Dialectrock has been included on the intangible heritage list. Singer Bennie Jolink of Normaal, the ‘inventors’ of dialect rock, considers it ‘an enormous honour’. “It’s nice that it is also recognized that Normal was and is something more than just a successful band.”
It was Bennie Jolink and his men who introduced dialect rock in the mid-seventies. Before that, people also sang in dialect, but mainly in music with a high folkloric content in which instruments such as the accordion predominated.
However, Normal was the first band to combine dialect lyrics with heavy rock. This revolutionary music style was introduced to the public for the first time during the open-air festival on Ascension Day 1975 in Lochem.
From the Achterhoek, the phenomenon then spread further to the rest of our country. Normally this paved the way for later bands such as Skik, De Kast and Rowwen Hèze.
The application was submitted to KIEN by the Anhangerschap, as the Normal fan club calls itself. With almost two thousand members, it is still one of the largest fan clubs in our country after Max Verstappen’s, after half a century.
Moreover, the Anhangerschap had nominated the band Normal to be declared intangible heritage. Not only because of its role as the spiritual fathers of dialect rock, but also because of the various rituals surrounding the band. Including shouts such as høken and daldeejen and typical customs, including beer throwing during the shows.
However, KIEN decided to broaden the presentation and place dialect rock as a whole on the intangible heritage. “Beer throwing, for example, also happens at other concerts. That is not reserved for Normal,” explains Frank Hemeltjen of KIEN. “But when it comes to dialect rock: as far as we are concerned, that is undeniably intangible heritage.”
Normal frontman Bennie Jolink reacts proudly to the inclusion of dialect rock on the heritage list: “It is of course honorable that something we started quite spontaneously, yet fanatically, more than fifty years ago now officially belongs to our heritage. And that it is now also recognized that Normal was and is something more than a successful band.”
“I have always tried to let Normal be the voice of the countryside. Initially more in a punk-like way. Later musically more nuanced. By talking about more than just ‘I love you-like things’ to sing. And that I have also expressed an opinion, solicited and unsolicited, which was not always well received by everyone.”
KIEN advisor Frank Hemeltjen has announced that he will further investigate this year what the inclusion of dialect rock on the heritage list will ultimately look like: “Including what exactly we mean by dialect rock. We will discuss this further with the Anhangerschap next year.”
KIEN currently has a long waiting list of applications. An overview has now been made of more than sixty forms of intangible heritage, of which it has already been determined that they will be included in the so-called Inventory List.
It currently lists more than 450 forms of intangible heritage in the Netherlands. When it comes to Drenthe, this includes Lower Saxony and the craft of oil milling, in which the oil and flour mill Woldzigt took the initiative.
