Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 February 14

= February 14 =

Filmed before a live studio audience
Are there any American sitcoms still filmed "before a live studio audience", like All in the Family and The Jeffersons were? Y'know, so the audience reactions are genuine rather than coming from a laugh track. Angr (talk) 00:02, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * At least some sitcoms still are. I saw a feature recently about a guy who's a professional "warm-up" guy, whose job is to put the studio audience in the right mood. Unfortunately, I don't recall which show it was. But in both past and present, the genuine laughter has been "enhanced" when necessary. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I was just reading about "sweetening" in the article laugh track. And I know there are plenty of shows (Malcolm in the Middle, for instance) that have neither a laugh track nor a studio audience. But I'm just wondering if there are any current (or at least relatively recent, as in post-2000) shows where you do hear audience laughter, but it's coming from people who have actually heard the very joke it's in response to (even if the reaction has been sweetened or desweetened). Angr (talk) 00:13, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It would appear several shows still tape in front of live audiences. I took a peek at ABC's website and under a link for "TV Tickets" it mentioned a company called Audiences Unlimited, whose website can be found here, which provides ticketing for many of their sitcoms, as well as others. Some of the shows listed as offering tickets include Hot in Cleveland, Last Man Standing, Mike & Molly and The Big Bang Theory, among others. -- McDoob  AU  93  00:22, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Speaking of the live studio audience for The Big Bang Theory, see this. Matt Deres (talk) 20:08, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

British Hip hop ethnic groups
Like French hip hop scene, are hip-hip artists of U.K. are of minority ethnic groups who came from former colonies of Great Britain like Nigeria, Arab World, Malaysia, South Asia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Gambia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, and etc? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.29.35.219 (talk) 16:10, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia has an article titled British hip hop and a category titled Category:British hip hop musicians. You can read through those on your own time, including bluelinks and subcategories of them, and arrive at your own conclusions.  -- Jayron  32  18:19, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * You left out of your list the British West Indies, which is, in my opinion, the predominant ethnic background of British hip-hop artists - see British African-Caribbean community which says "By the mid-1980s British African-Caribbeans were also incorporating American hip hop and House styles, becoming leading figures in Britain's developing dance music culture." But there are lots of exceptions; Professor Green is white English and Dappy is of Greek Cypriot descent. The British hip hop article says; "Unlike in the US, it should be noted that the British hip hop scene was cross-racial from the beginning. This is due to the fact that various ethnic groups in Britain tend to not live in segregated areas, even in areas with a high percentage of non-white individuals. These places allow youth to share a cultural interchange with one another including musical genres such as hip hop." It's not really my thing though - someone with more expert knowledge might like to comment. Alansplodge (talk) 18:49, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * They also left off Sri Lanka, the ancestry of M.I.A., whose middle finger became all the rage at this year's Super Bowl halftime show. But I doubt that anyone here is going to feel the need to collate the entire list of all known British hip-hop artists and make a detailed study of their ancestry.  The OP, if interested, can do that on their own by looking at the links I provided above.  Naming a few hip hop artists isn't going to produce meaningful conclusions.  -- Jayron  32  19:23, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Besame mucho
Dear Sir / Mam,

I would like to know, whether Besame mucho is the song that has been sung by maximum number of singers and is it the most " listened" number. Religious songs not to be considered. How many languages has it been rendered in ?

Regards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.173.53.28 (talk) 16:14, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * At one point in history "Yesterday" was the most recorded song ever; the Wikipedia article quotes an outdated Guinness Book of World Records entry that notes that by 1986 (within 20 years of the song's first appearance), it had been recorded over 1600 different times. Seeing as 25 years have passed since that statistic, it may or may not have been surpassed in that regard.  -- Jayron  32  18:16, 14 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I've only ever heard "Besame mucho" sung in Spanish, whether in Cuba, Mexico, Canada, the U.K. or the U.S. Are songs usually translated for recording? Bielle (talk) 18:23, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Mostly random fact- The Beatles recorded Bésame Mucho, in English. It's on Anthology 1. Staecker (talk) 02:04, 16 February 2012 (UTC)


 * As to Bielle's question, "Are songs usually translated for recording?", I think this varies a lot from country to country, and my impression (Scandinavia-based) is that there has been a change towards not translating hit songs. Translating hit songs used to be common. An example, I didn't know the song Harper Valley PTA when I first heard the Norwegian version by Inger Lise Rypdal (then Andersen) many years ago. However, performing artists/singer-song writers, at least those that are folk-oriented, in Norway (and Scandinavia, I think), tend to translate songs because they prefer to perform in their native language, in an attempt to counter-balance the massive trend towards performing in English. Lots of wannabe rock stars all over the world, non-native speakers of English, write and perform their songs in (more or less broken) English, and the more seasoned musician does not want be a part of that game. Cornelis Vreeswijk's translation of Sloop John B became a massive hit in its time, as did Lillebjørn Nilsen's translation of Pete Seeger's "My rainbow race". I was very surprised when I first heard Lillebjørn Nilsen's song "Alle duene", and noticed that the original was not credited on the album cover. The song is a direct (and good) translation of The Keeper, except that "doe" is replace with "dove" (I knew the song beforehand from my early school years in a Commonwealth country). More recently, in Spain about 8 years ago, I heard the song "No rompas mas/mi pobre corazon..." ad nauseam (Achy Breaky Heart). So the answer is, yes, songs are often translated, for varying reasons. --NorwegianBluetalk 21:26, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
 * And, since the Beatles were mentioned, see Komm, gib mir deine Hand/Sie liebt dich. --NorwegianBluetalk 22:44, 16 February 2012 (UTC)