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)