buying on credit and exploiting everything we come in contact with?

Just that paragraph haha... apologies for the length - I need to stop being a ramblin' man. :D

I understand the point of the thread. I'm not offend about what you said so far. Maybe I didn't explain myself well enough but I thinking from the point of view as "Mass Media" or Hollywood Imperialism instead of looking at it as a English-speaking Cultural Imperialism. Where the problem lies with huge corporations not the common folk, but maybe in some way they are responsible too.

I'm thinking 'oh I know how you feel, you are just like the every other American who dislikes this mass media mega-culture.' And I'm imagining you saying "No, you don't understand I don't want to be just like an America." OK I can understand that, so sorry.

I am empathic to your dilema in Norway, I know that it is important to you. OK there might not be a lot of Norwegian influences in American popular culture but in the span of European history I never thought Norway wasn't important.

Going back to a question you asked earlier.
I really haven't heard of Norwegian folk music. Ever since I've heard Grieg found inspiration from Norwegian folk music I was a bit curious about it. I remember having a conversation with someone who was totally enamored, totally immersed in Norwegain music, he totally denounced American Pop music and hated it with a passion, and thought those who created Pop muisc had contempt for their audience. Well any way beside the fact he might sound like an elitist to some, he was convincing how Scandinavian had a burgeoning music scene whose creativity was far superious to American pop. Long story short I lost a list of artists/bands he gave me, I always wish knew more.

When I asked if you had heard norwegian music which wasn't commercial pop, I didn't mean folk music, but it's interesting that you bring it up :) Real norwegian traditional folk music of old very rarely gets recorded. The real thing doesn't have much commercial value. There are plenty of bands and artists in Norway who say they are influenced by it, like Grieg was, but often it's quite watered down and I sometimes think they misinterpret what was actually norwegian traditional folk music and what comes from other nations. Here, the main instrument was the fiddle and much of it was dance music for couples dancing. That and "slåtter" which are songs played on the fiddle. I made a post in the international music thread about Fanitullen ("Devil's Tune"), which is the most famous slåtte we have.

http://www.musicbanter.com/country-f...tml#post833367

Although bands like Gåte, Lumsk, Valkyrien Allstars, Folque and so may help preserve some norwegian traditional sounds and may even popularize it somewhat outside our borders, it's not a very accurate representation of the traditions which are still passed orally from person to person in the valleys. On top of that, it's really only part of the norwegian music tradition.


This song, by Folque, draws mostly it's influences from what I think of as norwegian folk music. There are more interesting songs out there, but it's good for illustrating some of the musical traditions of old we have here. :)



Although just as traditional is the Fanitullen tune from the International Music thread, so consider checking it out. :D


I am guessing your friend may have been a fan of the sort of bands I posted above who are influenced by norwegian traditional music or he was interested in more modern cultural trends. Norway exports Black Metal of course and Sweden has a rich culture with metal bands in particular and also progressive rock. My personal belief is that we don't really export our traditional music traditions of old to the anglosphere.

I wonder how relevant is the average cultural level of a country's population. For example, France, Israel and Scandinavian countries have a reputation for being the most cultured.

There are International markets for the audiovisual industry, like Mipcom, where producers and buyers of the world meet. New products are presented. So then, for example, a TV station from a small country decides to buy the broadcasting rights of a series or a program... or not. And it does it according to local market studies, which in turn take the country's average education into consideration. And due to the limited population (that is, potential viewers), the station may decide it's not worth buying it because is too "mediocre" (or any other more accurate adjetive) for the local average. So, a media product can be very popular in some countries while being totally unknown in other.

I mean, as it's been said here, the anglosaxon media influence is obvious, but, at which level? Rome or Married.. with Children? Coppola or Guy Ritchie? Paul Auster or Dan Brown?

And in the opposite direction, a small country could offer an interesting cultural production, modifying thus the "input-output balance" of which we are talking about. But, same question: At which level? If the most significant cultural creations of a small country are too "sophisticated" (or any other more accurate adjetive) then they won't have enough positive reception in order to change things. Although they will be known among certain "elites". If you only "export" Ingmar Bergman or Eric Rohmer's films, the effect among many people could be like this. You better try Roxette or Stieg Larsson. Scandinavian design is notable at several levels, but only has achieved a massive influence worldwide by the "Ikea way". Apart, of course, from that famous Finnish designer that we all know as the first article of the encyclopædia, becuse we see his name on the spine every time we dust the shelves.