Globalization & Music

While trying to decide between focusing my thesis on the U.S South Africa or Japan, I was doing a little research on protest art in Burma/Myanmar (look up the story of Aung San Suu Kyi, it will bring tears to your eyes). During the protest of 8888 (on 8/8/88) near 80% of Burma's citizens organized peaceful marches and nonviolent protest of the dictatorship's violent and economically devestating regime. I looked up some of the songs sung during these protests, expecting to find traditional Burmese music. Instead, they sound like techno-disney made by an 8-yr-old on a 4-track cartridge. Take a listen:

http://netipr.org/xpage.php?page=four8

Somehow western music crept through the cracks into a country that forbids foreign visitors and kills or house-arrests any proponents of democracy within its borders. Or maybe the protestors embrace western styles as symbols of liberation or freedom (the songs could have been written by Bush: "Freedom and Democracy, Our Birth Rights" "United in Strike, Shall We Win" "We, the Patriotic Burmese"). Either way, it's pretty scary.