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An article about the decline of foreign media sales in the US raises some interesting points.
It's impossible to know the movies, books and performances we aren't getting as a result: Are we missing the next "One Hundred Years of Solitude" or "Jules and Jim," the next Baryshnikov?
But besides all the art we aren't seeing or hearing, the most important loss may be in what this lack of foreign culture does to U.S. society as a whole.
I think this is a large issue. Over the last several years, both my musical and film taste have drifted more and more towards world influences. I find a freshness there that seems so lacking in most of the cultural output of the US.
I fully expect I'm probably discovering the musical equivalent to Counting Crows of Brazil, but there's a completely different energy coming from the speakers when I play it. The mainstream of music from somewhere like Mali can capture some of the general musical feel of the culture.
The more I listen to unusual musical styles, the more my own playing grows (as I internalize the different rhythms, scales and other aspects of the idiom). It's one of the main reasons why I hunt for music from all over the world.
Film critic Rosenbaum, whose book "Movie Wars" laments the obscurity of foreign film, writes that "even bad or mediocre foreign movies have important things to teach us. Consider them cultural CARE packages, precious news bulletins, breaths of air (fresh or stale) from diverse corners of the globe." They're also, he writes, "proof positive that Americans aren't the only human beings and the decisions we make about how to live our lives aren't the only options available — at least not yet."
I couldn't agree more. And it would appear that I'm not the only one.
World-music records sell roughly as well as jazz, and sales are modestly rising at a time when most album sales are falling off.
So check out some music from other places in the world; you might just find something that you haven't ever heard before....
Posted by Casper at March 4, 2004 04:15 PM