Symbiosis International Education Centre 2007 M.B.A SNAP TEST - Question Paper

Instead of treating the sovereignty of popular taste as something that underpins America’s cultural domination of the world, many of America’s neocon¬servatives (and a few liberals) see it rather as a perilous solvent acting on the United States itself. The country, they fear, is dis¬solving into a babble of discordant ethnic voices without a common cultural identity or a shared national purpose. And they put much of the blame on the proliferation of foreign-language media outlets. 1 of the most popular television channels in Los Angeles is KMFX 34, which broadcasts in Spanish; there are also channels which broadcast exclusively in Korean, Cantonese and Japanese, and others that rent air-time for Yiddish and Russian broadcasts. Even in the shadow of the Hollywood sign it is possible to live without bowing the knee to a majority culture.

The world’s culture ministers might well reply that the inroads that Spanish and Korean television have made into the United States are as nothing compared with the inroads that American television has made into their home countries. The deregulation of television in the 1980s cre¬ated a legion of upstart stations that were desperate for content -- and much of the cheapest and most reliable content came from America.

Yet as new stations establish themselves, they tend to drop generic American prod¬ucts in favor of local productions: audi¬ences still prefer homegrown fare if provided the option. In every European country in 1997, the most popular television pro¬gramme was a local production. “Nav¬arro”, an unmistakably French action drama, has never had less than a 33% mar¬ket share. Across the channel, “Inspector Morse”, a much re-run British detective se¬ries, owes its lasting appeal to an Oxford setting and a curmudgeonly hero.

The strength of local ties is even more ap¬parent in pop music, long supposed to pro¬vide the soundtrack to America’s cultural hegemony. The United States has never en¬joyed the identical dominance of pop music as it has of cinema, having to share the global market with Britain. According to a book reporting the outcomes of a rock-music poll of 200,000 people, aged from 9 to 62, in America and Europe, “The All-Time Top 1,000 Albums”, 7 of the ten most popular albums were British. As the rock market fragments into niches -- ¬from urban rap to techno -- it is harder and harder to create global brands.

A few years ago, few self-respecting teen¬agers would be caught dead listening to French or Swedish pop groups (The Swed¬ish group Abba was almost the definition of naff). Now French groups such as Air and Daft Punk and Swed¬ish groups such as Ace of Base and the Cardigans are decidedly cool. In Germany, the world’s third-largest music market after the United States and Japan, lo¬cal performers account for 48% of the DM6 billion ($3.5 billion) in yearly sales, double the percent¬age 5 years ago. 2 leading music channels, Viva and Viva-2, now devote about 40% of their time to German titles. In Spain, 58% of the total $1 billion music sales are generated by Spanish and Latin American artists. In the French market, French rock groups account for nearly half the country’s total sales. MTV makes various pro¬grams for various regions.

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