It's a small world after all!

Watching the so-called ‘World Music Awards’ on Channel 4 on Sunday 23rd November I finally noticed how pervasive American culture really is. The majority of acts (at least to my count) who performed or received awards were American and indeed almost all of the artists, with the exception of indie and dance acts, performed music that was also American in origin. This is not necessarily a critique of ‘Americana’ indeed I as much as the next man undoubtedly subscribe to the all-powerful media and cultural power-house that the United States of America has become throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Personally my musical tastes largely lie with the British and European music scene. With the obvious exceptions of The Stokes and the Kings of Leon I can think of few American indie bands who have achieved musical and commercial success to the same extent as their British and European cousins. The same is true of the dance and electronica genres. Nevertheless most other contemporary music very much has its roots or is influenced by Amercian music. Blues, jazz, rock n’ roll and pop can find their origins in the USA. Whilst pop in the UK and in Europe has been increasingly influenced by the indie and dance scenes of late it also owes a debt to RnB and Hip-Hop, undeniably American phenomena. Commercial success in America has become a badge-of-honour for many non-American artists, proving their credibility in their music’s country-of-origin. Anyway back to my main point, in many ways it seemed that the idea of the ‘World Music Awards’ was some what of a sham. It wasn’t so much ‘world music’ but American music which had experienced considerable commercial success in countries outside the USA (or indeed those few British and European acts which had achieved success in America). This is of course to dismiss those few European artists who were acknowledged during the show who had achieved fame across Europe as well as other artists from the Middle-East, Africa and Asia who were featured, though few and far-between. It is perhaps not surprising, however, that there are often backlashes of anti-American feeling in many areas of the world. It seems that the American music industry saturates the world market in much the same way as it does the food markets of the African continent, where surplus American rice ensures that it continually undermines the prices that their own farmers have to charge. The ‘World Music Awards’ demonstrates that while American (and to an extent British) artists may be recognised world-wide the same cannot be said of artists from the other six continents of the world. These artists are not deemed worthy of air-time in the USA or the UK, which may well appear to be reasonable if it were not for the fact that they undoubtedly have to compete with artists from these countries in their own. Indeed the winner of the award for ‘Best African Artist’ was Akon, whose African descent is undeniable and yet probably as strong in terms of the music he produces as Barack Obama’s is in terms of his politics. This immense American influence has undoubtedly professionalised music elsewhere, and yet it also comes (as do their promises of democratic reform for the world) with a smug self-importance. Artists from other areas of the world are allowed to perform as long as they fit the American-mould, and in the end it is American artists who dominate as they invariably ‘do it right’ or so we are led to believe. I cannot help but think that the ‘World Music Awards’ would have benefitted much more from a more egalitarian approach to exposure. This way those of us in the West may get the opportunity to sample some of the music that has made it big in other parts of the world, though I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to guarantee viewing figures for Channel 4.

here come the girls...?...

Far too often I hear women of my own generation rejecting feminism. Such is the stigma surrounding the ideology, created by decades of reactionary comment that even women who have benefitted from a century and half’s worth of activism feel that they have to distance themselves from the movement. This has become more apparent to me recently due to an increased furrow into women’s and gender history for my degree. Whilst I realise that this may bias me, and indeed many women of my age believe that most, if not all, of the battles in the course of the fight for gender equality have been won, I still believe that the feminist cause is one worthy of support in the present day. Those female friends of mine who dismiss the cause of their sisters often argue that they support equality but that feminists go too far, insinuating that they wish to enforce a form of oppressive matriarchy. However, I feel often they confuse the real aims of feminism with the exaggerations of the reactionaries (often concerned to maintain a privileged position for men) and with those of feminism’s more radical currents. The likes of Sheila Jeffreys and her Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism, (1979) which questioned the commitment that heterosexual women could have to the feminist cause, has been jumped upon by some as “exposing” the “true” aims of feminism, and left many women uncomfortable identifying themselves as feminists. The fear for many women seems to be that by embracing feminism they reject their femininity (something not helped by Germaine Greer’s recent comments about Cheryl Cole being too thin to be a feminist) and potential relationships with men, in whatever form these may take, but this is not and does not have to be the case. Mainstream feminism today focuses upon cementing and protecting that which as been won and by ensuring that misogynistic practices in the workplace, at home and in politics which have gone unreformed are reformed and protecting against a resurgence of such ideas. This is thus a call to the women (and indeed the men who have as much right to self-define as feminists) of my generation not to disown feminism. It is an important movement which secures practical equalities such as the vote, property ownership and education and also ensures that women are not relegated to the position of the ‘second sex’ merely due to natural processes such as menstruation, pregnancy and lactation. Without it and the other reforms and civil rights and social rights movements it inspired many of us would not enjoy the positions and choices we do today.