Popular Music Case Study

Q. To what extent have genres of popular music that were originally developed elsewhere in the world offered Indigenous youth a critical voice and a means of resistance? Or are Indigenous youth simply the unwitting dupes of Western cultural power and influence? Select a particular genre of popular music (e.g. hip hop, country, reggae) in your response.

In countries all around the world popular music is one of the primary sources of leisure for young people. It can be argued that popular music is unavoidable in young people’s lives as it is heard and absorbed in so many different contexts and ways for example from nightclubs, live concerts, cinema films, the internet and TV commercials just to name a few. (Andy Bennett p.34).

In current social

This process can form in many different ways and have divergent outcomes. The cultural exchange of music has been dominated and profitable by the West, especially the United States, which has established a firm hegemonic position. This is often labelled cultural imperialism, which is the product of the process of imperialism, where economically dominant countries like America systematically develop and extend their political, economic and cultural control over other countries. Cultural imperialism often refers to important aspects of imperialism, focusing on the ways certain products such as popular music and fashion depend on the certain markets (Ref B). This leads a pattern of consumption and demand underpinned by the culture and ideals if their dominant origin (Ref B). It is through cultural imperialism that local cultures usually in developing nations become invaded by foreign and often western cultures. The term culture imperialism can be used to give a conceptual understanding of how music moves around the world and commonly written about in terms of its ‘impact’ on culture and how dominant power is exerted (Geographies). The terms ‘imperialism’ and ‘capitalism’ are nothing new, so in terms of relevance to contemporary studies and this essay, we can use these terms to study the relevance of popular music and their associated global media corporations. These corporations are continually expanding seeking profits from overseas territories (Geographies). Geographies describes media imperialism argument as ‘about the way media forms, practices and arrangements around the world (whether news programmes, movies, soap operas, advertising billboards as well as recorded music have come to exhibit basic characteristics that are derived from the United States but also