Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Creators of Burmese Pop Music
- 2 The Sound of Burmese Pop Songs
- 3 Learning Music in Burma Today
- 4 Six Facets of the Burmese Pop Music Industry
- 5 Musicians and the Censors: The Negotiation of Power
- Conclusion: The Significance of the Burmese Perspective
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion: The Significance of the Burmese Perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Creators of Burmese Pop Music
- 2 The Sound of Burmese Pop Songs
- 3 Learning Music in Burma Today
- 4 Six Facets of the Burmese Pop Music Industry
- 5 Musicians and the Censors: The Negotiation of Power
- Conclusion: The Significance of the Burmese Perspective
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On April 7, 2009, the Democratic Voice of Burma (a news website maintained by Burmese journalists now living outside of Burma) published an editorial titled “The ‘Victim’ Treatment: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.” It began:
There’s a tendency in the global media to portray Burma as a primitive country, held back from modernisation by the psychotic generals who would rather line their own pockets than promote the advancement of society. Thus, to the outside world its citizens are forever seen as ‘victims,’ given the usually negative news that filters out of the country. And there is little done to bypass this idea. Few journalists explore the effect that globalisation has had on youth culture in the country, which is now evolving rapidly. Do we wear traditional clothes on stage whilst jamming on weird, ancient instruments? Do our youths get their kicks in local moonshine places instead of hanging out at shopping malls? Yes, but not always.
We like hip-hop and break dancing, and we are on Facebook and Hi5. We know Paris Hilton and have seen her sex-tapes online, and we love The Simpsons. Maybe we are not travelling at a full pace with the globalisation, but we are on the right track.
The contrast between the worldview of this Burmese writer and that of liberal elites in the West could not be clearer. The author argues that the way to combat Burma’s stereotypical image as a victim nation is to document its evolving youth culture. In the next paragraph, referring to Paris Hilton and The Simpsons, he claims that Burmese youths now “rush to grab hold of the Western world’s finest exports.” And this, he claims, is proof that Burmese society is “on the right track.”
My colleagues in North American academia are likely to see this editorial as proof of the reach of Western capitalist hegemony—indeed, as a tangible example of the hard-to-define yet inexorable force of cultural imperialism. In fact, several American friends who read the excerpt above laughed aloud in disbelief. How could anyone—especially a well-educated, English-speaking journalist—assert that loving The Simpsons is proof of agency, rather than victimization? Isn’t this editorial evidence of the bewitching power of Hollywood?
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- Information
- Burma's Pop Music IndustryCreators, Distributors, Censors, pp. 175 - 180Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011