A series of rants - No.3

Rant #03

Have you ever misheard something and believed it to be true? Within discourse, one may, unbeknown, assume the essence of the language to be true when only the replacement of one word will render its meaning to be different. A prime example of this phenomenon is the Jimi Hendrix song, Purple Haze.

When I first happened upon this most vital of 60's flower-power recordings, I marvelled at how Mr. Hendrix had paved the way for homosexuals and heterosexuals to live alongside one another, united. It was not for sometime I subsequently realised it was the purpose of getting high Mr. Hendrix was extolling and "this guy" he was making me aware of was indeed a forerunner of 'Mr. Blue Sky'.

Now I am aware many parenting individuals will exasperate their ignorance of their children's listening material, but this has gone on for many a generation and is not the sole reason for me to be writing. No, I am concerned with misinterpretation.

I now intend to provide a more recent example, which may clarify my attempt to implore insight. A certain French car manufacturer has instigated a campaign for its new car, described by the advertisement as being "a toughened gerbil!" Upon listening in a more forthright manner, it occurred to me the words were actually "tough and durable". The nauseating American nature of the advertisement coupled with the cowboy-twang attached to the spoken word allowed for a simple misinterpretation and a significant loss of product exposure, and subsequent recall. If one cannot understand, one will not care for the information.

A further example is Buck Rogers in the 21st Century. I clearly remember the contributors to Points of View being dismayed at the blatant utilisation of vulgar vocabulary. The offending words were? Funk and Wagnall's, an American dictionary which, when spoken at an increased velocity, may be construed as an expletive. You can be excused for thinking that in the next century we may have conquered nearly every communication barrier, if not all, but being only a few hundred days away, and at the beginning of a new communications era, it appears we have far to go.

In opposition are those who believe it all to be a clever marketing ploy; the syllabic use of the word 'vacant' by The Sex Pistols or Heineken's 'Smooth-talking Bar Steward' prove that misinterpretation is now of marketable quality. It is clever, designed to emancipate the consumer from the patronization of certain hair, beer, and car advertising.

If you have been fortunate enough to escape the embarrassment of mishearing or misinterpreting a line in a song or advertisement, don't rest on your laurels, spare a thought for the Björk fan.