THE BEST OF THE BOOT? - PART 1Neapolitan Neomelodics Make-a da Pop Music Sound-a Niiiiiiice
BY TIM SMALL PHOTOS BY ANTONIO ZAMBARDINO
|
|
| Neomelodic star Amedeo Remi, whose latest record is titled something along the lines of Loved by Women, donning a typically understated outfit in the garden of the Hotel Crystal in Naples. The entire region of Campania is liberally dotted with garish hotels and restaurants dedicated to weddings, engagement parties, birthday parties, and confirmations, all of which are hosted by neomelodic singers. |
Ask any average Italian what pops into their head when they think of Naples, and you’ll almost assuredly get the same three things every time: pizza, garbage in the streets, and the most powerful international crime syndicate in the world—the Camorra. Does that sound bombastic? Well, this is an organization that in the past 30 years rose to be valued at around one-tenth of the aggregated wealth of the Italian nation. Recently explored by author Roberto Saviano (whom Vice profiled last summer) in his book Gomorrah, it is a mafia that deals in illegal activities, such as drugs and weapons trafficking, contraband, and extortion, and additionally controls a huge amount of legal, straight businesses—especially in transport, construction, and waste management, but also in pretty much any economic sphere in which they find an opportunity to invest. It is relentlessly capitalistic, it has destroyed an entire city, it is probably the biggest criminal emergency in Europe, and it is definitely the biggest organization in the southern Italian criminal underground. It is in this reality that a very distinctive genre of music rose to prominence over the last two decades.
Neomelodic music is a strange mixture of techno, pop, Latin American music, and traditional Neapolitan love songs, an entirely singular and totally bizarre form of music that, critics say, is generally performed by nothing more that ex-criminals who became Camorra minstrels.
Bred in the Camorra-ridden, corrupt, and generally all-round despairingly sad working-class underbelly of Naples, this army of singers (ranging in age from eight to 80) tell stories of love found and lost, of the crime that surrounds them, of dreams of success and escape, and of running away from the law, all in the Neapolitan dialect—a very different language from “normal” Italian. The songs are 100 percent cheesy and melodic—not to mention melodramatic—but at the same time they’re incredibly funny. They tell stories that resonate with their audience much more than any other musical genre can (yes, we’re looking at you, American rap circa 2009).
In Naples and most other southern Italian regions, the neomelodics are superstars. They look like quintessential über-guidos: shaved chests, plucked eyebrows, orange tans, pimped-out cars, skintight D&G shirts, and an oil tanker’s worth of hair gel. And while the people revere them as heroes, the mainstream media largely ignores them—which isn’t surprising. But the neomelodics work very hard to break out into the mainstream, where they will attempt to reconfigure themselves as friendly Italian products rather than local, Neapolitan ones. For example, when they are ready to go for the gold on a national level, they drop their Neapolitan dialect and graduate to standard Italian. And when we say they work very hard, we mean they are some of the most intense laborers we have ever encountered, going as far as playing ten (ten!) shows a day, every day, for months, incessantly promoting themselves through the internet, local TV and radio stations, and countless appearances at weddings, birthday parties, confirmations, restaurants, street parties, town fairs, and pretty much anywhere they are invited. They make all those stories about how hard Black Flag went for it when they toured sound like a teddy bears’ picnic. Compared to the average neomelodic singer, Henry Rollins is Little Bo Peep.
Federico Vacalebre, the Italian music journalist who coined the term “neomelodic,” says, “If gangster rap is the CNN of the American ghetto, neomelodics are the CNN of the Neapolitan ghetto.” And though they never explicitly speak of the Camorra, Vacalebre adds that “while the criminality of American gangster rap is more of a myth than anything else, our criminality is in fact very real and very scary.” It’s no stretch then to surmise that the neomelodics’ link to the Camorra is not just in their geographic, social, and capitalistic similarity. Since the Naples Mafia is known for its ability to invest in any and every moneymaking business in southern Italy, it’s perhaps not unfair to say that there is a possibility that the neomelodics’ finances might often be of suspect origin. Perhaps. Can you tell that we’re trying to put this in the most indirect possible way? We’re not being pussies. We just don’t want our people at Vice Italy to wind up with their heads in one place and their torsos in another.
We recently sent a couple of our people to Naples to shoot a neomelodics documentary for VBS.TV. There, we hooked up with characters like Tommy Riccio, an old-school neomelodic star who shoots rays of pure charisma from his eyeballs; Rossella, one of the few female neomelodics, who took us on a six-concerts-in-one-day trip; Alessio, a rising star (and a babe) who’s going to break into the mainstream Italian pop world very soon; and Giuseppe Jr., a “baby” neomelodic singer who first stepped into the limelight when he was nine years old, singing a song in which he smooth-talked a girl into the wonderful world of preteen sex.
While we were there we also hooked up with Antonio Zambardino, a Roman photographer who has been working on documenting the neomelodic scene for the past year. These are his photos you’ve been looking at for the last few pages here. Thanks, Antonio. Keep your eyes peeled for our documentary on the Neapolitan neomelodics on VBS.TV.
CONTINUEDTHE BEST OF THE BOOT? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | >
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
never have i seen a more ghetto-ass vespa. no headlight, plastic bag seat cover, missing fender, all black wheels. it’s like mad max was riding through town but wanted to stop for a birthday party first. is that thing street legal? | |
| komodo, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
whenever i used to hear something about naples i always thought of the place as a nice italian city with people sipping espresso and wearing the latest fashions, but the past month or so you guys have completely turned that ideal mental image upside down. is greece up next for you to shit on, because that’s the other place i want to visit. | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
i like how giusseppe jr has his poster held up my a minnie mouse sticker. that makes me believe he’s really tough. he probably kicks ass on field day. | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
is that like the tallest plateau in the world? where is the shit in the background? | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
that’s some nice landscaping. i wonder if he did all by himself. | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
preteen sex is wonderful. you don’t have to worry about stds and everything is like the first time because chances are it is. there’s a slight learning curve, but hey, the sooner you learn the better right? | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
i keep reading the subtitle and it keeps cracking me up. is it the correct accent to say it like the "thatza one spiiicy meataballa!"
? | |
| The Max, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
where do you find a jumpsuit like that? that would match my logo just about perfectly. | |
| whitney, on Feb 25, 2009 wrote:
how’s that racist? the article says:
"Bred in the Camorra-ridden, corrupt, and generally all-round despairingly sad working-class underbelly of Naples"
is the author racist too? | | Anonymous, on Feb 25, 2009 wrote:
"Tommy Riccio, an old-school neomelodic star who shoots rays of pure charisma from his eyeballs"
i heard about that, its like george hamilton after an eye dilation. | | Anonymous, on Feb 25, 2009 wrote:
in america ice t gets shit for "cop killer" but in italy an eight-year-old can sing about sleeping with a girl? what the fuck? say what you will about gangsta rap but at least they wait until someone has pubes before the sex talk starts. | | Anonymous, on Feb 24, 2009 wrote:
calling someone poor is not racist. in poor taste, yes. racist, no. besides, it’s their own people (the camorra) that’s doing most of what’s holding these people down. | | Anonymous, on Feb 24, 2009 wrote:
racialist? what? | | Anonymous, on Feb 24, 2009 wrote:
why do poor people insist on spending money on stupid crap they don’t need? a can of beans or a sweet mirragio scarf? they’ll take the scarf nine times out of ten.
"poor people?" c’mon you racialist. spit it out why don’t you. | |
| electricboogaloo, on Feb 24, 2009 wrote:
wow, I thought that fake tanning, fist-pumping, blow-out hair having guidos were bred in jersey and long island... | |
| | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
"If this Naples crime syndicate controls %10 of the wealth of all of Italy, then why are they so poor? Also, what was that smart alecky business of having to mention that you don’t want to imply that thier criminals as not to be killed by them? That in and of itself implies they’re criminals, but it implies it in the pussiest of ways."
The crime syndicate itself isn’t poor. It’s all the people they indirectly rule that are the poor ones. By the way, you messed up "they’re" twice in one try. Nice one! | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
If this Naples crime syndicate controls %10 of the wealth of all of Italy, then why are they so poor? Also, what was that smart alecky business of having to mention that you don’t want to imply that thier criminals as not to be killed by them? That in and of itself implies they’re criminals, but it implies it in the pussiest of ways. | |
| turd to your mother, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
jesus man, let them enjoy something for once. this is probably one of the only escapes they have and if their kid wants a neomelodic scarf, i say go for it. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
why do poor people insist on spending money on stupid crap they don’t need? a can of beans or a sweet mirragio scarf? they’ll take the scarf nine times out of ten. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
"Rossella, one of the few female neomelodics"
interesting how it’s mainly a male based genre | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
@whitney
I don’t think it even matters if they like the music... if Camorra is involved then the town HAS to like it...or else. | | |
| whitney, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
do they really enjoy the music? it almost seems like the town is rooting for one of their own to make it more than anything else. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
WOW
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbMfpMBbKq4 | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
i think the ’growing up gotti’ kids missed their calling. they would be megastars in the neomelodic world. they wouldn’t even have to change their look. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
That’s because there is such a difference in northern and southern Italy they might as well be different countries. The north is manufacturing and fashion and the south is farming and more farming, with a few mom-and-pop stores and restaurants here and there. | |
| tanger, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
is the spectrum of italian classes more broad than even america. rome and milan i’ve always thought of as modern cities with abounding culture and influences. then, you see something like this, which to me is even more of a stretch from a "sophisticated" manhattanite to a country bumpkin in the ozarks. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
“If gangster rap is the CNN of the American ghetto, neomelodics are the CNN of the Neapolitan ghetto.”
If gangsta rap is the CNN of the American ghetto, we are in much worse shape that I thought. | |
| megabreath, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
so in essence, the camorra is the suge knight of italy. only way more scary and likely to really fuck you up. | | Anonymous, on Feb 23, 2009 wrote:
you know the camorra actually came over to the states in the 80’s and 90’s. They were in all these power battles over New York with the Morello crime family, and then eventually just kind of combined with the mafia | | | Next 30 comments > |
| |
