Final thoughts and cosmopolitanism

David Held’s “Cosmopolitan after 9/11” (2010) says “Perversely, globalization seems to have dramatized the significance of differences between peoples; far from the globalization of communications easing understanding and translation of ideas, it seems to have highlighted what it is that people do not have in common and find dislikable about each other (Bull, 1977)” (53).

I have tried to be very cosmopolitan in my discussion of the globalization of music. I have looked at Asian music (rock, hip hop, and current hits), a variety of European music, music corporations, South American music (Argentina and Brazil for comparison), and rap and rai music which originates from Africa. I have covered pretty much every corner of the world in my discussion and have tried not to let my western views influence these studies. Ethnocentrism is something that many Americans seem to be unaware of and therefore inadvertently impose some of our cultures on others. While I have stated my opinions, such as saying that personally I don't like a particular song or style- I don't not like that song because it isn't American or is strange compared to the culture of music I am used to. As a musician and song writer myself, but also as a media communication major and international studies minor- I am almost more prone to dislike a song from outside of the U.S. if I feel it is too westernized and not remaining true to it's own culture. For example, I was most impressed with the music from Argentina because it had very little American influence and was so unique from our culture and our music. Out of the countries in which I did my own research on, the degree of American influence on music from greatest influence to least is as follows: America, of course with 90%, United Kingdom, also not a surprise since we have the same national language, with 50%, Germany with 47.5%, Brazil with 45%, China with 40%, Finland with 35%, the Netherlands with 32.5%, France with 25%, and finally Argentina with 6.25%. Germany is the country that is closest to losing some of it's own unique culture due to globalization, so the fears are well founded. It is no surprise why there was such a huge effort to get the radio quota France has in place. Brazil and China are not far behind either, although with 50% local artists on the top charts in China, they are still maintaining their own culture without being completely absorbed by globalization. Brazil also maintains it's own culture with 45% of music being local. However, Germany is far behind everyone else with only 15% of music being local and even less being sung in German. 

Globalization is definitely present throughout the world, especially seen in the music charts for each nation. However, it seems each nation is at least attempting to maintain it's own culture and the globalization of music is only reinforcing their views of their own culture and reconnecting them with local music and language.

Germany, Netherlands, and China top hits

This post is, like the past few posts, based on the website top40-charts.com and will first look at German top 40 hits. It is clear now why Germany felt they needed a radio quota because never has globalization been more present than in the German top forty charts. There are over 12 different countries represented in just 40 songs! German artists only accounted for 15%, as did U.K. artists. However, American artists made up an overwhelming 47.5%. This is not too surprising after seeing the results from other European countries. Romania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Finland, France, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, and Belgium were each represented with 2.5%. What is more interesting are some of the American and U.K. songs that made the list were songs that were popular here some time ago. Also, it appears out of 40 songs- only 4 are in German. This is a big difference to France, but that also has something to do with the radio quota, which is not in effect in Germany. The top song sung in German is not even very high, at number 12. That song is "Still" by Jupiter Jones. The video can be found here:

This next artist, Broke Fraser, is from New Zealand, so it's interesting that she has the number eleven song in Germany right now, yet is not popular here in America, although watching the video here, you would think she would:

This next video is at number 16 and is the epitome of globalization because it is a German band, Cascada, yet they are singing not only in English, but about a city in America, "San Francisco." This band may not be well known in America, but they have had some hits like with "Everytime we touch." The video can be found here:

And to show the other side of globalization, of remaining true to your local culture, this song "Nur In Meinem Kopf" by Andreas Bourani is at number 19 in Germany right now. The video can be found here:

Overall, Germany did have a fair degree of westernization and a huge amount of globalization found in their music, yet despite this, they are able to be true to their country and culture with German artists and German lyrics being popular in at least a handful of songs. 

The Netherlands top 40 charts paint a different picture of slightly less variety, but also more local artists than Germany had. There is 27.5% Dutch artists, 12.5% U.K. artists and at the most is once again America with 32.5%. However, unlike the usual American artists, Lady Gaga did not even make it on the lists when she had multiple hits on other top chart lists. Spain, Romania, and France all had 5% while Barbados, Sweden, Germany, and Ireland all had 2.5%. 

Globalization is present here as well, with the number 2 song there being an American cover song that Rochelle, winner of Dutch X-factor covered. You can find that video here:

Another winner of a Dutch reality show made the top 40 with the number 39 song being by Ben Saunders who was featured in a previous post on this blog. And the number five song is by an American artist from Columbia, SC named Alexis Jordan and she has multiple hits on the Netherlands top forty hits. I find this strange since I am only a few hours away from her town, yet I have never heard of her. This is another interesting effect of globalization and a factor facilitated by the ease of access to music thousands of miles away due to the internet. Actually, her song is pretty bad and I'm really surprised she's so popular in the Netherlands, but see for yourself and watch her video here:

Another interesting aspect of globalization present in the Dutch top forty is the majority of the songs are in English and only three are in Dutch and there is one in French and one is Spanish. It definitely seems that, like mentioned in earlier posts, Dutch people are very comfortable singing in English and statistically prefer it. The number 33 song is by a Dutch artist and Krystl is singing her song "Bottles" in English. You can hear that song here:

Lastly I am going to look at the top 20 hits in China, since earlier in this blog I looked at hip hop and rock music becoming popular in China and that there is a one-way flow of globalization from the west to the rest. If most of the music is from the west, this will confirm those studies. Without looking at anything else but the very first song, I can definitely say that westernization is present in China. The number 1 song is Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" . . . this is the number one song in CHINA! Despite this fact, China actually had a large number of Chinese artists, at 50%. American singers composed 40% of the top 20 hits in China. The other 10% comes from Australia and Columbia. Here is the number two video in China by Australian band Empire of the Sun:

The top local, Chinese artist is at number 4 and is the first song in Chinese (although about 50% are). This video can be found here:

The number 9 video is also Chinese and is "Big Ben" by Ivana Wong. Most of the Chinese songs have the titles in English, but the lyrics are all in Chinese. That video can be found here:

Most of the other songs were difficult to find here in America. But pop/rock seems to be the popular genre in China. The hip hop article mentioned in previous posts is probably just a small subculture and isn't seen in popular music yet. But globalization is present, but not as much as expected. They do have their own stars and artists, but they have not made an impact outside of China yet, unlike most American artist.

Europe did seem to share a lot of their music, like a German artist can be popular in Norway, for instance. Perhaps that is why American music is popular everywhere because we have such a large scope of area and pool of artists to choose from that other countries don't have simply because of the size of the population.

France top 40

Just as with my last post, I am doing my own research using the website top40-charts.com. I discovered some interesting things in my last post and in this post I will concentrate on the countries previously mentioned in other studies, the first being France. France definitely had the largest variety of singers and the most countries represented in one country's top hits. This ranged from French artists, to American artists, to Colombian, and Swedish-Congolese artists! 35% were French artists while 25% were American artists. There were 12.5% artists from the U.K., 5% from the Ivory Coast, 5% from the Congo (including a Swedish-Congolese artist), 5% from Romania, and a Canadian and French artist, Pakistani-American artist, Barbadian, and Colombian artist all had 2.5%. Almost half the songs were in French while the rest were in English and one was in Spanish. This fits pretty well with the radio quota which states French national radios have to play 40% French music. If you include former colonies of France and nations that speak French, like the Ivory Coast and Congo, then this does fit within the 40%. Oh and by the way, a cartoon mole has 2 of their top 40 hits, this one being number 4:

So if the singing mole wasn't strange enough, the number 7 song in France is "Le Meme que Moi" which means "The Same as Me." My only question is, who is the kid in this video and is it a boy or girl? He looks like a boy and is dressed like a boy and even kind of sounds like a boy, but all of his gestures suggests girl. Hmm . . . see for yourself.

  Also, his name is Leo, so he is a boy . . .
What is also interesting is that two American artists who I have never heard of here in America made the top forty hits for France. Those two artists are Nadia Ali, a Pakistani-American and Beth Ditto, an overweight woman who used to be in the group "The Gossip" and is known for her wild ways. She has been popular in England for years but has never seen much success in the States. Here is a photo of Beth Ditto from Spinner.

It's no surprise why Beth nor Nadia have had much success in America- Beth because of her appearance and wild ways don't strike a chord with Britney Spears fans here and Nadia's Pakistani roots, not to mention her not too great of a voice, as shown in this music video where she just dances half of the song:

So, clearly westernization is not happening in France, yet globalization is very present. This fits well with the studies done on France in past posts where it showed many artists who sung in French from other nations usually moved to France because of all the controversy and turmoil happening at home. In France is usually where they found acceptance and the top forty hits of France today show that.

My own research based on top charts

This post is based on research of my own. The idea came from the last post where I looked at the top hits for Netherlands, Germany, and U.K. and at the corporations which own each label a particular artist is signed to. Only this time I will look at more nations and look at each song in the top 10, 20, or 40 (depending on what is available) and of those top hits I will determine the percentage or American artists, local (being a native from that country) artists, and other artists. I will use top40-charts.com to determine the top hits from various countries. This is a great resource because it has the top hits for 30 different countries. I can compare the results from each of the different countries and not only will this show a geographical pattern of globalization, but will reveal which countries have a greater percentage of globalization and which countries have the greater percentage of local artists and therefore less globalization. Another fact I would like to determine is if it is solely westernization occurring (or American artists being the most popular) or if what is occurring is truly globalization and the artists outside of the local country are from other countries besides the U.S. 

First up are our closest allies- United Kingdom. If anyone will have a great amount of American artists it is a country who created the language we speak and the land of our forefathers. However, even just beginning this research, this trend is not showing up. The top three songs this week in the U.K. are from Example, Calvin Harris and Kelis, Ed Sheeran who are all from the U.K. Ed Sheeran was mentioned in the last post as well. However, after the results were tallied, the percentage of U.K. artists with the top hits in the U.K. were 30% while American artists had an overwhelming 50%. The rest was made up of 5% Romanian artists, 5% Italian artist with an American, 5% French artist with an American, 2.6% Barbadian, and 2.6% Swedish. The Romanian artist Alexandra Stan made it to number 8 on the charts with this video:

Now, comparing these results to the USA top singles results is interesting without even running the numbers yet because Adele "Rolling in the Deep" is the number 1 song in America right now and she is from the U.K. Despite this fact, 90% of the top songs in America are from American artists. Another 7.5% are from the U.K. and then of Rhianna is from Barbados and makes up the other 2.5%. These results aren't as clear as you might think because despite 90% of our artists being American, they all have a variety of rich heritage. Some of their parents are West African, Haitian, Filipino, Cuban, Hispanic, Palestinian, etc. Another strange thing when comparing the U.K. results to the U.S. results is a lot of the American artists popular in the U.K. are not the same ones popular in America. Nicole Scherzinger is much more popular there with the number 7 song in the U.K. I have also never heard of the American artist with the number 12 hit in the U.K., Aloe Blacc. This is due to him signing a contract with Epic Records just for U.K. and Ireland. His song can be found here:

And now for something completely different . . . Argentina. These results have shown me something I wasn't even looking for- the popular genres of music in each country. Without thoroughly examining it, I can sum up U.K. hits as pop and hip hop/rap while U.S. is pop and hip hop/rap and country. Argentina seems to find Latin music and Argentinian rock popular, which for me was an unexpected find. Argentina is much like the U.S. in it's numbers with 50% of their top hits belonging to Argentinian artists. Globalization does not have seemed to have spread much outside of South America and Central America. Puerto Rico holds 12.5% of their hits, as does Uruguay. The rest comes from America, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia all with 6.25%. This is a surprising result, although I have done little research in South America. I believe the language barrier may be what hinders American music becoming popular here with the only American to breech this gap was Pit Bull, who also does his song in Spanish since he is a Cuban American. More surprisingly still is how much I like the number 2 song there right now, completely in Spanish and I can't understand a word, yet the video and song speaks it's own language here:

Also the number 3 video "Manuel Santillan El Leon" by Catupecu Machu is also worth showing. It's strong rock roots paired with the Spanish make it feel even heavier and I rather like it. You can find the video here:

I'll finish with Argentina by saying I'm impressed how it has managed to have so many great Argentinian artists in the top of their charts. Somehow they have managed to escape globalization, yet with rock music being some of their most popular- remain global and current all at the same time. If I wasn't impressed by Argentina simply because of Messi (the best soccer player in the world, if you didn't know) already . . . well, I am now. And I can't help myself, this number 5 video "Chau" by No Te Va A Gustar is just too cute not to show:

Argentina . . . your music is much better than ours. Now let's see if Brazil has similar taste. Nope, already I am disappointed in Brazil for it's blatant globalization with Adele, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars as it's top three hits. American artists represented 45% of the top music in Brazil, yet local Brazilian music still represented an equal 45% with the other 5% coming from Barbados and the United Kingdom. It's strange that two countries with the same language that are even sharing a border can have such different musical tastes. While a lot of Argentinian music was rock, most of Brazil's is pop and hip hop. Such as the number 5 song in Brazil "Um Beijo" by Luan Santana which can be seen here:

You can even hear all the girls singing along in the video. I guess this guy is like the Brazilian Justin Bieber. For a Spanish-speaking nation, it's strange that just over half of the songs are in English when in Argentina little to none were in English. Perhaps this is because Brazil is a larger nation with a better economy which also stems from it's tourist industry? I'm not sure. 


Finland is a place that isn't often studied, so I'm going to look at the music there. Exactly 50% of Finland's top music is by Finnish artists, similar to Brazil. 35% is American music while 10% is UK and 2.5% is Romanian. Stereotypically enough, most of the videos associated with Finland's top music is ice hockey related. Most of the popular music is house, pop, electronic, hip hop type of music. I thought I would show the number four video "Haissa" by Jare & Villegalle as an example of the type of music popular in Finland, also in the video is a great example of globalization because in the beginning the man waking up has a poster of New York City behind him and he is drinking "Red Stripe," a Jamaican beer. Near the end of the video there is also a McDonald's shown. You can find this video here:

Actually, Finland has quite a variety of types of music in their top hits, including quite a few with a reggae sort of feel and then just sweet, romantic songs . . . that are in Finnish. The number 5 top song is "Silkkii" Jukka Poika which has the reggae feel I was talking about and that can be seen here:

And the romantic, slow song I was talking about is "Nuori Ja Kaunis" by Anna Jarvinen and made it to number 9 and can be found here:

So far, Argentina, Finland, Brazil all had an equal amount or more local hits than American hits which means that westernization and globalization are not striking with as much force as we might think. Countries are still able to maintain their own culture while globalization brings a few American hits into view, it does not overwhelm the talent that is already present in some many of these wonderful countries.

I will definitely look at more countries, especially France, Germany, the Netherlands, and at least one Asian country in a later post since those are the countries studied in previous posts.

Music corporations

This post is based on "The structure of international music flows using network analysis" published by Sage in New Media & Society 12 (3) 2010 and contributing authors were Shin-II Moon, George A. Barnett, and Yon Soo Lim.

Music truly does transcend national boundaries, especially now with easy distribution though the internet. This study looks at whether easy access to music from every parts of the world effect the sales of national and locally available music. According to the world system theory, the largest, wealthiest nations will have the most exports- this applies to music as well. "Recently, the dominance of four biggest music companies: Warner Music, Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony/BMG Entertainment- may be one of the most representative examples of internationalization and concentration of media ownership and control as a consequence of media globalization" (Moon 381). These four major labels control over 80% of the global music market. The mergers and taking-overs of these companies is like a pack of wolves tearing apart a carcass. Things have only gotten worse in this new global technological society where piracy and downloading are going strong. Streaming has also been a problem, because why buy the song when you can listen to it for free? http://www.musicglobalization.com/2009/10/music-industrys-biggest-problems.html

Pandora is the best example of this in America. Spotify is even worse for the music industry because unlike Pandora, you can choose the song (not just the station) that you want to listen to and it is available in the U.S., Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Pandora is not available outside of the U.S.

But, back to the study- what nations exported the most music? Ironically or not . . . the same countries looked at in my last post: Germany, U.S., Netherlands, and U.K. in that order. From 2002-2006 this centrality of music worldwide increased, but since then has decreased, most likely because the digital music age. The findings of this study proved that developed nations, such as the four mentioned, were the main exporters and importers of music while developing nations only imported music. Another area of interest is that one of the top four music companies is associated with each of the top four nations. Sony-Germany, Warner- U.S., EMI- U.K., and Universal- Netherlands. 

Since this post was more about international music companies, there aren't many videos or photos associated with that. So I researched and tried to find international music videos from each of the four countries mentioned signed by each of the four labels. This next song is called "Nur noch kurz die Welt retten" by Tim Bendzko and according to RadioCharts.com, it is currently the 5th most popular song on the radio in Germany. Tim Bendzko is signed by Columbia, which Sony Entertainment owns and his video can be seen here.

This next song is number five on Dutch top 40 according to http://acharts.us/dutch_top_40. The artist is signed by PIAS which according to this article, was recently bought by Universal, which is based in Netherlands.

Coldplay's new hit is currently number six in Germany as well as making the grade elsewhere. This British band is signed by EMI, based in the U.K. and you can find the video here.

Lastly, this song by Ed Sheeran is number 5 in the U.K. according to http://www.bigtop40.com/. This artist is signed by Warner U.K. 

And yes, I only chose songs that I also liked. :) And the last song was my favorite.

It seems to fit that the wealthiest countries (at least in the west) exported the most music, at least it fits with other studies done by Robin Mansell and Marc Raboy (2011). Introduction: Foundations of the Theory and Practice

of Global Media and Communication Policy. In Mansell, Robin, and Raboy, Marc (Eds.), The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy, pp. 1-20. Blackwell Publishers. [Electronic reserve]. This also fit with The “World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report” ITU (2010). World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010. Monitoring the WSIS Targets: A mid-term review. Online: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_10/material/WTDR2010_e_v1.pdf. Mansell says that new media and technology disadvantages the nations who cannot afford it. The ITU report says that high speed internet is a human right in countries like France, Estonia, and Finland, yet most of Africa has very little access to it.

France, Germany, Netherlands, and US

This post is based on "A Cultural Globalization of Popular Music? American, Dutch, French, and German Popular Music Charts (1965 to 2006)" by Peter Achterberg, Johan Heilbron, Dick Houtman, and Stef Aupers in American Behavioral Scientist 2011 55: 589 by Sage publication. 

This study will be different from other posts because rather than qualitative studies looking at cultures and music, this one is quantitative and actually looks at the amount of international music popular in various countries and if the amount changes over time. This study looks at " . . . consumer appreciation as foreign as compared to national cultural goods" (Achterberg, 590). "Cultural globalization implies that cultural exchange between countries expands and that cultural consumers around the globe increasingly may enjoy foreign cultural goods besides local products" (591). This is seen to most benefit the west and can be viewed as cultural imperialism or glocalization because they not only have worldwide effects, but "local circumstances." Or it could be a process of multiculturalization in which cultures coexist or blend together.

The study looked at the top 10 hits from each year 1965-2006 and noted the nationality of the singer and the language of the song for the U.S., Germany, France, and Netherlands. The most frequent nationality of the U.S. was American artists followed by British and Latin American. No surprise there. France saw a majority of national artists, although less than the U.S. saw. France also saw the lowest number of U.S. and British artists compared to Germany and Netherlands. The latter two saw about an equal number of national, U.S. and British artists. The chart from Achterberg (593) is below:

 There was less variation with the language of hit songs with English dominating with over 70% in every country except France, where it was only at 35.2% and French was more frequently used. The chart for these results can be seen below:

 This chart, not surprisingly, shows that practically all of the songs in the U.S. are in English. Does this show how ethnocentric our country is? Or perhaps it is because of the large geographical and isolated area our country lies in which we do not often have to communicate with people who speak other languages. Germany, France, and the Netherlands are all small countries compared to ours and are surrounded by nations with differing national languages. Most European citizens are fluent in more than their national language and must learn other languages early on in school. I find it interesting that the Netherlands had only 11% of their most popular songs in Dutch while Germany had 21% of their songs in German and France had an overwhelming 57% in French. I went to Amsterdam in December of 2010 and not once encountered a language barrier. Sure, I heard people speaking Dutch, but instantly when I asked them something in English, they could switch back and forth so quickly and answer me in English and go back to their conversation in Dutch. This is a great example of the code switching mentioned in my last post. Also, the Dutch are some of the best English-as-a-second-language speakers I have ever heard. Their accent is hardly even noticeable. As a media communication major, I am most interested in television and in an issue of the Rolling Stone magazine I recently read that the new show "The Voice" is actually based on the Netherlands show "The Voice of Holland." This clip from that show is mind blowing how he can speak perfect Dutch and then sing in perfect English. While he is singing in English, the host talks about him in Dutch. It's another example of code switching and how, according to the chart by Achterberg above, the Dutch prefer music in English. 

What's also interesting is the judge's comments at first up until the 2:50 mark- half are in English and the other half are Dutch and they switch between in the middle of a sentence. It's almost like since the song was in English, they want to speak in English until they are saying long comments much after the song is over, then it is almost all in Dutch. Globalization. Their English is so good too, they almost sound American . . . is this perhaps because the majority of the music they listen to is from America at over 28%? That is something to think about. 

The Achterberg study looked at what songs and the number of songs that were popular in more than one of the four countries at once. From 1965-1976, there were three songs popular in all four countries: Frank Sinatra "Strangers in the Night" from 1966 (American), Jerry Mungo's "In the Summertime" from 1970 (English) and Abba's "Fernando" in 1976 (Swedish). Since this time there hasn't been a huge increase in the number of hits popular in all four countries at once, with the exceptions of Spice Girl's "Wannabe" in 1996 (English) among others. "In the Netherlands and the United States, the share of foreign music has dropped, whereas the two other countries feature neither a decrease or increase. This contradicts assumptions of cultural globalization: The share of nondomestic cultural products does not grow, and natural cultural production does not become less important either" (Achterberg 595). As the chart below from Achterberg shows, the total number of different nationalities of artists in each country has increased, which suggests globalization despite the previous fact that there is no increase of share of foreign music.

Germany is now considering following in France's footsteps with the radio quota system they have in place requiring radio to play at least 40% French artists, as mentioned in the last post. http://www.the-latest.com/calls-for-quota-to-keep-german-music-alive from June 26, 2006 says that "Music industry officials estimate that only 10 percent of German radio's play lists is sung in German, falling way short of France, Italy and Spain's 50 percent native language ratio." Spain also already has the quota in place. There have been protests and everyone seems to like the idea of promoting local artists, but do not feel the need to have it government mandated. Others fear that the quota would help Germany but make it much more difficult for other European music to make waves (and yes that pun is all mine) in Germany. According to http://www.goethe.de/kue/flm/prj/kub/mus/en3964832.htm by Goethe-Institut e. V. 2006, Germany has passed a quota law of sorts "In December 2004 the Lower House finally passed a resolution calling for voluntary self-regulation by radio broadcasters: about 35 percent of the pop or rock music broadcast should be either German-language or made-in-Germany, and half of that should be new releases or up-and-coming musicians." This is not a law, but voluntary, which was probably just passed so people would stop complaining. Venezuela also have a radio quota, but that 50% of music on the radio must be Venezuelan. This information is found at http://www.ancient-future.com/radioquotas.html written by Matthew Montfort on July 23, 2005. It seems other unlikely nations are wanted to impose a radio quota, such as Scotland according to Euan McGrory from Edinburgh Evening News on May 5, 2009 from http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Face-the-music-over-radio.5233943.jp. Although he can't legally do this, Scotland's cultural minister Mike Russell saw Canada's quota system in action that forces one third of the music on the radio to be local and wants to convince radio stations in Scotland to volunteer to do the same. The author of this article, McGrory makes a good point saying, shouldn't people get to choose what they listen to and not be forced to listen to local music? Especially in Scotland . . . a place not exactly known for their music. Also, he brings up the point of what would count as local? If someone is born in Scotland but lived most of their life elsewhere, could they count, such as Rod Stewart? Jamaica, Australia, and Israel in addition to the already mentioned France, Spain, Canada, and Venezuela all have similar quota systems. It almost seems like an epidemic to push out American music and ultimately combats globalization. Why make it a law? If there was a need and want for local music, what was wrong with the idea of having one station that only plays local music? That's my question. McGrory says "It seems anachronistic, for a start, to be corralling radio stations in the middle of the biggest technological changes since the Industrial Revolution. Thanks to the internet, there have never been more ways or more powerful ways to promote new bands." This is a good point, and while France passed this law while radio was still a huge form of communication and especially communicating music, there are newer and better forms now and perhaps have more reach and influence than radio. Applying this law now would be counterproductive. 


A website mentioned earlier, this website by Kirsten Kummer on Goethe-Institut e. V. 2006, has a really great video about Germany and recent songs about German pride, using the words "homeland" because they don't feel the same associations with German nationality and pride as there was 70-80 years which came to a horrific end. There seems to be a huge difference and controversy with German people and especially musicians. One German musician says "I don't feel like a German" and nothing about his music is German besides his language and he feels this German pride is unnecessary because none of their music is based on a German tradition. This same musician later says that he's against this radio quota because radio stations have a responsibility to play a cultural variety. He adds, "art is not something to be given quotas" (Kummer). It seems Germans are ashamed of their past and this new German pride music reminds them of this past. Another musician says that the discussion of "what's German? Is exactly what's German about Germans. The country is so divided and the people are so skeptical, but also try so hard" (Kummer). Now with German hip hop bands, more controversy arises when ". . . a minority culture from the U.S.A is being absorbed which is not transferable one to one. All that romanticized ghetto aspect just doesn't work in Germany" (Kummer). I could not find this video on youtube, but I highly recommend going to the link and watching this video. While there is still globalization present here, with Germans adapting and American music style, they are singing in German which previously was not done as much. This German pride revival could be another reason why the Achterberg results showing globalization weren't higher.


Achterberg's results also finds that when national music declined, American music rose until 1989 where national music rose and American music declined. It could be a coincidence that this happened the same time as the end of the Cold War or around the same time as the radio quota system was starting to be put in place in France or the year that I was born. None of those are coincidences though . . . except the last one, that is. This could also be explained by Robin Mansell and Marc Raboy's "The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy” Introduction: Foundations of the Theory and Practice of Global Media and Communication Policy. In Mansell, Robin, and Raboy, Marc (Eds.), The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy, pp. 1-20. Blackwell Publishers. [Electronic reserve]. In this article, Mansell says that it was in 1990s that people started thinking not only globally, but locally. Achterberg suggest that this is a form of anti-globalization and more specifically anti-Americanization after 1989 and countries were turning back to their national language and music. This would mean that globalization is not blurring boundaries and creating a blended culture as many fear, but it's because of this fear that nations are reasserting their national and local roots and pride, specifically through music. It seems that globalization was occurring, according to Achterberg's study, until 1989, which is probably when we first started hearing about globalization and as soon as nation's learned that was happening, they made sure their own culture wasn't lost while still holding on to some globalizing aspects.

Rai Music

This post is a summary in response to "Code Switching and the globalisation of popular music: The case of North African rai and rap" by Eirlys E. Davies and Abdelali Bentahila published by Multilingua 2006, Vol. 25 Issue 4 found in the Communication and Mass Media Complete database from the North Carolina State University library. 

Rai music originated in western Algeria and the eastern borders of Morocco while rap has its origins, as previously mentioned in other posts, in the West. However, recently Algerian and Moroccan artists have incorporated rap into their rai music while rai music is becoming more known in the West as well. The study found in Davie's article looks at the code switching found in North African rai and rap, which is the switching of languages often done within a group of bilingual peers. "It has often been observed that within bilingual communities code switching back and forth between the community's two languages may be the natural, unmarked medium for communication in many everyday settings, the proponents of such switching often seeming almost unaware of the fact that they are switching at all" (Davies, 367). However, when done in a public setting such as song lyrics, the code switching is not improvised and there most be a motivation for it. 

"Music has crossed frontiers perhaps more freely than many other types types of cultural manifestation . . ." (Davies, 368). This has resulted in a uniformity and hybridization and world music. Unlike the previous posts, this one will look at the flow of music from the West to the Third World and vice versa. There was hardly any reverse flow back to the West from Asian countries, but Algerian rai music has found some foot holds in the West. Rai has been hybridized before, such as pop rai, new rai, and being influenced with reggae and now rap.

The urban areas in Algeria and Morocco of Oran and Sidi Bel Abbes have become popular centers for rai music with young men and women (Chebs and Chebas). Photos of the cities are shown in order above found from http://ww8-africa.blogspot.com/ and http://www.vitaminedz.com/photo-image.php?lg=fr&wilaya=22&cat=categorie&id=5308&id_cat=16859&num=0. However, rai music has not always been so popular and was banned by the Algerian government from being on the radio. With the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the 90s, so came the fall of rai, with the murder of Cheb Hasni in 1994 in the previously mentioned Oran and producer Ahmed Baba. Others were lucky and were forced into exile to Europe. 

You can hear the reggae influences in this song by Cheb Hasni. His death made number 46 on The Guardian's list of "50 key events in the history of world and folk music" at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/16/cheb-hasni-murder-rai-backlash. A year before, he played a concert celebrating Algerian independence. There has been equal deaths and controversy with rap music as there are other similarities: both are urban, both are used as a platform for self-expression by youth stricken with poverty, both borrow elements from other styles, and of course, both are controversial. One of Cheb Hasni's songs can be found here.

Because of negative outlook on rai music by the Algerian government, more have found success in Europe, such as Khaled's song "Didi" became a top 10 hit in France in 1992 which can be viewed here. I have actually heard this song before- we watched the video for this in my French 201 class at North Carolina State University . . . how's that for globalization? European immigrants from North Africa became more interested in rai music and even started producing their own, with artists such as Rai Kum, Saut el Atlas, and Faudel. Khaled came to America in an effort to build "a new bridge between Arabs and Americans through music" (Davies 372). "Thus the relatively impervious barriers of French popular music were breached by rai performers, despite the restrictions imposed by the Carignon law of 1994, which requires a quota of 40 percent of the songs on French state radio stations to be in French" (Davies, 372). Other nations have such quota systems and it seems the United States is one of the few who does not allow such a system to exist as it goes against the First Amendment. An article by Henry Samuel in the Telegraph written on May 4, 2011 says that now French artists are using more English in their songs, which is complicating the quota system. "The best female artist at this year's Victoires de la Musique – France's Mercury awards – was Yael Naim, a Franco-Israeli artist most of whose songs are in English" (Samuel 2011). Radio stations are struggling to fill this quota since the 718 francophone albums released in 2003 dropped to 158 last year. There is a call for change of the quota system, giving these "English-speaking French singers" a chance at success not just abroad but in France as well. Information found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8492894/French-radio-stations-fall-victim-to-anglophone-artists.html.

Above are some of Yael Naim's songs, the first being her most famous- something that even became famous here for being on an Ipod commerical found here. The second is in French and since Eirlys E. Davies and Abdelali Bentahila's article was about code-switching, I thought it was appropriate to show her singing in French as well and that is found here. The last song I just thought was a great example of globalization and the West having an influence on a Franco-Israeli singer who usually sings in English . . . which in itself is a great example of globalization and hybridization and that video is found here. But in this last video Yael Naim is singing a Britney Spears song, who is a big Western icon. Rai music has found some success in the west too, like with icon Cheb Mami who teamed up with Sting in the song "Desert Rose." This not only helped Cheb Mami's success in America, but increased Sting's popularity in Arabic-speaking nations. This video is found here.

Speaking of rap, Davies says "Wherever is has been adopted, it seems to have taken on similar roles, as a means of protesting against marginalization, injustice and deprivation, and of asserting the identity of minority or underprivileged groups, from the Maori of New Zealand to the marginalized sectors of Colombian society" (373). In fact, the second largest consumer of hip hop is now France where it has been of interest to African and Arab minorities. MC Solaar is Senegalese living in France and is a popular French hip hop artist. 

I have also heard of MC Solaar before (the first video found here), also from one of my French classes at NC State. Globalization once again in full effect. An Algerian rap group, MBS (the second video found here) claimed to have been inspired by MC Solaar and by American rap music. Another popular band in Algiers is Intik, and both groups now work from France. The third video is by Cheb Mami, the same man who sang with Sting, but this time he works with a rap artist. This video is from here. Others have successfully incorporated rai with rap and vise versa. However, the hybridization of rai and rap has led to the question of cultural imperialism. The spread of rap so quickly on a global scale has not helped this issue either. Many are afraid that by the youth embracing our Western music and western culture, they will forget their own musical heritage. The Davies article concludes that this fear is not yet justified.


Code switching, or switching between two languages, in rai is normally done between French and Arabic. Normally the chorus of a song is done in French while the verses or parts in between used to elaborate are done in Arabic. This is done so the songs will still become popular and played in France while remaining true to their North African roots. However, for European immigrants who are 2nd generation and born in Europe- the strongest language and most used would be French rather than Arabic. Something similar that we (in the U.S.) may be able to relate to is Latin or Central American rap artists who have both English and Spanish in their songs- such as Pit Bull. He is Cuban-American and incorporates Spanish in his songs as well as makes Spanish versions of his songs. An example of this in his video "I know you want me" found here.

This was the first time I have really researched rai music and music with origins in North Africa. Do I think this music can have an impact in the west? With the current language boundary, no. France has a population of people who are fluent in multiple languages and therefore when performers do songs in English, French, or Arabic . . . it isn't really a problem, of course other than the law that dictates that 40% of the music played on the radio is in French. In the U.S., as just stated, we listen to songs with some Spanish in it and while most of the population can't understand it, there are enough people who feel a since of pride and community because of the little bit of Spanish in a song. I'm sure that is the same with how Arabic is mixed in with French songs. However, I believe French, Algerian, or Moroccan artists could find success in America if they, like Cheb Mami work with already success Western artists, or simply write some songs in all English. Yael Naim sings almost exclusively in English now and she is still one of the best female artists of France and has become at least moderately popular in the U.S. This statement is not a form of westernization by any means either- it is a fact that English is becoming the international language for business. And the music business is one of the toughest in the world.

Asian Rap

This post is based off of a conference paper from the International Communication Association 2009 annual meeting p.1-23 called "East Side, West Side, But Not Worldwide: the Politics of Asian Crossover in Hip-Hop Music" by Myra Washington found on the Communication and Mass Media complete database from the North Carolina State University Library.

Much like the last post on Chinese rock, Chinese rap is also having trouble finding popularity in mainstream music worldwide. Another similarity is the western influence on this music as well and the Chinese imitation of western rap, hip-hop music. Myra Washington's article notes that in order to achieve success "hip-hop's crossover has involved the purposeful exportation of stereotypical depictions of Blackness, which plays directly into the White mainstream's notion of the hypersexed, hypermasculine, Black male body" (Washington, 2). 

What is interesting about the photo above found at http://www.atowe.com/2010/10/2145/50-cent-soulja-boys-xxl-cover-too-homo/ is this cover was called homosexual, the opposite of what hip-hop represents. This proves just how masculine hip hop is expected to be that a man can't even have his arm around, barely touching another man without it being considered "homo." This is in great opposition to how Asian males are perceived, which is usually either feminine or asexual. In White culture, the Asian male is usually depicted as mysterious with "great powers of deduction" with "fortune cookie" dialogue. He is quiet, nonthreatening, and positive. So how does the Asian male find success in hip hop?


Hip hop has its roots in New York and the Caribbean and is "a successful cross-cultural experiment" (Washington, 3). The anger in hip hop is created from frustration with some of Nixon's policies, especially the destruction of urban neighborhoods. Much like Chinese rock, authenticity in hip hop is vital, epitomized in the hip hop saying "keep it real." Often this authenticity is also associated with race and "Blackness," fear, and desire. As stated in the previous paragraph, the western view of the Asian male is neither one to be feared nor desired. Also to be considered authentic, in the hip hop community, one must be socially disadvantaged, this is also not something usually associated with Asian society. The West usually views the Asian male as intelligent and therefore wealthy. Since being from the "hoods" is what so much of rap and hip hop is about, Asian rappers are greatly disadvantaged to gain authenticity since they of course are not from the same "hoods." Eugene Franklin Wong states that "ethnicity is a hot commodity" and it appears many Asians have been sold African American/Caribbean. However, if someone is disadvantaged and struggling, then it is understandable how they would be drawn to hip hop. Also, since Asian men are perceived as non-masculine, it is also understandable why they would want to look like these hypermasculine males in hip hop. So while there are Asian communities who participate in hip hop, hip hop in the west is resistant and don't allow them inside their culture. John Tomlinson (2011) brings up the point of how “local actions can have global consequences” which is definitely seen in this research of hip hop. The local impact of the anger against Nixon caught on and became something so large it could not be contained with the borders of New York or even America. Douglas Kellner and Clayton Pierce (2007) chapter also relates to this copy-cat method of globalization because it talks about the negative impacts of globalization and the homogenizing of culture. But if an artist brings their own culture into a western piece of music, such as hip hop, the exotic spin on a musical style we already know “ . . . often fall into a position of either blind enthusiasm and/or rejectionism” (385). So we may either love it or hate it. The photo below is gathered from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjApt3dntI_ClJJypQKr1QVAVmLT5pqWHEujV3mcZqcSepi0uGVimEJ62ih0q3eru7oF-w8fhPneafqMV4YiIpCsFb2FSFhO0etNyIkTOTIAEVznUAVeZTE_z7NPJioSBSNnX9x_HdnSXI/s1600/chinese+rapper.jpg.

In a way, the globalization of hip hop music has done more damage (not necessarily negative) to the Asian culture than one hundred years of colonization could have done. Much like the Indian popularity of the British sport of cricket from the last post, Asian youth have picked up on the "coolness" of Western hip hop. They can also be westernized while being in direct opposition to it since hip hop was created to show frustration with the American government. Hip hop does not become less saturated because of the differences of race, masculinity, and space but are perhaps even more saturated because Asians feel they have to overcompensate for these differences. They also insert their own cultural values into some of these gaps, which creates a form of localization. Is this cultural imperialism? Probably, but it's not something that any one person or culture decided to go out and create. The hip hop community didn't target Asian youth, but Asian youth targeted hip hop. That's like as if Britain created such a "cool" cricket sporting culture, the way they dress, the way they act, and "Britishness" was something that Indians replicated on their own without being colonized. 

The exception is M.I.A. This is a Sri Lankan female rapper and the reason she has found western approval and popularity is because she is female. Above is her most popular song "Paper Plans" found here. She doesn't have to conform to the hypermasculine ideals of hip hop. She still has political messages, but people want to hear them because she is attractive and exotic. As the daughter of a revolutionary, immigrant, and person of color, she also gains credibility in the hip hop community. It also helps that most of her music is in English, although some is in Tamil. Her music also talks of the "hood" but goes beyond that by saying how she grew up in a mud hut in the jungle with bullets flying past her and her school burning down. This fits with Asian hip hop overcompensating by not growing up in the "hood" she takes it one step further, so such impoverishment that an upbringing in Harlem would be a dream. However, her authenticity is still in question because simply put, she isn't Black. 

M.I.A. has a more current video from her song "Born Free" which has a very political message. In it, American troops are depicted rounding up "Ginger" or red-headed people and killing them, even children. The video was removed multiple times from Youtube.com and has received a lot of criticism. It was brought out around the same time as the Arizona law that stated they can detain anyone who they don't believe to be a citizen. This could also be about racial prejudice, that she herself may have faced. There is also a direct link to the Holocaust. Perhaps she was just trying to make the most controversial music video ever since she got complaints of overly political messages in the past- she did this to really stick it to them. Warning- only watch the video if you want to see obese naked people having sex and people being shot in the head. Seriously, please don't watch it if you are offended easily. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/04/mia-makes-her-stance-utterly-clear-with-born-free-video-1.html. You can watch this video here.

Another Asian rapper, Panjabi MC has had a small amount of success with his song "Mundian To Bach Ke" in 1998, but it wasn't successful until 2003 when Jay-Z remixed it with his own rap over it. You can watch this video here. Without someone already accepted into the community supporting an artist, it is very hard to gain credibility and acceptance if you do not meet the basic requirements, such as being from the hood or being Black. Panjabi MC had even more against him since he was Arab and many Americans view Arabs as terrorists and were afraid his songs had an anti-American political message. Perhaps by letting Asian hip hop artists into the mainstream like M.I.A and Panjabi MC, we can learn to adjust our stereotypes, like that Arabs are terrorists or that Asian males are feminine. 

Chinese rock and pop

This post is based on the article "Sonic Sturdiness: The Globalization of "Chinese" Rock and Pop" published in Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol.22 No. 4, October 2005, p.325-338 by Jeroen de Kloet. This article was found in the Communication and Mass media complete database from the North Carolina State University library. He compares China's interest in rock music of the West to India's interest in the sport of cricket during British colonization of India between 1870-1930. But the interest remained throughout the 20th century far after India was decolonized. The popularity of rock music rose with "urban consumerism" and globalization in China in the 1990s. However, Chinese rock musicians definitely put their own stamp on their music which works as a form of localization. For example, pop music coming from Taiwan and Hong Kong are more popular than Western influenced rock music. Picture can be found at http://www.danwei.org/magazines/rolling_stone_rolls_back_onto.php

Cui Jian song "Nothing to my name" became a hit in 1986 and was the start of Chinese rock and the video can be found here. He is still considered the king of Chinese rock. The first video is his first song that made him famous the second is a more recent music video from 2007 found here. Unlike pop, however, rock music is about authenticity and if it was just a copy-cat of the West, then it could not be appreciated by rock audiences, so localization is vital. It is not just important to avoid copying Western rock, but also copying other Chinese rockers therefore Chinese rock has a distinctly different sound than any other form of rock. Chinese rock has not gained the popularity of pop because of the lack of support by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), calling it a "spiritual pollution from the West." But the West doesn't view Chinese rock any better by calling it "old-fashioned." The flow of music in China only seems to be one way- from the West to China, but there is little popularity of Chinese music outside China. This "copying" of the west can be seen as the global connectivity that John Tomlinson (2011) speaks about in his book.

So while the U.S. is met with a lot of criticism of "westernization" and "west v.s the rest" are we forcing our views on others or are other cultures more interested in absorbing western ideas? Then when we hear what sounds like copycats of our music, of course we don't react positively. Just as much as they like to keep parts of their culture distinctly theirs, perhaps we like parts of our culture, such as rock, ours. This is another example of why Chinese rock bands attempt to create their own sound, such as adding Mongolian sounds or Chinese Mandarin to the mix. "Localization results in a profound hybridization of the Western sound" (Kloet 334). The video shows the first thrash metal band in China, called Overload. The first video can be found here and is from their early days. However, they later switched to a pop sound, which shows the sometimes in-authenticity of Chinese rock music and the video can be found here. 

The anarchist, political messages of Western rock are also seen in Chinese rock. This explains why the CCP is not supportive. To avoid the censorship of the CCP, these political messages are usually said in broken English, such as an all female punk rock band called Hang on the Box who had a flyer which read "Will Hold Power, Just Saying 'No' to Leader" as seen in the photo from 1997 in Jeroen de Kloet's article. Localization is incorporated in Chinese punk as well by containing messages and influences from the Cultural Revolution of the 50s and 60s. 


Overall, it seems like Chinese pop is more widely accepted because of the ambiguity and generic sound of pop. Anything can be pop, there aren't distinct rules in pop like there are in rock. This may be why Overload switched to pop, because they had a better chance at broadening their audience in China and globally. No one, Chinese or from the West, gets offended or is too dismissive of Chinese pop. Chinese rock is a relatively new culture in China and it will take more time, more localization, more CCP approval, and more media attention for it to be widely recognized.