A Cultural Globalization of Popular Music? American, Dutch, French, and German Popular Music Charts (1965 to 2006)

Abstract

In this paper we address the question whether and how the appreciation of popular music has globalized in the four decades since the mid-1960s. We use information from American, Dutch, French, and German popular music charts from 1965 through 2006 and find no corroboration for an overall trend towards an internationalization of hits. Yet, important shifts are noticeable underneath the surface. First, we find evidence for increasing national diversity, increasing Americanization the period up until 1989 and from the 1990s onwards for increasing popularity of national music. At the end of the paper we discuss the relevance of our findings.

Cultural globalization on the printed page: Stability and change in the proportion of foreign cultural products in European quality newspapers, 1960–2010

“…One remarkable approach to investigating cultural flows from a longitudinal perspective has been the study of music charts (e.g., Achterberg et al, 2011;Bekhuis et al, 2013Bekhuis et al, , 2014Verboord and Brandellero, 2016). For instance, Bekhuis et al (2014) studied top-100 pop-song lists in nine Western countries from the early 1970s to contemporary times, focusing on the geographic origin of the artist and the language used.…”

“…The differences among geographical origins mentioned above very likely depend on the cultural area, at least on some level. Studies on pop charts show that pop music is a very global cultural area, and the US has dominated this genre (e.g., Achterberg et al, 2011;Bekhuis et al, 2013Bekhuis et al, , 2014Verboord and Brandellero, 2016). According to Janssen et al (2008), several factors could be affecting the globalization level of a certain cultural area, varying from the format and distribution channels of the product to language dependency and the hegemony of certain countries.…”

The popular music heritage of the Dutch pirates: illegal radio and cultural identity

“…Generally, this style of Dutch-language music is perceived as lowbrow, because of its strong ties to working-class cultures. For a long time it was 'not done' to listen to Dutch-language music, although during the mid 1990s it has become more popular (Achterberg et al, 2011). As a reaction to this, some new radio and television channels that focus on Dutch music have commenced broadcasting.…”

Places of popular music heritage: The local framing of a global cultural form in Dutch museums and archives

“…As local popular music traditions are combined with foreign genres, the global and the local continuously intersect (Kong, 1997). Responses to this have varied, from the indigenization of global cultural styles (Regev, 2007) to the reassertion of place-bound identities in light of a perceived threat by globalization to local cultural uniqueness (Achterberg et al, 2011). More specifically, Dutch post-war popular music and the wider cultural landscape have proven to be open to influences from other countries (Janssen et al, 2008;Schuyt and Taverne, 2004).…”