A sad sad thing has happened for classical music fans in LA. K-mozart, which was formerly an excellent classical music station, has shut down. It baffles me that such a large metropolitan area can't sustain a radio station such as this. I suppose it can't compete with the mass market commercial radio stations anymore.
This led me to ponder what happens when corporations infiltrate the market of foreign countries. How many countless gems have been lost amidst McDonalds and Nike. It's not that I'm against globalization. I think being able to share and interact with other cultures is amazing. So much new knowledge and interesting facets about the lives of other people can be relayed in the blink of an eye, but what are we missing out on? Moreover, what are we taking away. Are we a generation that is trying to homogenize the people of the globe? And to what extent will the impact of this have on future generations of other countries. They say that "times change and people change". This is a very real prospect, but the real question is, where do you draw the line. There is no way to stop globalization and in many ways globalization adds a lot to society, such as creating global awareness of pressing needs in other countries, but I think it's absolutely pertinent to remember this: when we enter other countries we need to remember that we are guests of that country and we need to be courteous and respectful of the people and their culture. It doesn't matter if we're entrepreneurs or health workers, we need to be mindful of whose space we are encroaching on.
And going back to the travesty of my lack of K-Mozart, at least I can take solace in the last remaining FM classical music station in the Los Angeles area, KUSC.
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3 comments:
First of all, I agree that the contemporary pop culture shift away from classical music (& I would argue the classical arts more generally) represents a serious shift in our expression of the mainstream auditory (& aesthetic) arts.
Also, thanks for your previous response to my post. I agree that more open communication could help to solve some of the health (broadly construed) implications currently facing society by empowering the individual with a more diverse set of perspectives.
Finally, I'm glad you're an Invisible Children fan too! I'm thinking I'll do a post on it eventually... We seem to have a few perspectives in common :)
JEN! kmozart is not gone. It just switched with the country music station that the owner also owns. so kmozart is now 1260 AM. He was losing a lot of money on the classical music station and advertisers were dropping him, so he had to do it I guess. At least it's not gone completely.
I was so devastated when this radio station went away. It is a nice analogy that you used to compare it to the small countries who loose apart of their identity when large conglomerates move in and take over. A part of society is virtually snatched away.
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