FROM ROCK 'N 'ROLL TO HARD CORE PUNK - UKZN ...

Goldstuck
Kramer:
Global and Local
11
Q: Do you think South Africans have an inferiority
complex about their culture?
A: English-speaking South Africans definitely do,
... A lot of us are trying to escape being
identified with South Africa because South Africa
has all sorts of connotations -- negative
connotations -- which have been brought about by
certain pressures within and without. What I am
trying to say is that I'm very much aware of these
pressures, but trying to adopt someone else's
identity ... is not the solution to the problem.
It is at ,this point that I would like to introduce another
concern which has informed my research process viz. the current
international debate surrounding the 'global and the local' . More
specifically, the relationship between the global and the local,
and its effects on the local environment has been a focus of
research. This debate concerns itself with the problem of power
and domination experienced by a smaller, local environment when
a more powerful global element enters that environment. This
problem has become more and more prevalent as technology has
advanced. Small, less technologically advanced countries have
been invaded by global corporations and local companies have lost
their market to the bigger, omnipotent market forces. 1O
In the South African rock music industry, this has always been
the case. The market is constantly flooded with international
products, and the local music industry is primarily geared to
market these products. Thus, original local music and musicians
have suffered greatly under this system, and still do so today.ll
10 See R. Garafalo, 'Whose World, What Beat: The Transnational Music
Industry, Identity and Cultural Imperialism', in The World of Music 35/2,
1993, pp. 16-32; J Guilbault, 'On Redefining the "Local" Through World Music'
in The World of Music 35/2, 1993, pp. 33-46 and V. Erlmann, 'The Politics and
Aesthetics of Transnational Musics', in The World of Music 35/2 1993 pp 3-
15. ' ,.
11 As more international artists flood into the country in the postapartheid
era, this is becoming more of a problem.