Bedrock & Paradox

I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.

Monday morning hegemony

As someone who took a moderate (three course, and some newspaper work) into Ethnomusicology years ago, the way in which things like this plays in the media makes me cringe.  Putting the virtues of uniting diverse musical styles aside, the whole deal raises some important questions:

-Why do we (NPR listener-types) seem to accept the control of an educated, privileged, white guy over a huge range of oppressed populations?
-“10 Indians around a drum”, really?!
-How well were the musicians compensated, especially people other than estate of Bob Marley, who are less likely to employ lawyers
-The symbol of lugging a battery into the Tibetan plateau is not the first time foreign technology has been brought up there.  1950 comes to mind.
-Why not bring them all into the studio, and empower the musicians to collaborate?  Seems likely that this would make for better music in the end.
Hurrrrrrumphf.

DaveC

2 responses to “Monday morning hegemony”

  1. Phillip Avatar
    Phillip

    I can see the importance of raising some of the questions but some of the analysis seems inaccurate from what I saw in the videos. Definitely would be interesting to see how the musicians are being compensated. But terms like hegemony and oppression seem a little over the top. I saw street musicians and organized groups playing indigenous or modern equipment. Control by a white man? Yeah, he obviously edited the hell out of it but that is modern music. Seems like he was trying to incorporate and assimilate rather than “dominate by aggression”. No NPR white man guilt here, not really offended just found the whole idea overly “Paul Simon cheesy”. Are there ethnomusicology theories or philosophies that deal with modern music’s incorporation of indigenous music into western culture?

    Reply
  2. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    I did not watch the videos.

    Reply

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