The spread of Anglo-American music around the world is often seen as threatening the extinction of indigenous musics. Over the past two decades, a rich bibliography has been produced on this theme, including a significant number of transcultural studies (see Bibliography at the end of this chapter). The argument put forward by many scholars implies a model of cultural domination or cultural "imperialism" imposed from core to peripheral countries via the international music industry, through the medium of popular music of, basically, Anglo-American nature. Thus, Frith ( 1989, 2) argues that "no country in the world is unaffected by the way in which the twentieth century mass media (the electronic means of musical production, reproduction and transmission) have created a universal pop aesthetic." Similarly, Hamelink ( 1983) regrets the "one-way traffic" which characterizes the patterns of cultural interaction in the second half of the twentieth century, based on the "synchronization" of a multiplicity of indigenous cultures with one particular cultural pattern of global dimensions. Furthermore, he thinks that the infiltration of the indigenous cultures by the dominant one has been subtle and consequently even more dangerous and destructive, leading to an immediate threat to global cultural diversity.

However, as Robinson et al. ( 1991) point out, "one of the major issues of the so-called information age is whether technological developments are leading to cultural enrichment and pluralism versus cultural homogenization and domination" (p. 18 ). Wallis and Malm ( 1984), in their report on the music industry in small countries, model the interaction between cultures on the basis of three patterns of change: cultural exchange, cultural dominance and cultural imperialism. But, they note that these three patterns have been joined by a forth pattern from around 1970: transculturation. This pattern of change "is the result of the worldwide establishment of the transnational corporations in the field of culture, the corresponding spread of technology and the development of worldwide marketing networks for what can be termed transnationalized culture or transculture" (p. 300). They conclude that although in its early days transculturation has had positive effects in the production of music in small countries, they could not foresee a projection of this trend into the future.

Many other factors are at play in determining cultural change and transcultural influence which cannot be easily predicted. Manuel ( 1988), for example, poses the question whether changing local tastes (of popular music) are due to socioeconomic developments within the culture itself or they

-5-