Music and cultural globalization accounts for an interesting and vibrant theme within international communication. What interested me most about this weeks topic and discussion was the idea of looking at music and sound as cultural medium that is fluid, unstable, transportable and mobile. The ideas of hybridity and authenticity engaged a lot of my attention as the fluidity and intermixing of various musical forms and participatory traditions evoke a lot of questions about purity, geographical location and origination. After thinking about music as a commodified product, the previous week, it seemed appropriate to turn to the issue of music as a cultural entity, reflecting certain traditions and indigenous ways of life. The article by Feld, illustrated quite well the types of problems and issues that can arise when battling with indigenous music as a transportable, fluid medium.
In lecture we discussed how musical traditions and genres have been historically formed through long and complex relationships of borrowing and incorporating with one another. As illustrated with the example of the slide guitar, musical instruments are one form of ‘music’ that has experienced somewhat of a global life, originating in one locale, and disseminating over time, throughout many regions, and within many musical domains. Flowing from initial Spanish origins to Hawaiian adaption, this global instrument was later utilized throughout the United States, incorporated into the genres of Country and Blues music and eventually taken up in a Nigerian and Indian context. This type of adaptation and innovation corresponds to many other musical instruments and technologies, and also illustrates what many indigenous harmonies, melodies, and practices of listening and participating have experienced throughout recent history.
Given the type of intermixing, music and musical traditions have undertaken throughout history, many heated and problematic issues concerning its rightful and authentic origins have come alongside (Afunakwa’s song is a prime example). With the expanding growth of the music and media industry, and the increased Western desire for non-Western and ‘authentic’ cultural forms, indigenous music and musical traditions have been exploited in many ways. One recent issue that demonstrates the type of struggle that indigenous cultural forms experience due to globalization, involves the New Zealand All Blacks and the Haka.
The Haka is a tribal song and dance of the Maori culture that has been most renown as the pre-game dance performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team (Bossaball 2007). Hakas traditionally have various uses in everyday life, but are best known in the aggressive form of a war dance to prepare for battle, garner strength, proclaim their powers, and triumph life over death. The dance consists of a combination of rough body movements, including body percussion and facial expressions, and rhythmically chanting vocals, including crying out loud and grunting. The indigenous dance, has been performed by the All Blacks rugby team for over a hundred years at all international and home games to represent their cultural heritage and local ancestral roots (Bossaball 2007). This dance however, has been recently exploited by an American College Football team from Hawaii, known as the Warriors. In 2006, the Warriors, performed the Haka before almost every game. Claiming that their cultural heritage coincided with New Zealand and the Maori tribes, they expressed that it was their right to perform the song and dance. This issue sparked much controversy in the press and the All Blacks, along with their New Zealand nation did not express much support. The team was eventually penalized by the league for using the dance which led the team to abandon the dance. However, the Warriors have not been the only ‘Western’ team to exploit this indigenous dance. Jefferson High-school in Oregon, also decided to perform the Maori dance before several games in 2007, which also lead their team to be penalized by the league (ONE News 2007).
In addition, sports teams have not been the only players to recently exploit the dance. The international car company Fiat, launched a very controversial advertisement in 2006 of women imitating the Haka (Ka mate’) (Pierard 2007). The car commercial portrayed women in an Italian street mimicking the Haka’s words and actions, with a voice over at the end proclaiming that modern women need to be more assertive. The advertisement was condemned for its exploitation without permission, criticized by the All Blacks coach, and even noted to have been aired despite caution from Foreign Affairs (Pierard 2007).
These strong examples raise issues about the fluidity of music, musical performance and the intensification that media and new technologies place on these types of cultural forms. These sports teams and this car company essentially took a dance they saw on television or heard about through other mass mediums and used it for their own purposes. They disregarded the original indigenous purposes and the meanings attached, and exploited the dance for their own gain. These football teams took something sacred and traditionally representative of Maori identity, and essentially recreated something inferior. Each essentially misrepresented an indigenous musical performance without permission and without any respect to accuracy. This, in my opinion, provides a perfect example of how globalization has led to the Western tendency to take primitive and pure forms of cultural expression and reproduce it for themselves. This type of cultural borrowing does produce many problems in my opinion, especially with regards to authenticity. Instead of preserving and exposing the authentic Haka, both Fiat and the sports teams performed an impure and disrespected version of the original. It is unfortunate, that this is only one of many instances where a traditional or indigenous cultural form has been exploited by the world market. Music and musical performance, as displayed within Feld’s article, is arguably one of the most fluid non material forms that faces incredible pressure due to globalization.
Bossaball. “Music and Sports; An Explanation of Crossroads: Haka, Football is War: Polynesian Tribal Chants.” 2007. 29 March 2008 < http://musicandsports.bossaball.net/2007/haka-football-is-war-polynesian-tribal-chants.htm>.
ONE News. “US highschool causes stir with haka.” 2007. 29, March 2008 < http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1459688>.
Pierard, Louis. “Hawke’s Bay Today: We are too precious about Haka.” 2007. APN News and Media. 29 March 2008
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