Given the the digital revolution, the vigor with which America exports its pop culture, and the overwhelming global success of MTV in particular (thanks in large part to this guy), it's a no-brainer to think that pop music has become pretty homogeneous around the world.
But it hasn't.
That's the argument of a new working paper by Fernando Ferreira and Joel Waldfogel, called "Pop Internationalism: Has a Half Century of World Music Trade Displaced Local Culture?" (abstract here; pdf here). There is a lot of great detail and data in the paper, but the gist is conveyed in the summary:
Advances in communication technologies over the past half century have made the cultural goods of one country more readily available to consumers in another, raising concerns that cultural products from large economies - in particular the U.S. - will displace the indigenous cultural products of smaller economies. In this paper we provide stylized facts about the global music consumption and trade since 1960, using a unique data on popular music charts from 22 countries, corresponding to over 98% of the global music market. We find that trade volumes are higher between countries that are geographically closer and between those that share a language. Contrary to growing fears about large- country dominance, trade shares are roughly proportional to country GDP shares; and relative to GDP, the U.S. music share is substantially below the shares of other smaller countries. We find a substantial bias toward domestic music which has, perhaps surprisingly, increased sharply in the past decade. We find no evidence that new communications channels - such as the growth of country-specific MTV channels and Internet penetration - reduce the consumption of domestic music. National policies aimed at preventing the death of local culture, such as radio airplay quotas, may explain part of the increasing consumption of local music.
This made me think back to when we were told that nationwide U.S. newscasts, with TV anchormen speaking in their flat midwestern tones, would wipe out regional accents. That didn't happen. Nor, somehow, did Esperanto manage to conquer the globe.
Nice one. I wonder, though, if the "domestice music" being produced is heavily influenced by American music? Japan, for example, now has lots of pop and rock music of its own. Some of it is quite original, but it still sounds more like American pop than traditional Japanese folk.
ResponderEliminarInteresting article anyway, as usual.
Regional accents haven't been wiped out? My girlfriend is from Missouri and says about 5 words differently that I and my friends who grew up in New Jersey. Before television I promise it would have be a much bigger difference.
ResponderEliminarI was going to make the exact same observation as number 1 above. Country (rural) music in 2010 sounds vastly more like pop (urban) music than country music from 1950. You could say the same thing for music from just about any country. It's "local" but really it's just a locally produced derivative of the US/western source. This is true of clothing, art, dance, cars, food, just about anything consumable. And travelling across the US, in urban areas, I think most dialects are becoming more and more similar. I moved from St. Louis to Chicago a couple years ago, and among young people I encounter very few that speak with a "Chicago" accent.
ResponderEliminarAmerican pop music doesn't sound any closer to American folk music than Japanese pop does to Japanese folk music. And a significant chunk of mainstream "American" pop music is written by Scandinavians (Max Martin, Stargate, etc). Pop has always been hybrid and polycultural, and American pop both influences, and is influenced by other cultures. It's a kind of reverse arrogance to lament the fact that "US/Western" cultural products are displacing "local" or "rural" culture, without acknowledging how deeply those other cultural products influence American culture. And the belief that the music of other cultures can only be considered distinct if it adheres to some purist "folk" aesthetic is just odd. What about Juanes, Shakira, Rachid Taha, M.I.A., RedOne, Rihanna, etc? What about dubstep, reggaeton, highlife, mbalax? Musicians from every country are omnivores; they use bits of whatever appeals to them, and make it their own.
ResponderEliminarAmerican Pop Music like texting, is a symptom of the numbness or even, "death", of authentic humanity and communication. Instead of connecting we use music lyrics to do our communicating for us. Like in texting we "put out" the lyric/message as a kind of mask. We shield our vulnerability as if we are "communicating" in accepted, pre-digested sound bites. Then we get so used to the habit of this PRACTICE communication, that we lose the ability to even communicate to ourself! We have lost our own authentic unique voice because we have submitted our identity to the limitations of the range of proscribed social and cultural constructs. We can only regain or for the first time allow our unique authentic voice to emerge only by risking being emotionally vulnerable. Because of ego we fear others opinions, but the "others" we want approval from have yet to HAVE even a self TO give approval TO. We need to communicate/connect to our selves by risking to HAVE a self that is unlimited by social and cultural constructs of identity, even if it means social isolation because it is better to be an isolated human than a social ZOMBIE.
ResponderEliminar"This made me think back to when we were told that nationwide U.S. newscasts, with TV anchormen speaking in their flat midwestern tones, would wipe out regional accents. That didn
ResponderEliminarfacts, stylized.
ResponderEliminarThe proximity of those words transgresses discourse conventions.
Communication Scholar George Rodman discusses the idea that many countries have placed "limits" on the amount of TV shows that can be "imported" into their countries. He provides Canada and France as examples.
ResponderEliminarHe further discusses a Pew study which cites that many countries including Britain, Canada, Pakistan and Argentina have a majority of citizens who do not appreciate the overwhelming "customs" and "ideas" that are presented through by US media.
Although I cite television, customs and ideas above, I believe music can be included as well. Informally, from watching a few Bollywood movies and listening to cultural pop music from other societies it can be observed that many elements of 'American' music has been infused in other cultures' music.
Just as we see elements of different countries' music integrated into U.S. music.
Posted by Bakari Akil II, Ph.D., author of "Pop Psychology: The psychology of pop culture and everyday life!" (on Amazon)
I spent a few months travelling through Asia, and found that certain American pop had made it around (Beyoncee, The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga), while very little rock made it the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan. I heard Korean Pop in the Philippines, but never again in America.
ResponderEliminarSounds interesting, but I wonder if there's a way to study this by music genre instead of country. Ex - Has rock displaced local/indigenous music? Can you chart the spread of it across time? I know there's a lot of interplay between styles, but it could be interesting.
ResponderEliminarIf you need evidence, I give you the band Dengue Fever from Long Beach, California, which, in case you don't know, contains the largest Cambodian community outside Phnom Penh. It sounds like American pop until you realize they're singing in Khmer.
ResponderEliminarWhat's local or regional anymore anyway?
Personally, I consume a decent amount of music from around the world (though 99% of it in English). This is because I have better/easier access to it than ever before.
ResponderEliminarHowever, I listen to more music from the Mid-West than anywhere else. Part of that reason is because I can see these bands in shows, which makes me a bigger fan and introduces me to more local music (opening bands, local artists collaborating on new projects, etc).
The rest of the music is centralized around large cities (LA, NYC, Portland, etc), which isn't too surprising. Of that music, I can usually tell the general area it comes from. I can hear a difference between California bands, Mid-West bands, New York bands, or British bands.
It seems to me that there's a local influence, at least for the artists. They tour together, they play together, they go to the same shows together, and those common experiences give a common sound to their music.
Interesting take on regional accents. I think there are lots of pockets of disagreement. The accent of younger Australian has definitely changed and become slightly Americanised in many cases.
ResponderEliminarSame thing for pop music. Even if different countries purchase different music, the song structures and sounds are often quite similar, as Shane points out above. Much like the Europeans influenced American music so heavily in the 60s and 70s.
The last decade has seen *tremendous* reductions in the cost of producing and distributing music. I wouldn't expect anything other than an increase in domestic and niche music.
ResponderEliminarAnd now we're being told that the death of newspapers somehow means the death of local news (or the death of all investigative journalism, depending on who you ask). I'm sure we'll laugh at that in a few decades too.
This article made me think about Tom Petty's 2002 interview in Rolling Stone Magazine. I never forgot that interview and I have posted in my cubicle so I can read it often.
ResponderEliminarThis exact concept has been discussed in music scholarship circles (ethnomusicology, popular music studies) since the late 1970s, before MTV even existed, and especially during the late 1980s, with the advent of "world beat" music and artists like Paul Simon and Enigma. Also- the economic aspect may indicate one thing, but it's really, really a problem to consider "domestic music" as a unified concept in pretty much any country. Moreover, we can't just assume that other countries are passive receptors of Western or other music without exploring how Western music and its attendant technologies are incorporated/resisted/used within particular areas.
ResponderEliminarGreat study, which pretty much follows my observations throughout the world.
ResponderEliminarPeople from all over steal bits of each others music and then make it their own.
I wrote a piece about this and what I call micro fusions that covers my experiences with music and food globalization (or the lack of it) in Denmark, US, Jamaica, Panama and the Philippines.
stakeventures.com/articles/2007/09/18/why-globalization-wont-make-everything-the-same
I think Shane has it right: saying that a song is of a certain culture because it is produced in a certain country is simply false.
ResponderEliminarAnother example is French hip-hop: quotas imposed on radio by the French government gave local production a big advantage over American production. But in the end it is still hip-hop, and whether you like it or not (that's another discussion) it marks a huge influence of american culture over french culture. Or "displacment" as the study names it.
Accents are dying. I've lived in the South, the Midwest, and the West. People are starting to sound all alike. Even in Mississippi I heard more people without a Southern accent than with. Even the Cajun accent is disappearing. Sad, but not as sad as the plague of fast food joints. I've been to some of the most famous food places in America only to see the McDonald's packed while the real Mexican or po'boy or seafood place stands nearly empty.
ResponderEliminarRegional accents in the US have largely disappeared. I grew up in the North, & in the late 60s & the 70s, on trips to St. Louis & Atlanta I could understand only about every other word. As Terry said above, other than a handful of words, most Americans speak the same dialect today - not true 40 years ago.
ResponderEliminarIf anything, the internet will lead to more influences from more sources, while also allowing for more fringe or niche music to find its audience. More cross-cultural styles will be born, with influences from so many sources that "local" will need to be defined more in geographic than cultural terms.
ResponderEliminar@ #1: Yes there's a bunch of Jpop that sounds basically like American pop with Japanese lyrics, but there's also more traditional stuff still coming out with regularity. Look up "enka" - you can think of it as basically the Japanese version of country music. To a lesser extent, Okinawa also has its own traditional blend of music that I don't see going anywhere anytime soon.
ResponderEliminarLast I checked, Japan had the second biggest music industry after the US. There are tons of local acts (singing mostly western-style music with a Japanese twist) that have markets not only domestically, but also all over Asia. Even with the language barriers, I've seen people listening to Jpop in Korea, China, Thailand and Vietnam. Albeit to a lesser extent, Japan is to the Asian music market what the US is to the world's music market.
I also think that opinion of foreign music is different in non-English speaking countries than it is in the US. People in Japan for instance have grown up with western music available, so they're used to listening to stuff they can't understand. If they listen to American music, why not also listen to Korea music? To them the voice is just like another instrument being played over top the music - they don't necessarily care what's being sung.
-Doug in Tokyo
Is there such a thing as American music? Yes, there seems to be: Google "Navajo music"or "native American music". The rest of it we borrowed from other cultures and other places. So America is a mish-mash.
ResponderEliminarI think trying to maintain some sort of cultural purity is doomed to failure.
For a laughable transmogrification of this subject, and proof that classical music is dead--check out "Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops Play the Beatles."
BTW the Europeans are nuts about Native American culture, and for some strange reason the Germans are nuts about "Hogan's Heroes", all translated back into German. Weird.
I would think that American influence would show up in television and movies, which is expensive to produce, rather than music, which can produced on a shoestring. It is hard for local movie producers to compete with 100 million dollar blockbusters from Hollywood. We have become used to movies that make more money overseas than they do in domestic release.
ResponderEliminarOf course, foreign influence shows up in American cinema also as foreign directors come to the US and American directors are influenced by foreign films. Hong Kong itself has had a big influence on American movies.
I don't know about regional accents dying out. I'm originally from NW Indiana, where there is not much of an accent. But I've had visited other areas of the country, and my lack of accent immediately sets me apart from the locals. Also, I've had friends who've moved to other parts of the country and their accents change pretty quickly even after a short time.
ResponderEliminarThe future of the music industry can be found at PledgeMusic.com , its here that fans and artists are encouraged to interact on an organic level with one another as the music is produced and released which creates a completely new experience for both the fans and the artist. PledgeMusic has created a new platform which tears down the wall between corporately controlled music and the fans who truly love the music. Check it out, its taking local bands onto the global stage one fan pledge at a time.
ResponderEliminarsomehow, did Esperanto manage to conquer the globe?
ResponderEliminarYeah, man, you bet!
You could check it out in Havanna this summer, if you may go
there.
Mi dubas au ne.
Just wanted to comment on the trend of young women to have a vocal quality that sounds girlie or teen age. I hear it everywhere and even on radio shows. (ie Freakonomics) You can hear it at the end of sentences. It sounds like they are swallowing the end of the sentence or closing their throats to make it sound kind of squishy or dare I say... submissive,non threatening,egalitarian or perhaps unopinionated. They seem to want to not take space.
ResponderEliminarThen there is the universal use of LIKE instead of a direct vocabularical connection to what they are trying to express.
I would like to hear what a linguist would have to say about the way young people talk today and the stunning loss of vocal and language skills. I see young people all the time who consistently can not express themselves or put a string of coherent sentences together. It seems ignorance has become a point of pride and honor with the majority of young people today. Not a good reflection on the baby boomers parenting.
what the hell is a 'stylized fact'?
ResponderEliminarthe stylized circumlocutions in this stylized editorial are painful to me.
while the premise of this article fascinates me, the presentation is irksome.
I don't think esperanto as a language has a problem to conquer the world, it is the journalists of today who neglect this language, or just make fun of it. It is often used as a metaphore.
ResponderEliminarA new book tells us how journalists of NYT wrote in the past time: katalogo.uea.org/?inf=8438
Listen to esperanto from Brazil parolumondo.com/
Canada radioverda.com/
or China esperanto.cri.cn/
I was born in Boston in 1954 and grew up watching television - and with a strong Boston accent. Radio and television "midwest accents" did nothing to stop me from dropping terminal "r"s. Then came forced busing, the white working/middle class moved out of Boston, and now the city is full of people who don't have "Boston" accents.
ResponderEliminarMedia has less power than they'd like to believe. But large cultural changes do occur unnoticed.
From what I could tell, the most popular bands in the world are from South Korea. What a lot of Americans mistake as J-pop is actually K-pop.
ResponderEliminarI think that Asian pop will dominate the next century, not American.
On the subject of accents, I've always heard that the U.S. accent is standardizing around the TV-style midwestern or California manner of speech.
ResponderEliminarI have noticed that in my lifetime there seems to be the rise of what I call the "universal hick accent." Someone can grow up in urban San Francisco and go to private schools, but if he chooses to move to the countryside, buy a Ford pickup truck, ten acres and two horses, the next thing you know he will start sounding like a NASCAR announcer. I don't know why that is, but I've seen it over and over.
I tip my hat to the commenters who read through this piece and got enough out of it to comment intelligently on it.
ResponderEliminarI gave up after the phrases "stylized facts" and "a unique data."
I find this hard to believe, when I travel through Donegal and hear American country "music", or shop in Switzerland to the sound of American Muzak.
ResponderEliminarThe sad truth is that music itself is dying. Like kudzu, pop - whether it's American made, or a local clone - crowds out everything else.
But, it cannot be argued that the Americanization of world culture has had a dominant effect.
ResponderEliminarThere's no such thing as accents or regional dialects in the US anymore. And I think this is horrible.
ResponderEliminarI still have a strong accent that I'm proud of but my siblings mock me mercilessly when I visit them. Of course, they've all developed the ability to slur "r"'s like a midwesterner and end every sentence with an inquisitive rising tone that begs a question mark.
And I'm positive that I would have also lost my accent if I hadn't moved out of the US about 15 years ago
Fittstim:
ResponderEliminarReally? No more regional accents? Have you ever been to the South? Or Chicago? Both these places have pretty hardy regional accents that I don't see going away any time soon. If I travel down to KY, TN or even southern Indiana, the accents start to change pretty quick.
@tonyg: In response to "I would like to hear what a linguist would have to say about the way young people talk today and the stunning loss of vocal and language skills."
ResponderEliminarI think most linguists would say that there is no stunning loss of vocal and language skills among. You should try reading Language Log, a blog written collaboratively by a bunch of very respected linguists. Here is one article on texting: languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=609
I would link to more, but I'm pretty sure having more than one link in a comment gets it flagged as spam. Here are the main points made about texting:
* Text messages aren
Doug, I couldn't agree more. I noticed this first on holiday in Italy, where people were listening to foreign pop music from around Europe and North America, in foreign languages.
ResponderEliminarWhy not? Often pop does not place a heavy emphasis on lyrics, so it is not important that one can't understand them. It got me wondering why here in Ireland only Engish-language pop and rock is on the radio. I have taken to listening to Japanese popular music. Not understanding the lyrics does not matter, I think it's a pity we don't hear this on the radio here too.