 |
| Home Radio |
As of the advent of radio music civilizations have been supplementing
their ancestral heritage with that of musical pop-culture from far away
nations. This is a situation in which “what
a work is man” gets taken to the extreme, with one man taking center stage for
an entire culture. Since the mid 1920’s
radio broadcasting many singers to new audiences, by the 1930’s foreign pop-cultures
centered on specific singers began to grow in many nations.
"Ut externus alieno pene non sit hominis vice."
["As a foreigner cannot be said to supply us the place of a man."] And yet, without even gaining the citizenship
of the worshiped artist, populations trade a significant part of their dress,
time and music with that of foreign singers.
 |
| Justin Bieber in Norway |
Recently the Canadian singer Justin Bieber became a huge hit
in Norway. When he visited in 2012 about 50 fans were injured by each other in
the commotion before his performance trying to get closer to where he would be. How did the proud Norwegians, who fought wars
for over 50 years to gain independence as a nation from, the Danish, become so
focused on a single Canadian boy? Any
artist, through music, converting masses of fans from other nations seems
unbalanced.
But then, perhaps the pop-artist
whose music travels on the waves of the air, is no longer a man of one nation. "Quisquis
ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat." ["He who lives
everywhere, lives nowhere.]
Perhaps
their contribution to civilization enhances the music and art of the world in a
general fashion. Artists such as
Shakespeare influenced the world’s popular culture though mass publication. Was Shakespeare’s art a benefit to the
civilization of the world? It did help
standardize English linguistics for many nations today.
Where is the loyalty of the modern pop-artist? To the art?
Their nation? It seems today to belong
instead to wealth and fame. If the
communication of art from one nation to another homogenizes world cultures and
erases national tradition, then it is for money that ancestral identity is being
stolen.
