlager from other forms of popular music.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jawnbc's 5 Critical Criteria for Schlagerness
1. Instant singability. Real schlager allows you to--and damned near compells all but the stuffiest--to sing or hum along to the chorus during the first listen. If you think of all the songs you've loathed over the years that nonetheless tricked you into humming along, they're probably schlager.
2. Love, Peace or Nostalgia. There are only three topics/themes for schlager. Love is #!--getting it, feeling it, missing it, looking for it in all the wrong places, remembering it, coming to terms with it. The second is Peace; peace songs are about hope (one day we shall live in peace), symbolism (let's light a candle for peace), or humanity-as-one (no borders, no politics, just everyone). Nostalgic schlager songs often integrate drinking into their narratives
3. Mixed groups or a female singer. You won't find any schlager songs 100% sung by a male/males. Schlager is definately more geared to the XX chromo combo, so you need either a mix of male and female voices (a male lead with female backups is OK). However a female can sing by herself. Dunno why, but it seems to be a rule
4. A simple melody. If everyone can sing/hum to it automatically (see #1), how complicated can the melody be?
5. From babbie to Nanny. Schlager gets support from the entire age spectrum. Schlager makes babies and grannies smile (often toothlessly in each case), and perhaps even gurgle and coo.
A schlager top 10 (get your hands above your head and start a-wavin' e'm):
10. Heaven - Bryan Adams
9. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
8. How Do I Live -Leanne Rimes Trisha Yearwood
7. Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
6. Dancing Queen - ABBA
5. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing - The New Seekers
4. Those were the Days My Friend - Mary Hopkins
3. Sweet Caroline (Da! Da! Da!) - Neil Diamond
2. American Pie - Don McLean
1. You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to name some schlager songs in the comments. I'll do a follow-up entry with the
Schlager
At ESCToday (the world's #1 Eurovision website, of which I"m the Australian Editor. Maaate!), a number of forum members call themselves schlagerheads, or schlager queens (there's a lot of gay men who are addicted to Eurovision and all it's campy-goodness). But whenever I asked anyone to explain what schlager was . . . nothing. Going to Istanbul helped though--a lot. When a song was performed I would ask several European homosexual men "is this schlager?" Their answers were remarkably uniform, so I feel I too can now discern schlager from other forms of popular music.
jawnbc's 5 Critical Criteria for Schlagerness1. Instant singability. Real schlager allows you to--and damned near compells all but the stuffiest--to sing or hum along to the chorus during the first listen. If you think of all the songs you've loathed over the years that nonetheless tricked you into humming along, they're probably schlager.
2. Love, Peace or Nostalgia. There are only three topics/themes for schlager. Love is #!--getting it, feeling it, missing it, looking for it in all the wrong places, remembering it, coming to terms with it. The second is Peace; peace songs are about hope (one day we shall live in peace), symbolism (let's light a candle for peace), or humanity-as-one (no borders, no politics, just everyone). Nostalgic schlager songs often integrate drinking into their narratives
3. Mixed groups or a female singer. You won't find any schlager songs 100% sung by a male/males. Schlager is definately more geared to the XX chromo combo, so you need either a mix of male and female voices (a male lead with female backups is OK). However a female can sing by herself. Dunno why, but it seems to be a rule
4. A simple melody. If everyone can sing/hum to it automatically (see #1), how complicated can the melody be?
5. From babbie to Nanny. Schlager gets support from the entire age spectrum. Schlager makes babies and grannies smile (often toothlessly in each case), and perhaps even gurgle and coo.
A schlager top 10 (get your hands above your head and start a-wavin' e'm):
10. Heaven - Bryan Adams
9. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
8. How Do I Live -
7. Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
6. Dancing Queen - ABBA
5. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing - The New Seekers
4. Those were the Days My Friend - Mary Hopkins
3. Sweet Caroline (Da! Da! Da!) - Neil Diamond
2. American Pie - Don McLean
1. You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone
Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to name some schlager songs in the comments. I'll do a follow-up entry with the
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 05:55 pm (UTC)Natuerlich
Date: 2004-11-07 06:15 pm (UTC)Als ein Lied 'gross' geworden werde, es ist ein "Superschlager", nicht wahr?
Re: Natuerlich
Date: 2004-11-07 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 07:16 pm (UTC)On another tangent
Date: 2004-11-07 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 10:47 pm (UTC)Vraiment je pense ça chanson--qui j'aime--qualifié pas; pas assez populaire avec les personnes plus agées.....
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 09:25 pm (UTC)Have you ever seen the episode of Father Ted where the priests compete in the "Song of Ireland" contest. Ted and Dougal win, but that's only because RTE can't afford to host another Eurovision contest, so they want the Irish entry to fail.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 04:33 pm (UTC)Hmmmmmmmmmm
Date: 2004-11-07 10:51 pm (UTC)I would also add a number of songs by the Beatles, the Chicken Dance (though it's not so much sung as enacted), several showtunes, Kumbaya (http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/music/20-13.htm) (shudder) & other campfire favorites, and many holiday ditties.
Re: Hmmmmmmmmmm
Date: 2004-11-08 02:49 pm (UTC)*Saturday folk mass flashback*
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:23 am (UTC)Of course anything by Swedish Schlager *Superstar* Lena Ph - it's great to work in an office with four young Swedes, who at least claim to hate Schlager - but enjoy passing off CD's to the funny old gay American. I think they get a kick out of watching me dance at my desk and sing along.
Just about anything Dolly Parton released in the 80s.
Of course there's also an entire genre of German schlager that's english pop hits covered in German. My favorites are a German cover of Y.M.C.A (which of course is spelled differently in the translation) and the German cover of "Blue Bayou".
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:50 pm (UTC)Should've added "It's a Heartache" bonnie tyler though. Pure schlager
no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 12:14 am (UTC)How to tell when it's NOT Schlager
Date: 2004-11-08 02:57 am (UTC)So anyway, just last night I was at the Wildsau mackin' on Thomy himself (who was mackin' back thank you very much) when something by ABBA came over the sound system (damn if I can recall what now).
I said, "Hey Thomy, your old bar called - they want their music back."
He replied, "This is NOT schlagger, because it's the techno remix."
I said, "Oh, I see. That makes it all sweaty and manly".
I was being sarcastic. I'm not sure Thomy was.
(100% true story)
btw, thanks for a great post.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 05:59 am (UTC)Yes, "Schlager" is the German literal translation of "hit" and has historically applied to German-language pop music, as distinct from the English-languague (Brit and Ami) Rock-und-Pop-Hit-Parade. "Schlager" music seems to have continued on in the vein Americans would recognize from Rosemary Clooney, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Vic Damone, Wayne Newton, and the ilk. There are distinctly German pop song styles and Interpreten (Volksmusikschlager, Chanson-Schlager, Freddy, Udo Juergens, Heino, Vicki Leandros, etc.).
I have looked, in vain, for decades, to find this sort of music in the "international" section of mega-record stores, but have never seen any of it in the US, or outside of the German-speaking realm of influence (Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.)
So, check out Marhsall and Alexander and see if they (and the MANY, MANY other male soloists) do fit categorically.
After last night, I HAVE to get the music video of them lip-synching and shoulder-swaying to one of thier tunes, while driving a gold convertible Mercedes in the Black Forest...himmlisch! It's quasi serious camp, in the way C&W used to be done with a serious face.
(Oh guess what, pulling up some webpages I find that [Marc] Marshall (41) is the son of Schlager-Singer Tony Marshall ...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:54 pm (UTC)Ralph Siegel is lameschlager!
no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 07:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 02:32 am (UTC)Ma chanson préferée du Brel: «quand on n'a que l'amour». J'aime aussi «ne me quitte pas» mais le version de Frida Boccara. Nina Simone? Blech!
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 04:57 am (UTC)vindication!
Date: 2004-11-09 10:53 pm (UTC)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager
Shlager (German Schlager , literally "a hit") is a style of popular music that is prevalent in northern Europe , in particular Germany and Scandinavia , but also to a lesser extent in France ,Belgium and the Netherlands . It is characterised by sweet, overly sentimental ballads , usually sung by a female vocalist, usually with a simple and memorable melody.
During the Second World War , the Nazi German Government tightly controlled the creation of music but despite this, the genre managed to do very well.
The style is frequently represented at the Eurovision Song Contest , and has been popular since the 1950s . While at one time music of this style was also fairly popular in the UK and USA , due to the constant change of fashion in popular culture , in the last 30 years Shlager fallen out of favour. Shlager is considered to be musically very old fashioned and overly simple. Because of this it is now rarely heard in those countries.
Schlager musicans:
Nie genug
Helen Sjöholm
Rio Reiser
Re: vindication!
Date: 2004-11-10 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-10 05:15 am (UTC)(... but Schlagger is not always or even mostly ballads ... )
no subject
Date: 2004-11-10 02:56 pm (UTC)So, just so I'm clear on the concept : Are there songs that might be confused for schlager but aren't? ^_-
no subject
Date: 2004-11-10 09:34 pm (UTC)Here's a breakdown of recent winners, and their schlaggeriness:
2004 Wild Dances Ruslana (Ukraine) no
2003 Every Way That I Can Sertab Erener (Turkey) no
2002 I Wanna Marie N (Latvia) no...and just crap
2001 Everybody Tanel Padar and Dave Benton and 2XL a bit
2000 Fly on the Wings of Love The Olsen Brothers PURE SCHLAGER!!!
1999 Take me To Your Heaven Charlotte Nilsson (Sweden) Schlager
1998 Diva Dana International (Israel) no
1997 Love Shine a Light Katrina and the Waves (UK) PURE SCHLAGER!!!
1996 The Voice Eimear Quinn (Ireland) no
1995 Nocturne Secret Garden (Norway) no
1994 Rock and Roll Kids Paul and Charlie (Ireland) schlager
1993 In Your Eyes Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland) a bit
1992 Why Me Linda Martin (Ireland) no
But this year Slovenia, Austria, Ireland, Norway, and the UK sent schlager (and all did badly).