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The project deals with musical flows between the so-called “West” and Asia and the shifts in the asymmetric power relations that characterize these flows. These shifts were initiated by the global success of new musical genres, which emerged as creative responses to the contact of formerly incongruent musical traditions. The scape-model, Arjun Appadurai developed to describe processes of cultural globalization, the domestication concept of Joseph J. Tobin, together with recent ethnomusicological theories of musical change serve as theoretical framework while the research design is characterized by a combination of empirical data collection (multi-local field work) and post-hermeneutic techniques of (musical) text analysis (e.g. Adam Krims’ analysis of musical poetics).
"Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up, Please!"
On the Domestication of Western Popular Music in Japan and the Impact of J-Pop in the West
Oliver Seibt
This project is concerned with the domestication of Western popular culture in Japan during the last two decades and the development of shibuyakei and visualkei, two popular music genres that emanated from this process and became very successful on a global scale. Thus they helped to promote a change in the international reception of popular culture from Japan: formerly perceived as a romping place of uncreative copycats, it is nowadays acting as an international pop-cultural avant-garde.
Video example:
"Sounding out the Wave"
National Dreams and Global Streams of Korean Popular Music
Michael Fuhr
This project wants to find out how globalization affects the transformation of popular music in South Korea. It analyzes the field of pop music since the 1990s, with the emergence of popular phenomena like ‘k-pop’ and ‘Korean wave’. It seeks to understand the conditions and effects of transnational flows, asymmetrical relations and the role of the imaginary ‘other’ in music production and consumption. A specific focus lies on aspects how pop music is utilized and connected to strategies of identity construction in order to shape national and transnational representations.
"Producing Punjabi Pop"
Music, Media, and Cultural Identity in Northern India
Patrick Frölicher
This project broadens the focus from what Appadurai calls the "mediascape" to another dimension of the globalization process he calls the "ethnoscape", and the relationships between the two "scapes". In contrast with the two former subprojects it does not deal with the domestication of Western music introduced to Asia in form of audio or video recordings, but with the Westernization of a North Indian musical tradition brought to the UK by immigrants from the Punjab. After being adapted to the prevailing musical idioms in their new home country, a new, modified form of what is called "bhangra" is now being re-imported to Northern India where it plays an important role in the construction of a regional Punjabi as well as a national Indian identity.
Studies of the Aspects of Zen-Buddhism in the Selected Works of Cage, Takemitsu and Zender
Yang, Hsiao-hua
This project confronts the question of how the aesthetics of Zen-Buddhism were perceived by the three composers John Cage, Toru Takemitsu and Hans Zender. Considering practices of composition, historical background, and regional differences, the project traces how “Western” composers were influenced by “Eastern” thought – and how, conversely, their music influenced Asian composers in their search of their own roots. Selected pieces are Music of Changes (1951), 7 Haiku (1951/52) and Ryoanji (1983-85) of Cage; Le Son Calligraphié I-III (1958-60), Ring (1961), November Steps (1967) of Takemitsu; Lo-Shu-Zyklus (1977-1997), Haikai (1982) and Fūrin no kyô (1988/89) of Zender.
Analytic Investigations Concerning Asian Composers in Germany
Isabell Seider
This project deals with the question to what extent Asian composers who have lived or studied in Germany have, consciously or unconsciously, adapted their musical language to Western musical grammars and aesthetics – if they have adapted it at all. Furthermore, it will be investigated in what ways such a potential fusion of Asian and Western musical aspects can be realized artistically. The time frame spans from 1945 (with regard to the post-World-War-II discussion, based on philosophical and aesthetical considerations formulated mainly by Theodor W. Adorno, of whether it is appropriate to occupy oneself with other cultures) to the end of the 20th century. There will be a focus on those Asian composers who pursued further studies in the cultural environment of the Western “avant-garde”, as well as the “Darmstadt-Cologne School”. The approach will be analytical, taking various compositions as a basis, the goal of which is to determine whether there are any (specific) common musical characteristics – in style, instrumentation, sound, temporal patterns etc. – resulting especially from bi- or multicultural experiences in the lives of the selected composers.
