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This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
Dec 12, 2009 09:01
15 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

ether

English to French Other Music
Context: it's a band who begins to be famous. They are playing a song on a TV show and then they learn they will be on the radio. So it's the beginning of their success

"The radio plugger called to tell us our song will be on the show. We'd all go round to one of our houses and listen around. But suddenly, with our song, that changed, and it just went into the ether."

I'm not sure I understand. Does it mean that before, they used to go to the house of one of them (the members of the group) to listen to the radio. And then when they heard their song, everything changed and " it just went into the ether" (I don't understand the last sentence)

Or is it that at that point they went to the house of one of them to listen to the radio because they wanted to hear their song and then .... (I still don't understand the end)


Thank you
Proposed translations (French)
4 +3 elle a été diffusée
1 +1 ondes

Discussion

EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 16, 2009:
Thank you Thank you for your explanation. I think Tony M is right. I think he is making a contrast.
Tony M Dec 12, 2009:
Yes That's the whole point, there is a contrast being made here between 'what we used to do up until [actually frowned upon by purists as poor style!] that point' and 'but suddenly'. Hence the change of tense from what I called the 'habitual past' [we would do...] to the simple past [we did...]

Don't leave your questions too long, as I'm having dinner guests this evening and need to start cooking my 'gastronomic' dinner for them ;-)

But I'll try and make sure I check in later for you...
EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 12, 2009:
OK, because the sentence is "Up until that point, we'd get a call from the radio plugger to tell us that our song...." So the "up until that point" indicates that "before they used to listen to their songs on their radio but know it's just common". Am I right ? I will post two other questions tonight. Hope you will be able to have a look at them, because you are really helpful !!!!
Tony M Dec 12, 2009:
YES! That changes everything! RIGHT, now it makes sense!

The writer is contrasting 'before' and 'after' — before, the radio plugger used to tell us our song was going to br broadcast, so we'd all meet up to here it; now, perhaps they don't bother to call any more (i.e. it is not a novel event, has become banal...), and so the song just goes out on air, and they don't even bother to listen to it... there's no real excitement any more.

You see what a big difference those tiny details make?
EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 12, 2009:
tense The sentence is in fact "We'd get a call from the radio plugger to tell us our song would be on the show. We'd all go round to one of our houses and listen around. But suddenly, with our song, that changed, and it just went into the ether."

So I don't if the "would" is really a habit here or a mistake. is that case does it change the meaning?
Tony M Dec 12, 2009:
Yes, exactly! That's exactly my point: if this person is using normal, native EN correctly, then that choice of preposiiton is crucial; in any case 'into the ether' is still quite a current expression for something that disappears off 'dans la vide', whereas 'onto the ether' as a term for radio transmission is very much more dated — in fact, I'd go so far as to say, is no longer in current usage, except for a deliberately humorous or archaic effect. 'On / over the airwaves', though still dated, remains, I believe, a much more current replacement ('sur les ondes').
EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 12, 2009:
I think you're right I think you're right. It's a bit confusing because they talk about radio before. But I think they stop listening to the radio together. And I found that to be on the radio was "onto the ether" and here it's "into the ether". So I don't know it makes a difference.
Tony M Dec 12, 2009:
(contd) Note the use of "we'd" (= we would = habitual past), which suggests a regular habit, rather than the simple past tense, as used with 'the radio plugger called' — so the writer seems to be saying that up till that point, they were in the habit of going round to each other's houses to listen to the radio, but after the plugger called, all that changed; could the suggestion be that suddenly they had too much work on to be able to sit around listening to the radio?

I really don't think this is clear-cut, but I certainly don't get a good feel from 'it just went into the ether' referring to the airplay of their song
Tony M Dec 12, 2009:
Mystified I have to admit that, even as a native speaker of EN quite used to such colloquial turns of phrase, I think the sentence is extremely unclear.

Note that this is really 'æther' (i.e. the air, etc.) and not 'ether' (as in anæsthetic gas.

'to go (off) into the ether' usually means that something has disappeared 'dans la nature' — 'disappeared into thin air'

It is also unclear what 'it' refers to — most people seem to be assuming it means 'our song', but my instinctive reading was that it meant 'the habit of going round to each other's houses...', which is somewhat corroborated by the preceding 'that', which does quite clearly refer to their peripatetic listening habits.
FX Fraipont (X) Dec 12, 2009:
@ Mediamatrix You're right, but even in 2010, for a new band, nothing beats hearing your tune on a good-old radio set in the kitchen (remember, they are DAT broadcast now, that's still ether-based).
Anyway, the iPod crowd download their songs from Itunes via wifi networks (ether-based) and sometimes beam their songs to the king-size loudspeakers in the living-room wirelessly (ether-based).
So there's a lot of life left in ethereal music, I think ;-)
mediamatrix (X) Dec 12, 2009:
@FX "pas besoin de faire de l'archéologie industrielle " - Certes, mais ce texte parle evidemment d'une époque qui ne connaissait pas l'Internet Radio et les iPod, ni même la radio VHF - il s'agit un monde où las radio-recepteurs furent rares, où on se rassemblait autour de 'la poste' d'un voisin ou un ami pour écouter les grandes évènements. (sigh...)
FX Fraipont (X) Dec 12, 2009:
On air pas besoin de faire de l'archéologie industrielle sur les débuts de la radio! "ether" = "air" dans le lingo radio, "on air", c'est "ça passe à la radio".

Et puis oui, physiquement, pas métaphoriquement, les ondes radios sont transmises dans l'air, dans l'éther.
EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 12, 2009:
disappear "to go into the ether", could it mean to disappear? The song finished and there was another one?
FX Fraipont (X) Dec 12, 2009:
idea mais là, notre chanson, c'était tout différent: elle passait à la radio!
EFrench (X) (asker) Dec 12, 2009:
and the rest of the sentence Do you have a suggestion for the rest of the sentence, because I don't get it "On alllait les uns chez les autres pour écouter/on est allé chez l'un d'entre nous pour écouter. Mais avec notre chanson XXXXX" I have no idea
claude-andrew Dec 12, 2009:
Yes, it became common to hear it on the media. Scientific note: 100 years ago it was thought that radio and other waves travelled through an invisible medium called "the ether".

Proposed translations

+1
8 mins

ondes

c'est passé sur les ondes
Peer comment(s):
agree Françoise Vogel : 8 juil. 2009 ... En direct sur les ondes. France Musique passe deux jours à Colmar et invite le public à suivre ... www.dna.fr/articles/200907/.../en-direct-sur-les-ondes,colm...
3 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
7 mins

elle a été diffusée

à la radio

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2009-12-12 10:29:00 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

ça passe à la radio
Note from asker:
I think Tony M is right
Peer comment(s):
agree claude-andrew
10 mins
merci
agree Jennifer Levey : I agree with the alternative you posted in the discussion box, under the heading 'Idea'. That's very good in this context.
1 hr
thanks
agree Tony M : Yes, but I don't think the reading is the same as in your Discussion box 'idea'; quite the reverse, in fact: now, it has become a commonplace event...
7 hrs
right, I see what you mean. It stopped being exceptional
Something went wrong...
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