Chávez calls the tune on Venezuela charts

[dhinojosa]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/03/news/venez.php

Chávez calls the tune on Venezuela charts
By Juan Forero The New York Times

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2005

BARINAS, Venezuela Deep in Venezuela's new, cumbersome Social Responsibility Law is an item that requires radio stations to play more - much more - Venezuelan music.

The idea, the fiercely nationalist government says, is to promote Venezuelan culture over foreign culture, particularly American rock that has dominated radio airplay for years.

If the measure seems obscure, its effects have not been. From the techno-pop wizards of cosmopolitan Caracas to the folksy crooners of this cattle town, musicians say they are reaping benefits from President Hugo Chávez's efforts to regulate culture.

On edit: fixed to adhere to LBN Rules, and added link

[sadiesworld]

1. I say we invade.

[tainowarrior]

7. yes really..

throwing out rock n roll, for bands like Guaco and Oscar D'Leon, or the folk music Gaitas of Venezuela.

The nerve! Invade immediately!:sarcasm:

[dhinojosa]

25. I say nay.

I am fed up with invasions. They want a socialist paradise fine, I just don't want democrats drooling over Chavez like they are now, it can backfire.

[sadiesworld]

26. I thought the sarcasm was so obvious I didn't bother with the tag.

BTW, your concern for DUers wandering off the corporate farm has been duly noted.

[Cha]

45. That just cracked me up.

:D

[1932]

31. If you don't want democrats to like Chavez

then why do you keep posting these stories that, once you scratch off the veneer that you try to gloss them with, reveal even better reasons for liking him?

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Oh dear. Just like Canada. What a tyrant.

From the CBC archives on "Ruling the airwaves":

"Canadian broadcasting should be Canadian." Pierre Juneau said those words in 1970 and he meant business. The Canadian Radio-Television Commission head said Canadian broadcasters were behaving like mouthpieces for American "entertainment factories," and introduced strict Canadian content rules for radio and television.


Canadian content rules

CRTC regulations

[dhinojosa]

3. In my country(USA), we have radio stations for just about everything...

Thats freedom talking, walking, dancing, singing. Hell, I even like the Cuban music that gets pumped to our airwaves. We also play Rush, the band, here too. Imagine that.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Your country is not just a country.

That's what we, out here in other countries, realize, and why our governments regulate to protect our cultures.

[1932]

6. If 95% of the music on the radio in your country made some other country

wealthy, and ended up making invisible American culture, your country's government would almost definitely pass a domestic content law for music broadcast over the publically-owned airwaves.

And nothing would stop you from buying records, books, subsicribing to magazines and newspapers, etc., that weren't made in your country.

[dhinojosa]

17. Pfft, whatever....

My favorite music in the 80s was mostly all British. Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, the Smiths, the Cure, Siouxie and Banshess, David Bowie, Bauhaus, and on and on and on. I didn't see our government scurrying to make laws to defeat New Wave. ;)

[1932]

28. How many of their record labels were British? Bowie was on RCA, right?

How about the rest? And how many of those albums were produced in the US?

American companies made a ton of money off of British music. And, incidentally, those days have largely passed. I saw a graph in the late 90s showing the number of British records in the US charts. IIRC, even during the British Invasion, it really wasn't that much. I think the peak was in the 80s, but it has dropped off a lot.

Furthermore, I'm not sure how much you could learn by trying to use the US and UK as your comparator nations with regards to music, especially if your perspective were from the US.

Sweden is the next greatest exporter of music after the UK. Other thann Abba, which Swedish bands did you listen to in the 80s? Have you ever purchased an album distributed by a Swedish label? The US isn't exactly seeing its music culture threatened by the Swedish invasion.

The US doesn't have to legislate domestic content requirments because the US and US companies have domination over what is consumed here. If there were ever the threat of foreign distributors and producers (Jeep Records?) extracting a lot of wealth from the US, undercutting the business of American record companies, I'm sure you'd see domestic content requirements in the US. And the same reason that the US doesn't need to do this is the reason every other country in the world has to. If the US had its way, 95% of what the rest of the world purchased would be somethign the proft for which went towards consolidating US economic, cultural and political power. Without content requirements, that would happen.

[Ignis]

32. This remark is awfully telling:

"Hell, I even like the Cuban music that gets pumped to our airwaves."

Oh, the tolerance! :eyes:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

53. Not to mention the "Rah! Rah! Yoo! Ass! Hey!" tone

which has nothing whatsoever to do with the message to which it was supposed to be a reply.

[DrunkenMaster]

57. you need a Media Studies course

Your so called "free media" is an illusion.

[tainowarrior]

9. folks...

it doesn't mean Rock-n-roll is forbidden. it means that they're mandating some time for Venezuelan music, which, by the way, is really beautiful (go check out Oscar D'Leon, Guaco, or Venezuelan Gaitas...AWESOME musicians and bands).

I see nothing wrong with this. Those that want to listen to rock can do so, but the people of Venezuela get exposed to more of their cultural music.

No harm done.

[dhinojosa]

18. This is like George W. Bush saying that Country Music should

be played at all bars and in most radio stations 80% of the time. That shit means revolt I tell ya (actually there should've been a revolt for other things like lying about a war). "We interrupt this Rob Zombie song for Clint Black?" I think not.

[tainowarrior]

22. country music isn't the only natively American music

African American jazz, spirituals, gospel, R&B, Rock, Funk, Swing, Dixieland, Ragtime, blues, hip hop, etc. those are also natively American musical artforms.

Country music doesn't suffer from not being played on our radios, but Venezuelan artists like Simon Diaz (who is a major composer of Latin America) can't get any play in their own country's radio stations because they only play American rock and roll.

I'm sorry, but mandating some time for Venezuelan music is the least the Ministry of Culture can do.

[rinsd]

37. Or....

Mr. Diaz is 70 something years old and past his prime for the music market.

"mandating some time for Venezuelan music is the least the Ministry of Culture can do."

Mandating local produced music for 50% of the time is defensible. I don't agree with it but its defensible.

Mandating folk music 50% of the time is a sin against the music world

[tainowarrior]

42. what encompasses folk music?

does that mean all types of Venezuelan music?

[Laughing Mirror]

12. And just like France did in 1994

The loi Toubon, requiring French radio stations to play at least 40% of music that is homegrown, named for Jaccques Toubon, Minister of Culture--yes, some countries consider culture important enough to give it its own ministry--at the time. No hard core lefty he, Toubon was in (current president) Jacques Chirac's party, right wing.

Top 40 commercial stations criticized the law at the time and some tried creative ways of getting around it, but French airwaves are a lot more French sounding these days, a lot less Madonna and Britney than one might have heard before. So gradually the effects of the quotas sunk in. The increased radio exposure has been beneficial to many French recording artists (and with funds available, has allowed many of them a chance at putting a record out), and it seems to have spurred a burst in output not only in French pop music, or the folksy national variety, but techno, electronic and experimental as well.

There's no reason why a similar law in Venezuela will not benefit Venezuela's starving musicians in a similar way.

[1932]

13. Which has got to make Brittney Spears mad, but is great if you're an

French-Algerian rap band from Marseilles, or if your any citizen of France who'd rather see their franc as a seed you plant in your own soil so that your country can sustain itself politically, economically and culturally.

[Laughing Mirror]

15. I live in France. I've never heard her music. I only know her by name.

I don't even know what she looks like. I wouldn't know her if she jumped up in my lap and licked me in the face.

That's one of the more pleasant side effects of this quota. You're more likely to be exposed to music you might never have heard, and not constantly aurally bombarded with over-produced, overly hyped, overly commercial mass market junk and fake stars you wouldn't pay any attention to if you weren't beat over the head with with their crap a million times a day.

[dhinojosa]

21. I live in the USA. I've never heard her music. I too only know her by name

Funny how that works. ;)

[Laughing Mirror]

27. You must never go to a supermarket checkout line either

I really do not have any idea what the girl looks like. Do you?

[tainowarrior]

24. thank you!

I myself can't stand the mass-produced crap that passes for American music. I can't turn a radio on without finding good quality music (unless a good classical music station or jazz station is playing).

[Laughing Mirror]

29. That's really true

There's all kinds of music I hear as I scan the stations on my radio in Paris: Hip-Hop, both American and French, House, Dance, Techno, Caribbean, Zouk, Reggae in all its forms, Senegalese, North African, Egyptian, Israeli ... and that's just from 88-99 on the frequency range. I still have not got to the 100s yet.

Having lived in DC and in NYC, very diverse for large cities in US, I have never heard such diversity on the radio there as I do here.

[tainowarrior]

14. exactly

and besides, if you're so die hard against your nation's music, you have the Internet through Limewire and Kazaa and other peer to peer programs, and your own CD sales to buy music that you want.

Really...I rarely listen to the crap that passes as American music these days (I'm really into hard-core Salsa, Latin-Jazz, American Jazz, and old style Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones funk of the 1970s, or Chicago, or Earth Wind Fire, etc.) i got my own mp3s on my mp3 player, I got CDs, and I rarely, if ever, turn on the radio on my car. Do you see me crying about how oppressed I am in this country? Those that want to get nothing but a steady diet of American pop music in Venezuela STILL will be able to. It's just making sure that native musicians are protected and native music is promoted. That's why there are Ministries of Culture in all countries!.

[rinsd]

4. Nationalism....cools as long as you're a hard core lefty...

Add this to arming his supporters for the coming "invasion" as one more thing people will cheer for Chavez while if Bush did it they would be up in arms.

[1932]

10. They do this in Canada, the UK, and probably every country around the

world that doesn't want to see it's culture and its indigenous music (and TV production) industry evaporate, and they do it under liberal and conservative governments.

If Venezuela had a conservative government that cared more about Venezuelan media companies than the cared about Miami media companies, they'd have the same law.

This isn't about progressive or conservative. It's about promoting local businesses and preserving local cultures through domestic content requirements for productions that are broadcast over the public airwaves.

It doesn't make it illegal for companies to sell foreign-produced media. It just guarantees that locally-produced content is guaranteed some time in front of the public's ears and eyes when distributed via mechanisms owned by the public.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. I don't think they've done it for UK music

(but I could be wrong). It's effectively done for broadcast TV, because there are rules about buying in a certain amount of independent productions (and there may even be an explicit quota for imported TV). I doubt there was any quota set on satellite TV - at one stage, Sky TV looked to be purely American imports.

But I can understand why a country does it, especially when a foreign language is concerned. Not only is it as question of dominance by another culture, but imports are also usually the bland, middle-of-the-road bits of culture - cheap to market on a huge scale, but without much originality. In a slightly different sphere, many non-Americans think American beer is awful, because they only get to taste the mass-produced pap. Microbrews don't make it abroad - and neither do many indie American films, or independent label songs.

[1932]

36. They do it for languages in the UK too, right?

For Gallic and Welsh? I don't know if the BBC does it for the radio, but if there's any Gallic or Welsh radio programming by the BBC you can bet there's a law that requires it, no?

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. The 4th TV channel in Wales is Welsh based

and that was decided when it was set up in the 1980s, so I guess that was regulated by law. Before that, the BBC broadcast some Welsh language programmes (aminly in Wales, but a bit in England too, and Scotland, I suppose). Specific laws about Gaelic broadcasting seem to have started in 1990, judging by this BBC webpage, thought they broadcast a lot before that (including a 10 minute speech by the director general in the 1960s!).

[rinsd]

35. Do they require that half be folk music too?

Because that's the other part of the law.

"
If Venezuela had a conservative government that cared more about Venezuelan media companies than the cared about Miami media companies, they'd have the same law."

Your mixing up your enemies, the sly reference to Miami is suppossed to be about Castro not Chavez.

[1932]

38. The UK does it for Gallic and Welsh langugage TV, which is the folk

music equivalent for languages. (Is there a tongue-in-cheek emoticon?)

The Miami reference was for Gustavo Cisneros. I believe Unavision's headquarters is in Miami.

[rinsd]

39. I don't know about that.....

...folk music as equal to language.

I did find it funny that one radio station is airing especially vulgar folk songs in protest.

[tainowarrior]

11. nationalism is not wrong

as long as it doesn't prevent other things.

Foreign music is not being forbidden. They're just mandating some air time for their cultural music.

and intent matters. Chavez, so far, has proven himself to be dedicated to the unification of Latin America for the benefit of Latin Americans. his intent has always been noble. With Bush, very rarely has his intent ever been noble. That's why us Lefties get up all at arms with Bush, but give a benefit of the doubt to Chavez (because he deserves it, he hasn't done anything wrong).

And in case you don't believe the U.S. could plan an invasion, ask the Cubans what happened in the Bay of Pigs, ask Guatemala what happened to Juan Arbenz, ask Nicaragua what happened during the Sandinista Regime, ask Chile what happened to Salvador Allende, ask the Dominican Republic what happened to Juan Bosch, or ask Hugo Chavez himself what happened to him about 2 years ago (the coup). You're a little naive to think the U.S. doesn't have plans to exit him from the picture.

By the way, in case you didn't read, the musicians of Venezuela are VERY HAPPY about this law, since their music was not being played before to make room for American music.

leave Chavez and Venezuela alone.

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. That's a good one!

Venezuela invading the USA! Love it! Grenada next, eh? Those Commies are everywhere and all-powerful, too... that's what's so scary, isn't it?

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Do you not think, "'promote'

Venezuelan culture", rather than "'control' Venezuelan culture" would be a less loaded way to deliver your information?

Indeed, do you not think that the - historically at least - admirable pop culture of the US should indeed be viewed as a cultural Trojan horse for an emerging nation, which its great leader and patriot, El Gran Senor, understandably, does not want to be influenced any longer, however indirectly, by the third-world political culture of its giant neighbour?

Well-intentioned French intellectuals also try to exercise a similar influence over the use by the French people of English and American words, where adequate French words to convey the same meaning exist; and doubtless for the same reason. The political regressives begin at Dover.

Unfortunately, I don't believe they have a scintilla of success in this admirable enterprise, but perhaps Chavez will have greater success. I think he should be enthusiastically applauded. Sorry I've expressed myself like a pompous twit, but you get my point?

PS: Thanks for moving this to the proper thread, moderators.

[madrchsod]

16. is there any airplay on fm radio of

any music other than artists from the usa or white bread europeans? there is a whole world of music out there and the music corporations and fm corporations are censoring by worrying about their profits.
we have corporate censorship, that is worse than what chavez is doing

[dhinojosa]

19. I bet a lot of it isn't corporate censorship as far as music is concerned.

Russian folk music just wont sell where I live in the Southwest. No one will pay money for it. I do like it when NPR plays different stuff. My Sirius radio has some serious diverse music too.

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. A very interesting point.

Corporate Big Brother never sleeps..

[1932]

30. The number of new songs entering rotations has dropped significantly

since the 90s.

Music distributors want to take fewer chances and want guaranteed success, so you get saturation play of fewer songs these days.

Obviously, you have to strike a balance: producers can't put out so much stuff in an effort to see what rises to the top so that nobody gets to hear a song twice (and so that profit margins become so small that there's no profit motivation for bands and distributors), but I think media companies have taken things too far in the other direction.

Fortunately, the mp3 player and the internet have entered the market and are taking advantage of the boredom created by mass media. They've also risked their own business by sending people out to find different channels for learning about new music, and some of these channels (like the podcast) are very far outside the reach of the mass media, although many mass media distributors are trying to move into those channels.

It'll be interesting to see if they eventually coopt the podcast.

[rinsd]

34. It's even worse than I thought....

...I wasn't crazy about mandating music choices to be 50% homegrown but after reading the article more closely I see half the music also must be folk music!

Pity the Venezuelans!

[tainowarrior]

40. oh bug off..

Really...Pity the Venezuelans for having to listen to a little more folk music. Hello! It's folk music because the Venezuelan people or "folk" create it.

If those that used to listen to american rock can't stand hearing a few Gaitas on their radios, they can pop in their CDs or listen to Ipods. Nobody is restricting their music, just mandating a few hours of broadcasts for folk music.

Geesh, people are here are acting like Chavez just banned foreign artforms.

[ovidsen]

43. Excuse me?

They can pop in their CD's or listen to iPods?? I have a feeling your average Caracas slum dweller is not exactly hip deep in hitech music gadgets. This is a slam against most Latin American music, not just Britney-style pop crap. It borders on censorship.

[tainowarrior]

46. slam against Latin American music?

Venezuelan music IS latin american music! Did you read the article? Venezuela's foremost composers and artists are joyful about this decision because it means their music will be heard again, after being pushed out by a majority of foreign American music.

The same happens in Puerto Rico. Bands like Batacumbele, or the compositions of Tite Curet Alonso, and Nueva Trova music are not played because it is imperative for the radio stations to play American hip-hop, ska, reggae, reggaeton, Dominican merengue, and rock.

There's nothing wrong with all these styles. I'm a fan of rock, funk, jazz, latin-jazz, salsa, etc. The problem is when a country's musical artforms (in Puerto Rico's case, bomba and plena, and aguinaldos, and danzas) do not get played because it's more imperative to play foreign artforms for commercial reasons.

Venezuela is not censoring any music. You may still listen to rock and to jazz, and to other styles on your own. And yes, even the poor people of Venezuela have tape players and CD players. If they don't, they'll have to join the remainder of the poor of the world who can't even listen to the radio, let alone have a choice in what they listen to. That's not Chavez' fault, that's the fault of poverty, something Chavez has to deal with.

In Puerto Rico, there is great consternation among cultural artists that their music is not being played on the radios, traditions are being lost, the younger generations are awash in reggaeton and hip-hop and have no knowledge of their cultural artforms. Most of the major salsa artists continue to be 40-60 year old men (the salsa artists of the 60s-70s), because the traditions of being a good sonero (single soloist) or being a good latin percussionist or latin piano player, or bass player, etc. are not being followed by the younger generations. here in the United States, our youth are exposed to classical music and jazz in the schools. If we were not to mandate such curriculums in our schools, our kids would know nothing more than Britney Spears and whatever hip-hop artist was the most popular at a time. Is that what we want, from a cultural perspective? At what point do our cultural authorities intervene to develop a curriculum in schools and society to allow for the people to be exposed to higher quality music? Don't get me wrong...I can enjoy a slam poet fest, or listen to hip-hop and see the cultural art value in that, and defend that intellectually. But, if our kids listen to snoop dogg all day, and don't know who Coltrane is, who Miles Davis or Dizzy Gillespie, or Duke Ellington, Tito Puente, we are failing them.

Our youth wouldn't be exposed to these other artforms. What Chavez is doing is assuring that the cultural artforms of Venezuela are preserved and promoted and mandating that time be given to them. IF we'd leave it to the cold market, the market would support whatever crap sold more, and damn the cultural artforms of Venezuela if need be. That's not how a President of a country can think. If he genuinely cares about his people's culture, he has to take measure to protect those artforms and promote them. He must open up venues so that the younger generations of Venezuela are exposed to this music, when they would not be if the measures were not taken. In Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican tourism company allies itself with San Juan's bar establishments to pay for the fees of local musicians to promote Puerto Rico's music and promote its artforms to visiting tourists. THAT's how a goverment promotes its culture, by setting aside resources and a VENUE for the music to be exposed. The bars get music to attract patrons (business), and the music is exposed to the people and tourists. PERFECT.

With all due respect, those that don't come from Latin America don't know what they speak of here. This is a cultural program that has been debated for decades, regarding the influx of foreign cultural values and the decline of native cultural artforms as part of the "market's" preference for foreign cultural artforms. I am one of the Latin Americans that believe that our governments must do better to, at least, expose our children to their past. My father exposed me to my past, and I decided that I loved its value, and I decided to make it my own. However, if he wouldn't have exposed me, I would have never known of it, and i'd be another automaton listen to hip-hop and reggae out there. I thank my dad for exposing me to something new. This is what Chavez is doing for his people.

[Bacchus39]

50. I don't see Americans mourning the demise of Big Band

or disco. Music evolves as do musical tastes. and I doubt 5% of young people know who Miles Davis is.

my problem with this is that the radio stations are required to play folk or traditional music. in the States there are many radio stations for all kinds of tastes. I don't know of any where a certain musical style is required.

I like how one station plays vulgar folk music in defiance of this heavy handed measure.

but let me ask you a question...should Spanish language stations in the States be required to play American or English language music 50% of the time??

[tainowarrior]

52. demise of Big Band?

Who says? Big Band music is still heavily supported in colleges, and there's plenty of big bands in all cities. I used to perform in a big band. I listen to Buddy Rich records. Older Americans still enjoy Benny Goodman on their players.

What demise?

[Bacchus39]

54. ok, so should radio stations be required to play it??

I say no. you've found it and enjoy it without the government telling you that you need to.

[ovidsen]

51. A thoughtful response

And I appreciate it. As you note, there is a wealth of Latin music around, but most of it is not Venezuelan, and certainly not Venezuelan folk music. I can understand the desire of Mr. Chavez to marginalize anglo-Western-Britney Spears pop. I just think his musical window is far too narrow.

Compared to CD players, iPods and even tape players, radios are dirt cheap, and almost everyone can afford them. Plus, unlike vinyl, tape and MP3 players, radios don't need software (recorded music) to function. Lamenting the fact that the desperately poor can't afford tape and MP3 players begs the question. Outside of batteries, there's no ongoing expense involved in a radio. The Chavez restrictions on radio music playlists (just Venezuelan folk music?) seems too rigid to me, and still smacks of government censorship. But that's strictly IMO.

[Bacchus39]

44. promote more reggaeton in Puerto Rico maybe??

I hope not.

why is it called reggaeton anyway? it is nothing like reggae.

[tainowarrior]

47. Reggaeton is complicated

Reggaeton is a style that is FUSED in Puerto Rico (so it can be said that it is Puerto Rican), but reggaeton is a mixture of Jamaican Reggae, West Indie spoken word rhymes, and American hip-hop. It's distinct, yet related.

Reggaeton is not Puerto Rico's major cultural artform. Puerto Rico has bomba and plena, two styles derived from the African culture. It also has aguinaldos (derived from the Spanish descendants in the countryside of the island) and Danzas (the Spanish upper-class' "civilized" music in the cities). Puerto Rican musicians are credited, as well, with being the major proponents, creators, and exporters of the Cuban rhythm of Son, to the United States (in the 30 and beyond), mixing it with American Jazz, and other Latin American styles, and coming up with the Salsa genre (salsa is a mixture of many vegetables, therefore, salsa music is a mixture of previous autoctonous rhythms of Latin America, primarily Cuba and Puerto Rico).

With all modesty, aside from African-American Jazz, Cuban/Puerto Rican artforms are some of the most advanced and interesting in the Hemisphere (along with Brazilian Samba). The influence of Puerto Rican/Cuban music can be seen in American artist' music, like Paul Simon, Mickey Hart, and of course, Latino musicians like Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, not to mention more authentic proponents of their styles, who cater more to the Hispanic community and market.

[Bacchus39]

48. JLo and Ricky went completely commercial

they may sing a traditional song once in a while for nostalgic reasons.

I don't think reggaeton is anything like Jamaican reggae. The beat, tempo, and of course language are completely different. Reggae actually has a melody.

reggaeton is Spanish rap.

[tainowarrior]

49. i agree about Reggaton

not being like Jamaican reggae, but the historical roots come from that. From the improvisational, spoken-word rhymes of Jamaica and the West Indies. It also includes American hip-hop in the mix.

I like Jamaican Reggae...i'm not much of a Reggaeton fan.

As for JLO and RIcky, yeah, that's true. But I was pointing out that the reaches of Latin Music are very varied. You practically hear some element of Latin American music in all styles in the United States, whether it be a lick, a motif, an instrument played, a section, etc.

[RedCloud]

55. Another example of lying journalism,,, Designed to help Bush

When I lived in the land of Simón Bolívar, Carlos Andrés Pérez was the president and thief. A believer in the USA, he was also concerned that too much music from the USA was being poured over the radio waves and that their small nation would only become an echo of the USA.

Result:

ALL RADIO STATIONS MUST USE 50% of their air time for música criolla.

What many radio stations did was to play música criolla from 12:00 AM to about 6:00 when the kids were asleep. Then for two hours US/Eur music. Then while they were at school, música criolla. Thus they played US music at all times when the kids could hear it.

Now why is Chávez under attack for doing things that his predecessors have done? Where is the slightest amount of journalist investigation into the background of the situation.

Feel free to disseminate, if need be.

[pinerow]

56. Outstanding...I wish that we could do the same in

Puerto Rico...our music is taking a back seat to Hip-Hop, Raggaetton, and really bland pop music...as goes the music, goes the culture.