plausible cultural alternative if
musical prospects were rooted in indiscriminate sets of theories, – rather than paradigms
established by a single culture – where all the traditions of the world are equally
evaluated and the cognition of diversities implies the acceptance of dissimilar cultural
perspectives and artistic perceptions.
The argument of the second point focuses on the concepts of art and culture
having been diminished to a functional circumstance and reduced to the lowest
common denominator by the liberalism of post-modern theories (this applies
particularly to English speaking countries). The social and economic trends
that have become the attributes of post-modern life – such as the ideological
liberalism of the arts and education, the automated systems of mass production, the
opening of the multinational market and the consolidation of capitalism as the
leading sociocultural force – are the same that have instigated the process of
globalisation.6
- It is no coincidence that an ideology of globalisation has grown steadily during the past three
decades (I should not be surprised if ‘globalism’ will be the new ‘ism’ for the 21st century!).
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Such a link is no coincidence, and should not be ignored. Underneath the illusive surface
of a planetary pluralism, two sociocultural shortcomings in particular need to be mentioned:
the provision of information without concern about the quality of the information itself,
where thousand items are available at the same ‘market-value’ (look at the
Internet,
7
- As I was doing a net search for a topic such as ‘global village’ or ‘globalisation’, for instance,
I was struck to see that the overwhelming majority of sites associated with such terms are
businesses and advertising propaganda. The same can applied to the majority of topics. Such
facts should not be ignored.
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the
television and cinema industry), and a growing standardisation of specific psychological stereotypes
worldwide.
8
- particularly through the merging of commercial strategies and sophisticated communication
tools. See for instance how the cinema and television industry is dealing with themes such as
violence, sex and consumerism.
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Not surprisingly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a critical
response towards the events that are shaping both our social and artistic
life
9
- Teachers and educationalists know well how a resulting mental indolence is particularly
affecting the younger generations!
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and artists are risking to be reduced to mere spectators, rather than participants,
consumers instead of initiators. Yet, it is vital that a musical art projected onto global
horizons preserve a critical stance towards the present in order to propose the
future.
Thirdly, the tailoring of technological advancement to profit-making
circumstances.10
- An acquaintance of mine working for Yamaha told me of how many highly advanced
synthesizers – by far more advanced than those commercially available – are regularly
developed and secretly destroyed by the same company for market-related reasons.
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This problem reflects crucial logistics intrinsic in the nature of the capitalistic society
and could be partially tackled through specific measures as I will discuss in chapter
2.2.
For the musician of the 21st century, therefore, to confine a search
for a global musical dimension within the cultural parameters of the
West implies not only the acceptance of an exclusive set of musical
‘genealogies’11
- Trouillot associates them with successive geocultural regions of civilisation: Greece, Rome,
Latin Christendom and the North Atlantic.
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– to use Trouillot’s