Western music makes noise on local radio

Western music makes noise on local radio

CANDI DASA, Karang Asem, Bali (JP): The domination of popular
Western music in the Asian market and on the airwaves has placed
local and traditional music in marginal positions.

Jonas Baes, composer and ethnomusicologist from the College of
Music at the University of the Philippines, said radio and
television programs in the Philippines and other Asian countries
are being bombarded with popular Western and Westernized music
day in and day out.

"It is ironic that traditional music expressions can hardly
find a place on domestic radio stations," he said.

Most radio stations in the Philippines are no longer
interested in broadcasting the work of local composers like Baes.

"It is very hard to hear my music and other local artists on
radio stations... it's disappointing," he said.

In the l980s, radio played a vital role in the lives of
traditional communities. Some radio programs, such as local music
and radio dramas, were broadcasted for the local audience. But in
the l990s, television has replaced much of radio.

"In a world where culture, technology, information, airtime
and leisure are presented as a commodity, music is produced,
promoted and packaged according to the consumers' taste," Baes
said.

Baes added the cultural hegemony controls the form, duration
and structure and, especially, the idioms of music that are to be
marketed and sold.

"All of that, out of this standard form, is marginalized," he
said.

Vietnam also has a problem with the broadcasting and
development of its traditional music.

"After the war, traditional music was in danger of
disappearing," said To Ngoc Thanh, a professor of music from
Vietnam.

Vietnam consists of 54 ethnicities, each having a specific
type of music. Traditional music in Vietnam, he said, is folk
music which has the basic role of historic development of
national music. Folk music interlines with peoples' lives and
productive work.

"Vietnamese people regard traditional music as a crystallized
expression of the national cultural soul and identity," he
explained.

But for political and ideological reasons, such expressions
were deliberately eliminated from people's lives, especially
during wartime. In order to preserve this cultural treasure, the
Vietnam government has enforced a law and policy to preserve and
promote cultural assets, the professor explained.

"The best solution for preserving and promoting traditional
culture is to bring it fully into contemporary life," the
professor said.

Among the solutions is to include collected material,
recordings of traditional music and arts for school curriculum,
radio and TV programs.

The state-owned radio, the Voice of Vietnam, introduces the
diverse forms of the traditional music of 54 ethnic groups twice
a week.

Another example is India, a country which is blessed with a
myriad of musical and artistic expressions.

Bandana Mukhopadhyay, the chief executive of All India Radio,
a state-owned radio station in India, explained, however, that
the country faces a very dire situation in regard to the
broadcasting of traditional music.

"Planning programs, both TV and radio, for airing traditional
music is very challenging," she noted.

Indian society consists of people with different standards of
education, diverse cultural backgrounds and contrasting levels of
economic power.

Apparently, she said, it seems that traditional culture is the
easiest way to reach out to people. But traditional culture has
innumerable variations and with modern day expositions of
international events and cultural intermixing, program planners
in India have to constantly search out the ethos behind cultural
tradition to make a program interesting and effective.

"Traditionally, India is home to many varieties of music,
where each is different from the other. We have tribal, folk,
devotional, classical and light music," Bandana said.

Audiences for each of these styles are different, therefore,
radio and TV programmers in India must be very careful when
picking the appropriate musical programs in order to represent
all ethnic groups in Indian society. (raw)