StephenG wrote:
I remember not so long ago, some newly appointed spokes person for south african artists was saying in an interview, that ALL overseas music should be banned from our tv's and radios. because if we have nothing to compare south african music standards too, then we will start to think how great our music is...
I don't think so. I hardly ever listen to music on the radio now. Also there's no way to stop VH-1, MTV, all those radio channels on DSTV, re-runs of Jools Holland's show etc etc. So it can't be done and even if it were done it would have no effect on me and, I'm sure, many other people who listen to music.
What might pay dividends is a system whereby stations licensed in SA have to play a certain percentage of music by local artists. This was done in Australia, and the eventual result was a raising of standards for their local music. You'd just need to be careful with definitions, as I'm sure Australia were. Filling the airwaves with tracks by Manfred Mann, Trevor Rabin, Johanthon Butler and so on isn't going to do much for the local music industry.
Possibly the aforementioned spokes person was taking an extreme position initially to allow for bargaining down to the position that would actually be acceptable.
