The Globalization and Localization of American Folk Music
June 9th, 2007
This is a paper I wrote in 2005 for a globalization class at Virginia Commonwealth University that basically says that globalization is a Good Thing. This class was my second favorite class in my college career. My favorite class was Buddhist Reason and Debate.
Globalization refers to the rapid dissemination of people, ideas, and goods across geographic and political borders. Critics of globalization contend that cultures and societies are becoming homogenized due to unregulated trade. They argue that only a few ideals and values will prevail in a survival of the fittest battle. What these critics overlook is that cultures are not being destroyed – they are merely evolving. In fact, globalization is contributing to the diversification of civilization.
Music has always played an important role in society. The music one listens to reflects one’s values and beliefs. The fact that so many genres of music exist reinforces the notion that cultures are represented by music. For the most part, country music is associated with the rural South, the blues are associated with African-Americans in the Mississippi delta, and punk-rock is associated with the do-it-yourself ethic that originated in the United Kingdom. The traditions and principles of a culture are revealed through its music.
In the information age, sharing music is easier than it has ever been. Many people, especially university students, disregard copyright regulations and download music via peer-to-peer file sharing software. Before this significant break in technology occurred, it was rare for a person to hear music that wasn’t played on local radio stations or through other popular media outlets. Now, people are exposed to music of different genres and origins. A broader knowledge of world music strengthens the awareness, appreciation, and tolerance of global diversity.
Music is experienced everywhere. Globalizing forces have made it possible to share ideas and styles creating not a universal genre but an amalgamation of new styles. Music becomes diversified and localized through vernacular adaptations and interpretations. For example, consider John Mayall and his band The Bluesbreakers. He pioneered the British Blues movement which was originally influenced by American blues, but by the mid-1960s had its own distinct sound. Another example of the localization phenomenon can be found in American folk music.
American Folk Music: Origins and Evolution
American folk music is not easily defined. As a genre, it is made up of contributions from all types of settlers of North America. In the beginning, folk music consisted of songs in a hundred languages of immigrants from as many countries. While most contemporary folk music in America is sung in English, traces of earlier cultures can be found in the new styles, themes, and instrumentation.
American folk music is such a broad category that a band labeling themselves as such could be anything from New Orleans jazz to Nashville country. Each sub-genre represents a different culture and way of life. As David Bookbinder notes in his book What Folk Music Is All About, “America is a nation of immigrants, but it’s not exactly a melting pot. It’s more like a stew, with the traits of all its peoples mixing and blending, but keeping their own special flavor. In terms of folk music, British and African immigrants provide the meat and potatoes. But there are many other ingredients”.
In the New World, identifying with a genre of music was a way for pioneers to feel like part of a community. Genres of music are characterized not only by their stylistic attributes, but also by the images they promote, the lyrics that are sung, and the values they represent. Religious beliefs and political opinions are also expressed through music. Because many of the pioneers in early America were escaping religious or political oppression, they all had strong opinions on how life should be led. In order to maintain a strong community in the American wilderness, these ideals were reinforced through music.
Throughout history, this has been true. Music has been and is still used as a way to express opinions on everything from politics and religion to recreation and leisure. For example, opponents of war may find comfort listening to musicians who express similar convictions in their lyrics. Feelings of disgust and revulsion may surface when listening to musicians with differing beliefs. It is for this reason that music will remain an important means of expression and individuality.
Music has always been important in religion. It is a way to express gratitude to a god, spread beliefs to others, and observe certain rituals. Gospel music, a sub-genre of American folk music, is derived from Methodist hymns. However, there is a distinct difference between gospel music sung by African Americans and gospel music performed by the white southern Christians. Black gospel is influenced by blues and jazz musicians, while white gospel has a more country sound to it and was popularized by bluegrass bands such as The Carter Family. Today, gospel music has spread throughout the world and is even recognized by Australian musicians at the Australian Gospel Music Festival.
In addition to being important in religious services, music is a fundamental cultural activity. Listening to music can aid in relaxation or set an appropriate mood in business establishments. Music is even taught in schools beginning at an early age for its ability to teach rhythm, patterns, and memorization. It can also be used as a form of recreation, either at dance clubs or live music venues. Furthermore, music festivals are popular venues to experience various musicians in a more personal environment. Music is increasingly a part of our everyday lives.
Music festivals occur all over the globe, spreading awareness and interest in obscure and foreign genres. In Floyd, Virginia, a world music festival called FloydFest is hosted every summer. During this festival, musicians representing a dozen different genres from as many countries gather for a weekend of live music and educational workshops. The festival broadens the patrons’ knowledge of world cultures by being introduced to unfamiliar music. Music festivals, while more common for folk and bluegrass music, exist for nearly every genre. The African Showboyz, an energetic folk band from Ghana, perform at FloydFest every year. Their music represents the culture and traditions from their home village in Africa. During a conversation with the band of brothers who spoke not only their native language but English and French as well, they admitted that they do not wish to become mainstream. It is important to them that they retain the sounds and rhythms that are native to their heritage.
Extensification of American Folk Music
Globalization gives people all over the world access to other cultures. As a result, music has disseminated throughout the globe at a rapid pace in a modified kind of extensification. Extensification is the process of transforming something confined to one culture into an ordinary, everyday, and essential part of life. While music as an artistic form has existed in every culture for millenniums, the indigenous music of each region is now available to the rest of the world to hear.
During the information technology revolution, as defined by Manuel Castells in his book The Rise of the Network Society, new methods of communicating and interacting with other people were established. Now, it is easy to hear music from other cultures on the internet. Peer-to-peer software enables users to share music, while websites serve as promotion tools for musical groups. It is now possible for a university student in Virginia to learn about a band in Mexico that would otherwise go unknown. Furthermore, local musicians are also supported and publicized over the internet.
Previously, it was difficult for little known local musicians to succeed when only mainstream music was played on the radio. It should be noted, however, that music was shared and passed around the world prior to the information technology revolution. For many, this was the only way to learn new styles or lyrics. In the early 1900s, The Carter Family, a popular country music group, came to the realization that they would benefit financially if they learned and copyrighted more songs. With this goal in mind, A. P. Carter walked through the mountains of southwestern Virginia collecting new songs. It is with his findings that the family achieved nationwide recognition and became influential on future bluegrass, country, pop, and rock musicians.
In the past fifty years, there has been a revival of interest in folk music, especially in urban populations. Bluegrass music, in particular, has become extremely popular among urban folk music fans, who tend to sneer at most other forms of country music. This phenomena can be attributed in part to the Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The film’s American roots music soundtrack became a bestseller and even won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2001. This movie, followed by a nationwide music tour, brought bluegrass music to a much wider audience.
Today, bluegrass musicians have branched out to form new styles with labels such as New Grass, Americana, and Psycho Grass. These new sub-genres are formed out of the use of unconventional instrumentation, songs and styles imported from other genres, non-traditional chord progressions, and lengthy jam-band style improvisation. This eclectic and diverse palate of sounds further expands the global popularity and appreciation of bluegrass music. New styles and adaptations can be found all over the world.
New interpretations of other old styles have also been meshed with unlikely genres to form new varieties. For example, rock and roll emerged as a definitive genre in the 1950s, influenced primarily by rhythm and blues records and country and western singers. Today, rock and roll has been sub-divided into even more sub-genres, including country rock, Christian rock, southern rock, and soft rock. Without globalization to aid in the widespread dissemination of musical styles, the synthesis of genres could not have occurred and the music that we listen to today would not exist.
Illustration of Intensification
An international example of the localization of American folk music is the establishment of jazz music in France. According to Sidney Mintz in his book Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, intensification, as opposed to extensification, is the process of turning something universal into something extraordinary, ceremonial, and especially meaningful. While jazz music already had a foundation in fragments of American culture, it would become something entirely different in a foreign environment.
Jazz music has roots in African American music traditions. Developed in the early 1900s, it is characterized primarily by the sounds of saxophones, trombones, clarinets, and trumpets. With origins in blues, ragtime, and European marching bands, this genre is a genuine example of how music, when heard by an external ear, can be perceived in a thoroughly alternate manner. Because it was the first original art form to emerge from the United States of America, jazz is often described as America’s Classical Music.
Cultural traditions, including music, are not always globalized by technology. In fact, many customs and ideas have been traded in the time of war. During World War I, African American soldiers brought jazz to France. As interest in the genre grew, many French musicians began studying the style and creating their own music. Eventually, jazz music was as popular in Paris as it was in America. This outcome was not a result of globalization connecting the world’s population by technology; it was purely brought about by other, albeit unfortunate, consequences.
By the early 1930s, Americans had, for the most part, left France to return home. Many predicted that this would mean the death of jazz in Europe. On the contrary, rather than vanishing, the jazz community in Paris was simply evolving. Because French musicians had not led the same life as the African Americans who introduced them to jazz, they were not passionate about the same things. Musicians in France has different musical backgrounds and an incomparable cultural history. These differences, in the end, led their music in another direction.
Jazz music, by nature, is subject to individual interpretations. Improvisation is often taken to be a defining and unique feature of jazz. In other words, each musician is subject to create his or her own song based on the current environment and mood. This innate ability to perform a piece of music differently depending on the musician’s attitude could explain why all music, not just jazz, is prone to vernacular adaptations. This is why music evolves. As Peter Townsend points out in his book Jazz in American Culture, “one should not expect the culture of jazz to have an unchanging essence, without concern for differences of time and place”.
The process of jazz music becoming localized in France is undeniably similar to the McDonald’s experience in East Asia. When McDonald’s located in Asia, they made a committed effort to become local. In order to expand their business, the marketing executives knew that they would need to first appeal to the consumers. While menus were rarely altered, McDonald’s did employ several localizing strategies in order to appeal to local heritage. It is through these attempts that this transnational corporation secured its success.
In Beijing, as well as in every outlet, McDonald’s has been transformed by its customers and by their expectations into a localized version of Americana. A significant illustration of localization occurring is the way the space was used. The atmosphere found in Beijing McDonald’s may typify the McDonald’s environment in America, but the consumer reaction to the space is extraordinarily different. The physical feeling created by the cool, conditioned air, bright lights, and soft music was something entirely new to the Chinese population. Previously, it was rare to find a clean restaurant with standard cooking and cleaning processes. The standardization and sanitation enforced by McDonald’s management epitomizes the very principals that guaranteed their success. In a country where these ideals were previously disregarded, they are now much appreciated.
In America, consumers visit McDonald’s to save time and money. In China, however, McDonald’s is treated more like a coffee shop. Students often congregate there after school for several hours to hang out or to study. The management doesn’t explicitly encourage this activity; the use of the space was determined by the customers. As exemplified by the essays in Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, McDonald’s is what the consumer makes of it. Traditional East Asian culture was not lost when McDonald’s came to town. Ethnic pride ensures that culture remains important. It is in this example that one can understand that “the geographic origin of imported culture has become increasingly less relevant; what really matters is its local consequence”.
Societies can embrace globalization by localizing it. Zygmunt Bauman asserts in his book Globalization: The Human Consequences that “being local in a globalized world is a sign of social deprivation and degradation”. He even goes on to suggest that localities are losing their meaning in a world increasingly dependent on global networks and communication. Contrary to his contention, a sense of community and locality can still be found even in the most cosmopolitan of cities. The history of jazz in France exemplifies this phenomenon precisely.
Swing 42 and it’s Adaptations
Music sharing is not a new phenomenon. The internet accelerated the speed that music could be made available for a wide-range of listeners, but musicians nevertheless influenced and were influenced by other musicians before the information technology revolution. The unrestricted flow and large-scale availability of music from around the world has contributed to the evolution and synthesis of musical styles. Consider, for example, Swing 42.
Swing 42 is a jazz song that was originally recorded in 1941 by guitarist Django Reinhardt. Born a gypsy, Django learned how to play guitar at an early age by eagerly watching the techniques of other musicians. In 1934, he formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France in Paris with legendary violinist Stéphane Grappelli. This ensemble was the first all- string jazz band in the world. They performed their music at night clubs throughout Europe and even jammed with several prominent American jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
Characterized by a unique swinging sound, the Quintette’s music pervaded the jazz scene with innovative melodies and compositions. Swing 42, performed by Django on guitar and Stéphane on violin, as well as two rhythm guitarists, a bass player, and a clarinet player, elucidates from the audience a feeling of lounging in a smoky bar in the heart of Paris during the late 1930s. Played with a saucy and sensual attitude, this song is purely urban.
The same song performed by American musicians in the mid-1990s, however, provokes a more rural image in the listener’s mind. Mandolinist David Grisman, who has recorded with Stéphane Grappelli during his impressive music career, performed Swing 42 on an album titled Tone Poems with Tony Rice. On this album, Grisman and Rice attempted to recreate music from the past by using instruments from the appropriate era. Despite this effort, Swing 42 sounds like an entirely disparate song on Tone Poems.
David Grisman and Tony Rice both have a foundation in bluegrass music. The fusion of their musical styles differs greatly from that of Grappelli and Reinhardt. Just as two students asked to draw a house will produce very different results, two musicians will perform the exact same song in a different manner. Furthermore, because only a mandolin and guitar were utilized on their compilation and not the ensemble of instruments originally used, which included a violin and clarinet, the sound and feeling of the song is completely transformed.
This example of music sharing before it was popular on the internet is important for the understanding of globalization at work. It confirms that globalization has been occurring since before the information technology revolution. Swing 42 is also an example of how culture plays a role in localizing global phenomena. While music may be available on a global scale, it is made local by vernacular adaptations and individual interpretations. To Django Reinhardt in the heart of Paris, Swing 42 may have meant wild city nights and luxury. To Tony Rice and David Grisman in the Appalachian Mountains, Swing 42 means rolling farmland, big skies, and simplicity.
Contemporary Relevance
In the digital age, sharing music is easier than it has ever been. The internet and various peer-to-peer file sharing programs allow music listeners to download songs from artists that they may not hear on the mainstream radio stations. It is in this manner that music from across the globe is made instantly available to our ears. Likewise, music from America can be heard all over the rest of the world. The extensification of diverse styles of music has been rapidly accelerated by information technology.
Because of the increasing awareness of world music, it is becoming widely accepted, and even expected, for music lovers to listen to a wide range of bands from various origins and ethnicities. In fact, this is the trendy thing to do. Knowledge of world music is becoming a measurement of intelligence and cosmopolitan-ness. Due to the pervasive effect that the extensification of music has had on our culture, it is being recognized and promoted in an effort to educate the rest of society. The underlying motive is “share the wealth”. Why should something that brings happiness to one culture be suppressed from the rest of the world?
As more people are exposed to new music, the demand for new music in stores and on radio stations grows. Even in a small city like Richmond, several radio stations already accommodate this consumer base by playing world music regularly. Instead of having only the choice of two or three mainstream genres to listen on the radio, listeners are now provided with a variety. Richmond Indie Radio, 97.3 FM, is a non-profit radio station run by the local community who specialize in multi-cultural music. Their programs include Rock en Espanol, Reggae Gospel, and Louisiana Zydeco, to name just a few. NPR also encourages world music with their weekly program called Thistle & Shamrock, which highlights established and emerging Celtic artists. Furthermore, satellite radio is now becoming widely available. With hundreds of stations to choose from, satellite radio listeners can hear music from just about every genre. The demand for world music is creating a market for it that radio station and music stores alike are taking advantage of.
There are more genres in existence today than ever before. Afro-Cuban rumba, EBM, and math rock are just a few of the relatively new and exceptionally distinct music cultures that have been created out of an amalgamation of other genres. There are literally thousands of ways to categorize a band, and some bands will fit appropriately into two or more groups. For example, The Rolling Stones could be called rock or electric blues, depending on the particular song being played and the listener’s personal understanding of the song. The classification of a band is extremely subjective.
All music that exists today is influenced by music from in the past. In other words, every genre is a product of other older genres. There were more genres of music fifty years ago than there were one hundred years ago, and likewise, there are more genres today than ever before. Music, as an art form, is clearly becoming more diverse, with each genre and sub-genre representing a specific culture or niche of society. It is in this realization that one can see how culture itself is becoming more diverse. This conclusion is a direct result of globalization and its pervasive influence on civilization.
Parallels
There are other cultures, in addition to music, that are being created by globalization. When ideas, traditions, and even people are relocated to another part of the world, the natural result is localization. The native environment and vernacular lifestyles mold the foreign entity with its history, institutions, and social attributes, such as demography and government. Similarly, the object or being that is becoming localized will have a permeating impact on the local atmosphere. James Watson, in his introduction to Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, correctly observes that the process of localization is a two-way street. The result of two or more cultures uniting is an evolved culture that reflects the community’s universal populace.
African Americans are an example of this exact phenomenon. While they both originated in Africa, modern descendants of African slaves are very different people than contemporary African nations. America’s history, government, and social conditions shaped the fate for Africans in America, just as corresponding circumstances shape and direct the cultures of all immigrants. Africans in France are also very different from both Africans and African Americans. The existing environment dictates the local consequences of a globalized phenomenon.
Conclusion
Zygmunt Bauman asserts that “globalization divides as much as it unites; it divides as it unites”. From an optimistic perspective, this is a testament to the fact that as the world’s population becomes an integrated and networked society, individuals are better equipped to choose the most suitable culture to associate with. Furthermore, as ideas and beliefs are made available on a global scale, local adaptations of these thoughts create new cultures. In other words, people have more choice. One does not have to conform to the traditions that he or she was born and raised with. A person can choose to follow the traditions of any culture he or she feels comfortable with.
In regards to music, this means, for example, that an Irish man is not required to listen to Celtic music nor is a Latino expected to listen to salsa. The unification of the world means the widespread availability of music, while the diversification of the world refers to the fact that thousands of genres and sub-genres of music have been created by the localization process. Musical styles, and thus cultures as a whole, are increasing rapidly in number, testifying to the fact that as globalization occurs, cultures are in fact not becoming homogenized – they are becoming diversified.
Culture is not static. If it were, humans would not have evolved past the stone age. Adaptations to everyday lifestyles cause slight modifications to the existing culture. For example, the culture of the ancient Mesopotamians, like all other cultures, existed in that form for only a small era. As new technologies are invented and innovative ideas are shared, civilizations as well as their cultures evolve to accommodate these changes. The transformation of cultures is in constant motion.
Globalization, as a process, expedites this phenomenon by extensifying aspects of select cultures. Consequently, these aspects are in turn intensified in a manner such that they will be useful to the local culture. This process of extensification and intensification, as defined by Sidney Mintz, encompasses the phenomenon that is reshaping our society. It can now be understood that use implies meaning. Cultures are not being destroyed by globalization, they are being created.
