According to international law, the just-passed May Day holiday should be flooded by music festivals. But now, most music lovers can only pretend to be on the scene.
Coachella Music Festival held in the California desert not long ago, making people drool.
not only has the blessing of Bili, The Weekend, Wang Jiaer and other lineups, but also a group of handsome hot girls walking under the sun and palm trees, the breath of youthful freedom is hopeless to penetrate the mobile phone screen in front of you.
▲ 2022 Coachella Music Festival, pictured from sfgate.com
Fresh check-in style, Rock Electronic music cafe and play pogo, the hormones and restlessness that belong to the scene are generally similar. But few people will notice that unlike domestic music festivals, there are always some "atmosphere groups" on both sides of the stage of American music festivals.
Don't get me wrong. They are not dancers, nor are they strange audiences, but sign language translators who help hearing-impaired audiences "hear" music.
is faster than rapper, and more like an atmosphere group than atmosphere group
Speaking of sign language translation, you may first think of CCTV News , and host Zhu Guangquan and sign language teacher love and fight each other.
But if you ask on social platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, netizens will give you the direction that the godly sign language teachers are not in the news channel, nor in the meetings of political leaders, but are all at the music festival.
They are always enthusiastic and full of energy. No matter whether the rocker on the stage is howling, or the rapper challenges the limit of human beings to output hot mouths, they can complete the translation at super-expert speed, and can keep up with the rhythm of music.
Holly Maniatty is one of the music sign language translators who were deified by social networks.
▲ Maniatty has nearly 20 years of translation experience at the Wu-Tang Clan concert and has worked with hip-hop celebrities such as Wu-Tang Clan, Jay Z, Kanye West, etc. The most popular time was in 2018, when Eminem's "Rap God" was translated on-site, directly slaying the entire audience and causing viral transmission.
This song was certified by the Guinness World Record as "the popular song with the most words". In just 6 minutes and 3 seconds, there are a total of 1,560 words. Some netizens joked that Maniatty's hand speed was as fast as a tribute to Naruto.
With its dazzling pink hair and passionate performance, Amber Galloway Gallego has also become a master of this field.
Gallego has been involved in music sign language translation since 2001. Eminem, Adele, Drake, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg and other singers are all her partners, and some magazines even call her "Jay-Z in the hip-hop sign language world."
and Kelly Kurdi became popular because of its straightforwardness and boldness.
Last year at the Lollapalooza Music Festival, she translated Cardi B's live because the lyrics themselves have some 18-forbidden content, Kurdi chose to translate truthfully and express it through actions. In the end, this video became a popular TikTok, with more than 14 million views in a week.
Maniatty, Gallego and Kurdi all have professional qualifications related to American Sign Language (ASL), but unlike daily sign language translators, they all specialize in live music translation.
In addition to real-time translation of lyrics and interactions with singers on stage, they are also conveying infectious emotions and rhythms to help hearing-impaired audiences understand the performance. With busy hand movements, proper facial expressions, and body language swaying with rhythm, wonderful music performances are "heard".
Let everyone "hear" it, which is the new generation of rap
Seeing this, you may be curious: Why does the music festival require sign language translation? Do hearing-impaired people go to music festivals too? Can they hear music?
If you have also watched the movie " Listening Girl ", you should remember this passage - on stage, the heroine was singing lyrical songs with her partner; off stage, her deaf parents and brother looked at each other because they could not hear the sound at all, and they didn't know how to cooperate with the beat.
But there is also a scene in the movie: Dad drove a truck to pick up the heroine from school, and the volume of the music in the car was turned up very loudly. He said, "I like to listen to rap music, and I can feel the whole butt vibrate."
In fact, hearing impaired groups are very diverse in hearing loss. Some can hear low-frequency sounds (such as drums and bass ), but they cannot receive relatively high-frequency vocals and guitars. Sometimes hearing aids and cochlear implants can be the solution, but even deaf people with severe hearing loss can catch vibrations through their skin and dance with the body's feeling of beats.
In order to better "hear" music, hearing-impaired people will feel vibrations from the floor on their soles of their feet without wearing shoes; hold balloon or a half-full water bottle to capture the rhythm with their palms; even stand near the speaker, immersing themselves in rhythm.
▲ Now some music festivals will also provide hearing-impaired people with "vls" that enhance vibration, and you can feel live music through chest straps, ankles and wrist straps
Apple Musictml2 has invited many hearing-impaired people to arrange a playlist. Most of their recommendations are mid- and low-frequency songs with obvious rhythm and rhythm.
But listening to music should not only be to feel the vibration frequency of .
▲ Sign language translator is on the scene, pictured from lamag.com
Although the bill was issued early, for a long time, the sign language translator hired on the music scene was still similar to the CC subtitles you watched movies at home -
They calmly and calmly translated the lyrics text, but ignored the atmosphere of the song and the performance of the instrument. They even told you that this is "music", "energetic music" and "sad music" when playing the prelude.
Gallego Hearing damage caused by spinal meningitis. To this day, she still clearly remembers the first time she went to a concert with her hearing-impaired friend. "It was as boring as if it was a municipal meeting." Therefore, she found her mission.
▲ Two translation methods: on the left is the sound and emotion, and on the right is calm to tell you that this passage is "music". Which one will you be more attracted to?
People who don’t know about it may think that sign language is limited to hand movements, but in fact, mouth shape, facial expressions and body language are all important components.
Taking a specific track as an example, Gallego will translate the lyric text into American sign language expression, use the performance movements to express the sound of the instrument, and present the tone level through the change of hand position. Throughout the process, the coordination of facial expressions and body language is very helpful in conveying emotional information.
All of this is to provide the "context" of understanding music for hearing-impaired people.
▲ Playing the air guitar, the basic skills of a music sign language translator
However, completing a live sign language translation for music is much more complicated than this. Behind the ease of performance on the stage, it may be a preparation time of up to 1 month or even 3 months.
Because the live track is likely to be officially finalized 10 minutes before the performance, sign language translators such as Maniatty and Gallego can only spend their time doing their homework in advance.
They will study the singer's personal experience, cultural background and singing style, and use past performances to infer the most likely playlist. Then listen to the song repeatedly, digest the lyrics, understand the creative intention behind it, and then arrange a complete sign language translation, and even imitate the singer's own body language.
Next is to practice crazy and make all this into physical memory. In extremely difficult performance occasions like rap, two translators usually cooperate.
▲ Maniatty On the scene, sometimes singers will interact with sign language translators
Clothing is also a very important detail. Because sign language is a visual language, in order to allow the audience to see the gestures clearly, sign language translators usually wear simple solid-colored clothes.
White skin tone looks like Maniatty, and she often wears black. On the right side of the picture below, the black sign language translator Matt Maxey was called "Deaf-Mutual Version of Kanye West", and he chose a white T-shirt.
▲ Photo from GQ
For viewers with normal listening, sign language translation at the music festival may be a bit cool/funny/curious.
But in the eyes of hearing-impaired audiences, they are an important part of showing the charm of music, bringing power and resonance.
Sign language is not "cool", it is a real language
Both Maniatty and Gallego think it is a good thing for the attention brought by the Internet.
They were interviewed by the media and went to Jimmy Fallon's program "Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show" as guests. They also appeared on platforms such as Ted Talk to share, hoping to inspire more people to become interested in sign language and hearing-impaired people.
Like listeners, deaf audiences are also ticket buyers, and they are also fans and want to enjoy a music festival or concert. They live most of their lives and are alienated by inauditism, and they fight for their rights every day.
▲ In September last year, a TikTok user with hearing impaired cried and complained that he was denied service, saying that the restaurant employee refused to communicate with her with paper and pen, and was unwilling to take off her mask to let her read lip
Anabel Maler, assistant professor of music theory at the University of Iowa in the United States, put forward another view on this.
She believes that short videos that are "deified" with super fast and 18-ban actions will actually bring misunderstandings to the public - people will be amazed by sign language performances, but it is easy to ignore that this is actually a rich and complex natural language. Caroline Zola, editor of
Slate.com, reflects on the direction of media reports.
She said that sign language translation should be a tool for hearing-impaired groups to enjoy performances, and the translator himself should not be turned into a performer. The media should pay more attention to the practical issues behind the deaf discrimination, cochlear implantation, and minority silence.
When we use "cool" to describe sign language, we are actually alienating it and avoiding talking about it.
Sign language, like English, has its own grammatical rules, forms, semantics, etc. It is not "cool", "interesting" or "awesome", but a practical and constantly evolving way of communication. It deserves respect as any spoken language.
▲ American Sign Language Alphabet Gesture. Sign language is a very local language, and different countries and regions often have their own sign language systems.
Some netizens also questioned these exaggerated music sign language translations: How do I know if they are playing blindly?
Deaf netizen Kamp Gumerson said that sign language translation in the music field currently lacks standardization, and translators will interpret it based on their understanding of the lyrics. He has watched dozens of music sign language translations, but he can only get 10% to 40% of them.
Like Hip-hop rap has a lot of slang, it is not easy to keep up with the fast pace and translate it in place. In order to make hearing-impaired audiences better understand, responsible sign language translators often find deaf friends for discussion and drill.
And as sign language translation becomes the standard for music scenes, more and more deaf people are now devoted to this niche profession. They work on site with sign language translators who can hear music to provide a deeper understanding of the deaf community and output expressions that are more in line with the daily use of deaf people.
▲ American Sign Language Dancer Raven Sutton reminded that the complexion and cultural diversity of sign language translators are also important. Pictured from NYTimes
In any case, the energy brought by sign language translators to the music scene is huge.
Hearing-impaired Becky said in an interview with Australian media ABC that although she could not hear the lyrics, she still liked to go to the music festival, especially when there were sign language translators who were enthusiastic, fast and fluent in expressing themselves.
People often say that life without music is unimaginable, and I can't imagine what life would be like without a sign language translator. Their translation makes me love music even more!
Kurdi, who became popular for large-scale translation, also said that it should not be shocking to see sign language translators at music festivals or concerts, which should be a norm.
In addition, she also pointed out that the Internet has brought some new possibilities, such as the emergence of platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, which can allow hearing-impaired creators to find more space to show themselves.
▲ Domestic Internet platforms are also a place for hearing-impaired creators to show themselves. For example, Xu Min, who likes sign language rap,
This year, "Listening Girl" won the 94th Academy Awards, and the sign language translator appeared for the first time. Similarly, on the red carpet scene of Grammy , Gallego and her companions are working hard in front of the camera.
and other things are bringing more mainstream attention and wider impact to hearing-impaired people.
▲ The starring team of the movie "Listen to Girls"
Whether it is the sign language translation on the stage, the hearing-impaired audience in the audience, or the hearing-impaired creators active in the fields of music, dance, movies, etc., everyone has common goals and hopes. As Becky said:
Sign language is a real language, it should not be an Internet wonder or joke. The ability to see it appear in more occasions with higher translation quality is the embodiment of equality.
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