Issues in Global Popular Music (Essay Sample)

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Issues in Global Popular Music
Introduction
There are numerous issues in global popular music, most of which are stemming from the ambiguity in definition of world music. For decades, there has been a raging debate on the influence of globalization on world music. The current paper investigates the extent to which globalization intensifies musical homogeneity and/or diversity and the ways through which this music enables the reinforcement or transcending of cultural boundaries through re-signification, re-articulation, integration and modernization of other cultures.
Effects of Globalization: Musical Homogeneity and Diversity
According to Manuel (8), even though globalization seems to promote musical homogeneity and diversity in the same measure, the most common influence is promotion of diversity. This may seem incorrect given that globalization has an effect of standardizing phenomena in the various spheres of life. David Byrne, when describing why he hates world music, asserts that the very definition of world music symbolizes diversity. According to him, world music is exotic music (Byrne 1). It is any music that is not from the West; regardless of the genre. World music is any music that does not draw from the American culture (Byrne 2). If one considers this definition then there is colossal musical diversity from all over the globe. For instance, there are many guitar bands in Africa and Asia that produce music that can rival the hard rock made in the Western world. These groups take the ideas of other people from a geographically distant place and remix and blend them with their own cultures to form an entirely new genre or version of a popular genre (Bohlman, “Preface” 2). The appropriation of a genre from another geographical area enabled through the global interconnectedness promotes musical diversity (Bohlman, “Preface” 5). Immigrants have been especially significant in promoting musical diversity (Bohlman, “Globalization” 136). These individuals migrate with their music and make a version of their own in the areas they migrate to, for instance, the immigrant from Cuba and Mexico (Bohlman, “Globalization” 149). The creation of hybridity is what promotes diversity (Manuel 3).
In addition, studies also indicate that globalization intensifies homogeneity. This is prompted by the characterization of the global popular music as ‘Western music’ (Byrne 3). The most common evidence, therefore, is the existence of the Western elements in other regions of the world. Ethnologists such as Bohlman (“Globalization” 147) assert that increased interactions between people from different parts of the world enable the transfer of music from one culture to another. For instance, the hip-hop genre, which in the 1950s could be characterized as African American to a great extent, is now one of the major genres in Korea. Globalization, according to Manuel (12), promotes the graying out of culture, thus enabling and enhancing adoption of cultural identities. The traditional cultures are watered down by popular culture (Bohlman, “Globalization” 149). Globalization, thus, erodes cultural boundaries.
Musical homogeneity has been enabled and spearheaded by the large music multinational organizations, which seek to achieve aesthetic homogenization, to a great extent (Manuel 9). These companies operating in expansive regions across the world seek to tap from the mass market. The surest way to achieve this is by leveling the playing ground through the creation of a musically homogeneous society. These companies, therefore, promote the Western popular music through promotion of ideals such as modernity, western fashion and personal freedom (Manuel 11). The music created promotes a single culture, which is the Western one, which in the course of time manages to desensitize the audience to disregard its cultural music in preference of pan-regional and pan-ethnic styles. The global popular music mediates the differences between people from different geographical and ideological backgrounds and unites them when listening to music with a common appeal (Byrne 3). It is, therefore, my considered opinion that globalization greatly intensifies both musical homogeneity and diversity in tandem.
Popular Music: Reinforcement and Transcending of Social Boundaries and Identities
Popular music is used to reinforce and transcend social boundaries and identities including issues of race, gender, religion, class and ethnicity. In a few instances, popular music has been also used to reinforce these differences (Manuel 13). The major way through which popular music is used to transcend social boundaries is integration. This is where people borrow cultural practices from others and appropriate them as their own. Manuel (13) argues that integration is the most common way through which popular music spreads. He also identifies modernization, re-articulation and rationalization as the other ways through which music enables the transcending of social boundaries and identities.
Integration, as a tool for enabling cultural flows, results in borrowing the practices from a foreign community. Popular music acts as cultural broker appropriating new metaphors that enable re-articulation of the social identities (Manuel 8). A cultural community adopts a practice that it did not have which changes the way it experiences music. A good instance is the now popular disc jockeying. Almost all genres of music across the world appreciate DJs. However, this is a practice, as Manuel points out, from the Mexican immigrants in New York (6). Nowadays it is common to see DJs in nightclubs all over the world. This shows that popular music transcends cultural identities. Another good instance is the karaoke format of making music. It started in Japan as men’s entertainment on social gatherings. It is now an integral format of making music throughout the world (Manuel 7).
According to Bohman, apart from integration, popular music also transcends cultures through rationalization. This is especially evident in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities (Bohman, “Globalization” 136). The author gives a good example of a music being consumed in a market place in a town known of Cluj Napoca (Bohman, “Globalization” 131). Here the street musicians are faced with a challenge that the comp...