By creating music videos for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, the Deaf Performing Artists Network (D-Pan) demonstrates that music isn't just for the hearing-centric
By Erik Philbrook
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Sean Forbes performs using American Sign Language |
As a fixture on the Detroit music scene for over 30 years, record producer, studio owner and music industry veteran Joel Martin has produced, managed, published and negotiated recording deals for some of the major artists to emerge from Motor City, including George Clinton, The Romantics, Sponge and the multi-platinum-selling rapper Eminem. Martin knows more than most that the next great thing in music can be right around the corner.
Enter Sean Forbes, a child of two musical parents, who suffered permanent hearing loss at an early age, but who was a natural born entertainer and become a drummer nevertheless. The injury didn't deter him from seeking a career in the music business, and when he recognized both the lack of opportunity within the industry and the lack of accessibility to music and music culture for the deaf community, the idea for the Deaf Performing Artists (D-Pan) Network was born.
"A lot of deaf people love the feeling and vibrations of music, but they never understand the lyrical side of things," says Forbes. "That was something I was doing. I would interpret lyrics to songs all the time for my friends at parties. I thought, wouldn't it be cool if there were music videos with sign language featuring deaf performers that could interpret the song's lyrics and get a whole new community involved with music?"
After Forbes created a couple of music videos featuring him signing the lyrics to the songs, one of which was "Lose Yourself," written by Luis Resto and Eminem, he brought the finished products into Martin's studio.
"I called up Joel and said I wanted to show him something. He had no idea what to expect. I came into the studio, and Joel was there with Luis Resto and Eminem. I thought, cool, these people get to see what I'm doing. As you can imagine, signing an Eminem song with his fast lyrics looks pretty cool. Everybody was like 'wow.'"
"To watch the hand movements with the music that I helped compose was a different experience," says Resto. "I realized that this was a totally new art form."
Forbes and Martin decided to became co-founders of a new nonprofit organization that would merge music culture with deaf culture, and in the process open up new performance opportunities for deaf performers, while creating a whole new form of entertainment for deaf and the hard-of-hearing.
Last year, D-Pan released its first music video collection featuring American Sign Language performers, which includes videos for songs by ASCAP members: John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change," Linda Perry's "Beautiful" (performed by Christina Aguilera) and Eminem and Resto's "Lose Yourself," as well as music videos created by other deaf and hard-of-hearing performers.
"The response has been amazing," says Martin, citing incredible interest online as well as a recent CNN feature on the project. "Now we know there is a market out there, and what we need to do now is promote it so that people know that these music videos exist."
In addition, Martin and Forbes want to reach more songwriters and record companies who may be interested in exploring this new art form to create an additional source of revenue. "We are hoping to get more songwriters and people interested in having their songs translated for this community," says Martin. "There are 20 million deaf and hard-of-hearing
people in the United States. There are up to 4 million who sign. This is a market that is completely overlooked. Our model is that the performer gets paid, the songwriter gets paid, and the record company that owns the master gets paid. People are making money where there wasn't even a market before. It's a win-win situation."
For more information, visit www.d-pan.com
