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 coun-
tries 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 twenti-
eth century mass media (the electronic means of musical production, repro-
duction and transmission) have created a universal pop aesthetic." Similarly,
Hamelink ( 1983) regrets the "one-way traffic" which characterizes the pat-
terns 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 homogeniza-
tion and domination" (p. 18 ). Wallis and Malm ( 1984), in their report on
the music industry in small countries, model the interaction between cul-
tures 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 mu-
sic) are due to socioeconomic developments within the culture itself or they

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