24 - Global exoticism and modernity

Summary

European appropriations of exotic and primitive musical cultures for the development of musical modernism were paralleled by Occidentalist appropriations of Western music globally. The rise of mass-mediated popular musics and developments in recording technology over the past century served as cardinal signs of modernity in both the West and the East. This chapter explains that the exploitation of Asianness within intra-Asian popular culture has been inspired by a wide array of motivations. It focuses on examples of Chinese and Chinese diaspora popular music from the more recent past that illustrate the roles of world music and Orientalist representation in proclaiming modernity and ethnic pride for Asian and Asian American musicians. The chapter suggests that these developments increasingly proceed independently of direct Western/white intervention and many of these musicians were initially inspired by models of cross-cultural appropriation from Euro-American musics, both modernist and popular.