Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

One of the central arguments in anthropological theory of globalization is that the discourse of cultural imperialism assumes the increased global traffic in culture principally as a process of cultural imposition and dominance of western culture over the rest of the world (Inda & Rasaldo 2002). While western culture and values are increasingly embraced around the world, in the last several decades, we have witnessed the emerging market economies along with growing cultural influence of the periphery to the core as well as within the periphery itself. In this paper, I will examine the dynamics of the local and global in world music, a genre that mediates nonwestern musical elements in otherwise predominantly western pop music. In particular, I will look into two examples of cultural phenomena: A China based ethnic folk rock band, Hanggai, and K-Pop. Hanggai is a Beijing-based Inner Mongolian folk music group that blends Mongolian folk tradition with ethnic Han and modern western styles such as punk rock. K-Pop is a popular music genre originated from South Korea and developed as a transnational pop sensation. I argue in the mass-mediated global popular culture, world music has become a new testing ground that challenges the old notion of one-way flow of culture in globalization. World music practice, such as carried by Hanggai and K-Pop, seems to provide a new paradigm in that musical hybridity is much celebrated as a positive outcome of cross-fertilization as well as a means to negotiate cultural identity and challenge the global order.