Norwegian Prime Minister offends beloved musicians

In an article from NRK, Knut Nilsen’s manager now says that the name “Ny Gitarkameratene” was coined by the media and that the four younger artists have always used the name “Lind/Nilsen/Fuentes/Holm” in their appearances.

My question would be: Have any of the four “ny kameratene” said anything to their fans or to the press to actively discourage them from using the term?

As for Arbeidepartiet and Twitter, the tweet could have used group’s correct name and still had two characters left over:

Lind/Nilsen/Fuentes/Holm
de nye gitarkameratene

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To respond to your points, Tor Arne.

Did “gitarkameratene” developed as a common word for “guitar buddies” precisely because Gitarkameratene chose that name — or was it the other way around?

Regardless, there are legal issues involved — at least in US law, perhaps in Norwegian and international law as well. For example, I can talk about “the cars” as a common term, but if I were to name a band “The Cars” or “The New Cars”, surely Rick Ocasek and his lawyers would have a legitimate legal complaint against me. Again, it seems to me that the original Gitarkameratene are not claiming ownership of a *word* but of the term as applied to their band and any band. There is a BIG difference.

Using “the new $YourName” deliberately implies that the “old” is either dormant, dead and/or that the “new” is better or a newer version. None of these is true in this case.

Furthermore, it’s not a compliment to appropriate another group’s name — unless you’re using it to indicate a successor band with some of the original members. Even then, it might not be a compliment if that successor band is a pale shade of the original.

I have recordings by Knut Nilsen, Askil Holm, osv./etc. in my collection. None of those younger men — in my opinion and that of many others — are better (at this stage in their careers) than the individual towering talents of the four original Gitarkameratene.

If Lind/Nilsen/Fuentes/Holm had been labeled “The New Beatles”, it would have been downright laughable. So should it be with labeling them “Ny Gitarkameratene”.

The press has freedom of speech, of course, so labeling these four as “ny gitarkameratene” seems to demonstrate a marked lack of musical aesthetics and appreciation, if nothing else. And it does imply a lack of respect for the original Gitarkameratene.

So who was the first to call those kids “Ny gitarkameratene”, anyway? I’d like to know. That person should be getting the heat about this issue.

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Well… that answers THAT question. (Tusen takk, Lillebjørn, for at du skrevet på bloggen min!)

So Gitarkameratene IS a brand name. And one that has apparently mutated into colloquial speech — just like XEROX photocopiers started as a brand name and now plenty of people in the USA refer to any photocopier as a “xerox”. Now, when something like that happens, it often is a compliment because the general public recognizes the supremacy of the original concept.

However, it doesn’t mean that the press and public should use “Gitarkameratene” (with a capital “G”) when referring to other groups or bands. I suppose one could — and people probably have — used “gitarkameratene” (notice the lowercase “g”) to describe the concept of a group of top flight musicians who play together in a supergroup. So I suppose one could call The Highwaymen or the Traveling Wilbury’s “gitarkameratene” (with a small “g”). But, again, it shouldn’t apply to young whippersnappers.

Lillebjørn, I had to laugh at your perception of Tor Arne’s youth. A couple of years ago I was in deep discussion (pÃ¥ norsk) with a very young Norwegian about the Hellbillies. The young Norwegian told me that the Hellbillies were so well-known and so good that “the USA country star Hal Ketchum had done a cover of ‘Ei krasafaren steinbu’ in English!” I tried very hard to keep a straight face. I hadn’t the heart to tell him that “Past The Point Of Rescue” had been covered by the Hellbillies. :-)

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Tor Arne -
Thanks so much for engaging in the discussion.

So if the VG article is the first mention — three (!) times, including the headline, with the small “g” — then does this mean we can blame Anders Waaler Kemp for starting this whole mess? ;-) Perhaps Lind/Nilsen/Fuentes/Holm should have stuck with “Stjernelag” — a term also used in that article.

Actually, one of the things I found most interesting about the VG article was the quote from Ivar Dyrhaug:

Dette var nesten som Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young på Woodstock, sa en ekstatisk daglig leder i Gyro, Ivar Dyrhaug, etter konserten.
That was almost like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Woodstock”, said an ecstatic manger of [the venue] Gyro, Ivar Dyrhaug, after the concert.

Puh-leeze (as we say over on this side of the Pond)! CSNY was, if I remember correctly, singing their own music at Woodstock — not doing a set with a lot of covers of songs others had already made famous.

As I said, I’m listening to the stuff “Stjernelag” is producing, but I’m not going to put them in the supergroup category at this point. They need to do more to earn that title. Meanwhile, they’ve had more than enough time to think of a new name. Perhaps LNFH? FHLN?

By the way “youth” and “the middle” overlap quite a bit — in the best ways. I myself am much younger than I look in my picture. :-)

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