Introduction
Overview of Cultural, Economic, and Political Changes since 1997 Aimed at Enhancing the Creative Heritage in New Zealand
The growing concern with cultural heritance of the world community has emerged on the threshold of the twenty-first century. This deal has been raised with particular reference to the questions of cultural identity because all social aspects were gradually transformed within cultural context.
According to McGuigan (2004), “questions of identity and a sense of belonging appear to have superseded public policy and cultural politics” (p. 34). In this respect, the concept of cultural citizenship is significantly reflexive because it signifies how one should think of public identity in a broader sense that extremely goes beyond what has commonly been defined as cultural policy (Stanbridge, 2010).
In fact, cultural policy as a concept is quite unstable because it has different associations and relations to media policy, communications, economics and, most importantly, to creative industry which largely affects economic and political activities in the world.
Focusing primarily on creative industries in New Zealand, much concern is associated with governmental policies and strategies aimed at preserving and developing cultural heritance in the country with regard to social and economic conditions.
During the last two decades of the twentieth centuries, New Zealand witnessed the elimination of control over the economy, introduction of privatization policies, and radical re-structuring of welfare state programs (Volkerling, 2010, p. 96). As a result, the country gradually became a part of global economy in cultural terms as well. Under these circumstances, the government increased cultural expenditures by 41 % in order to introduce established tendencies of cultural nationalism (Volkerling, 2010, p. 96).
The state believed that they were on the way to the increased national self-consciousness based on a developed sense of national identity as New Zealanders that was aimed at comprehending and developing a unique national culture. In this respect, the focus on creative industries was the core method for enhancing the countries cultural potential.
Main Discussion
Rethinking Cultural Policies
Preconditions of Cultural Changes in New Zealand
Aesthetic and ideological repudiation from social democracy and capitalistic tendencies in 90s of the past century, perhaps, became a starting point to a cultural transformation.
According to Jameson (1991), “…theories of postmodern – whether celebratory or couched in the language of moral revulsion and denunciation – bear a strong family resemblance to all those ambitious sociological generalizations, which…also designated consumer society, media society, information society and electronic society…” (p. 12).
At this point, cultural recovery in New Zealand was largely triggered by the above-presented reasons. The citizenship culture no longer wanted to conform to old institutions of culture; instead, the course was taken on continuous innovation and progress.
The major problem, however, is reluctance of the government to introduce and accept changes. Global penetration trends and New Zealand’s policy of open economy has a potent impact on culture at a much deeper level so that most of artistic movements were forced to work in the shadow.
Course on Post-Modern Development
Before considering the governmental policies directed to enhancing the creative sector in New Zealand, a brief overview of cultural concepts should be presented as they will help to understand the aspects of the cultural revolution in the country. In these matters, the concept of culture should be approached from different angles and be considered an inherent component of ‘cultural capitalism’ (Stanbridge, 2010, p. 81).
At this point, McGuigan’s (2004) outlook on the way the cultural policy should be re-evaluated is specifically viewed through different discourses of cultural policies the scholar explains. All these cultural dimensions contribute greatly to understanding which attitude New Zealanders should reveal to understand and reassess the reasons for supporting funding of artistic and cultural heritance.
All the above-described processes also serve as the main characteristics of post-modernity developing in the cities. In this regard, Harvey (1990) depicts “spread individualism and entrepreneurialism in which the mark of social distinction where broadly conferred by possessions and appearances” (p. 3). Such an assumption, therefore, refuses the initially supposed prevalence of rational planning and mass production.
While viewing the capitalism through the prism of creative industries in New Zealand, Harder’s individualistic representation of culture is more relevant in this matter because this sector involves creative and unique expression of specific artistic forms.
Therefore, the government should identify these areas as the key ones fostering the economic growth and transformation of New Zealand, having a great potential in domestic and global terms.
Cultural Industries in New Zealand
Promising Statistics
Cultural renaissance of New Zealand emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century has also positively influenced on the economic growth and social rise of the nation. Employment rates have been significantly augmented with the appearance of the developed creative networks.
Particular, New Zealand cultural industry has provided about 121 000 jobs according to 2006 Census, which corresponds to 6,3 % of overall employment in the country (Andrews, Yeabsley, and Higgs, 2009, p. 3).
The workplace opportunities, hence, are split among support workers (about 42, 500), creative specialist (near 36, 000), and embedded creative workers engaged in different creative activities of enterprises (Andrews, Yeabsley, and Higgs, 2009).
What is more important is that the majorities of individuals are employed in other types of business, outside the creative industry sector that includes fewer percentages of people. In addition, a 1996-2006 period is also marked by steady income growth among the creative workers who earn about $ 52,000 annually (Andrews, Yeabsley, and Higgs, 2009).
In general, the creative industry development can be divided into two distinct stages: dramatic structural growth marked by increase in creative employment and in income rates and subsequent consolidation driven by national economic expansion and by employment growth along with overall improvement of economical situation.
Some other significant changes occurred to New Zealand’s creative sector. Among those is significant rise of embedded creative workers and moderate increase in creative specialists. Tangible shifts have also been experienced by technological sphere with the introduction of greater ratio of creative industries employment in this sector.
In total, the value-added percentage reaches 49 % of overall industry gross output that is much higher in comparison with average gross, which is 45 % (Andrews, Yeabsley, and Higgs, 2009). Such a situation is explained by high earnings and labor intensity of the creative sector.
As it can be seen, the economic effect is enormous and, therefore, the government should introduce much more consistent cultural strategies to sustain further development of the sector.
Analysis of Cultural Policies in New Zealand Creative Sector
Artistic and cultural development is controlled by the Creative New Zealand, also called as Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand, n. p.). The main purpose of this national agency lies in promoting, encouraging, and supporting the artists of New Zealand and providing the country’s creative industry with further advancement.
In addition, its mission is premised on supporting professional artistic communities through adhering to the principles of participation, access, innovation, and excellence in artistic and cultural sphere (Creative New Zealand, n. p.).
Most importantly, the organization seeks to promote uniqueness of the indigenous culture and acknowledge the unique position of existing ethnic and national minorities.
Support of indigenous culture Pacific art contributes greatly to the formation of New Zealand identity through the popularization of ethnic diversity of the country’s population (Creative New Zealand, n. p.). Such cultural policies, consequently, ensure economic, social, and cultural impact on New Zealanders.
Due to the fact that creative sector in New Zealand embraces a wide range of manufactures and services, the focus will be narrowed to the analysis of music industry with particular reference to cultural perspectives and contributions it has made as well as to the way government has influenced the formation of musical trends.
Music in New Zealand
Discussing the Changes and Population Perception
Similar to other popular creative sectors in New Zealand, music industry has experienced as significant growth, which will, apparently, have a potent impact on international development.
The current situation is greatly due to the emergence of post-2000 Labour government being the key factor of successful development in the identified sector. In addition, encouraging local music development has produced more attention to the concept of the New Zealand cultural identity.
In this respect, Shuker (2008) focuses on such local music genres as Polynesian local rap, ‘garage’ rock, hip-hop trends, and reggae-infected music that should be signifiers of indigenous New Zealand culture rather than the attributes locally-produced music which is more popular at the international level.
The rapid development of New Zealand music has allowed the movement to enter much greater visibility and audibility with the help of broadcasting and television.
The popularization of the local music is sufficiently encouraged by the government’s increased funding and investment aimed at further development of music sector. In particular, government agents have successfully managed to mobilize social networks to sponsor appropriate television and radio programs that will promote talented composers and singers and facilitate the instructions of New Zealand cultural trends.
The success of the presented reforms is largely based on the development of institutional stability along with emerging music industry practices. Interestingly, popular music development is more enhanced by existing mass media campaign and, therefore, the government should pay closer attention to the support and funding of culturally predetermined music.
Nevertheless, the establishment of the policy of institutional exclusions provides positive perspectives of steady growth of the music industry.
While focusing on local music development, the government implements specific reforms as well. Specifically, the state agents attempt to secure local music production through manufacture and dissemination of recordings.
They also attempt to provide local musicians with a wider market access for local recordings that is under the great pressure of imperialistic culture and foreign music, specifically the one produced in the United States and in the UK (Shuker, 2008, p. 272).
With regard to the country demographics, Shuker states, “New Zealand represents a small market for recorded music, through one that has historically been important in per capita terms”. Indeed, the local production of music has been historically suppressed by the dominating international market due to a small market share and turnover of the music products introduced by New Zealand.
Marginalization and great dependence on the imported material make the government think over alternative ways to introduce wider opportunities for the market expansion. At the same time, although there is tangible prevalence of international brands, New Zealand local music has managed to capture a significant share of the international market.
Latest years, for instance, have witnessed a remarkable success of indie music (Shuker, 2008, p. 272). Increasing popularity of local music since 1999 has been largely due to the appearance of local broadcasting stations, such as New Zealand on Air that has facilitated the introduction of music products making them popular across the country.
Existing Challenges on the Way to Changes
Despite great success and advancement of the music industry in New Zealand, it had still to face significance challenges and constraints on the way to it. Serious deals were associated with insufficient funding of local music because of the overwhelming outside influence and increased competition from the part of European counties and the United States in particular (Shuker, 2008, p. 271).
Limited role of local music contribution to the commercial field has made the recording studio manager rely more on outside products that provide them with greater success. To enlarge on this, there are reasons triggering the New Zealand music industry to acquire a position when the available talent is appropriate for the domestic market but is controversial enough for the international commerce (Scott, 2008, p. 303).
At the same time, business expansion is increasing dramatically at the international level, which encourages greatly music producers to focus more the domestic market and attract more New Zealand population.
The scenario promises to be more impressive with the introduction of new players at the international footing as the music industry is now becoming more popular among the global listeners as well. In this respect, the main task of the government here consists in encouraging local and international investors provide financial support to local music products, which is now highly appraised.
Aside from financial concerns, there are other adversities to be faced. Specifically, the government should implement more advertising campaigns attracting foreign listeners to buy New Zealand local music products. However, due to the free market economy structure, the domestic market is poorly protected from the outside influence, which prevents local music from spreading at least among the local listeners.
Music and Cultural Identity
In order to increase the importance of local culture and local music production, it is imperative to enhance the quality of techniques and equipment needed to produce a high-quality product.
When it comes to outside music influences forming preferences and interests of the local population, it is purposeful to think of the extent to which cultural identity is affected. Imported music and repertoire have captured the largest market segment at the international level and it is often hard to sustain and develop local cultural industries.
The increased attention to the concept of cultural imperialism emerged in 80s of the past century. In this respect, a rigid confrontation emerged between authentic and commercial domination of cultures that made it difficult to compete in relation to certain examples.
At the same time, media influences have been presented in an one-dimensional approach because television and radio underestimated the success of the local music and oriented more on the audience’s preference. The integration of changes was not encouraged because of the risk of decreasing market share.
What is more frustrating is that cultural imperialism concept often makes the population to accept ‘national’ heritance as a given one, “…with distinctive national musical identities its logical corollary” (Shuker, 2001, p. 71). The problem is that the globalization process as well as increasing Western influences that are especially noticeable in media corporations put cultural identity under the threat.
With regard to the above-presented consideration, all governmental interventions are primarily concerned with the maintenance and development of the national culture having local popular music as the key to these assumptions. In fact, the recently emergent cultural policies closely correlate with the concept of national identity, specifically when it comes to Kiwi rock and Polynesian music (Shuker, 2008, p. 282).
From one point of view, it can be stated that Kiwi rock belongs stylistically to an international genre and lacks particular cultural reference, except for the nationality of the musicians. In contrast, Polynesian music is the bright example of combination of contemporary tendencies with distinctive elements of New Zealand identity.
Judging from this, ‘local’ culture should not exaggerate, but accept certain elements from the universally accepted popular culture. In the whole, the transformation of cultural forms in accordance with global tendencies can serve as a powerful instrument for promoting New Zealand identity.
More importantly, focus on a more lenient promotion of local trend will be much more effective in achieved the established goal. There should not be a rigid distinction between such concepts as ‘foreign’ and ‘local’ because global music is, nevertheless, a combination of local cultural influences. Still, there is a difference between local music and locally made music where the latter is not congruent with cultural policy.
Governmental Attitude toward Music Industry in New Zealand
As it can be understood from previous discussions, the introduction of strong infrastructure of the music sector in New Zealand plays a pivotal role in creating more opportunities for local musicians and producers to establish a strong platform for local music production (Scott, 2008, p. 301).
The post-2000 government budget, it his respect, has expanded the financial expenditure on promoting artistic movements aimed building a unique national identity. The government also introduces funding for the purpose of building powerful creative industries that will be able to provide sufficient employment, more opportunities for creative entrepreneurships, and significant economic returns.
The government presented great media and public support through radio and television channels initiated by Broadcasting Minister Marion Hobbs in 2001 (Shuker, 2008, p. 277).
Moreover, 2001 governmental policies were marked by the creation of New Zealand Music Industry Commission aimed at developing strategies for increasing and intensifying the influence of music sector on the country in particular and the globalized target market in general.
The commission also sought to assess the background of music industry, including its current structure and identify the shifts that should implemented to affect it in the most effective way (Shuker, 2008, p. 278). To be more precise, the commission has found that the music-marketing sector lacks cohesion and focus and, therefore, should be endorsed with NZ on Air activities supporting production and development.
The role of New Zealand on Air should be highly recognized because it has contributed greatly to success of music industry and creative development in general. Its innovative and effective approaches to introducing high-quality music on television and radio are viewed as significant breakthrough.
Further on, the government has officially recognized the urge for a quota (Scott, 2008, p. 301). Specifically, the radio stations and broadcasting corporations in New Zealand have encouraged new targets to promote local music on radio and establish new cultural formats and profiles.
Local promotions have lead to the increased popularity of certain music compositions at the international market and these shifts contributed to the increased proportion of New Zealand performers gaining local and international popularity.
Another initiative implemented by the government was the presentation of the Pathway to Arts and Cultural Employment (PACE) project (Shuker, 2008, p. 280). The introduction was primarily aimed at sustaining and developing a favorable environment for establishment arts employment.
In other words, the deployment of New Zealand culture has had an economic benefit as well because more and more people were engaged in developing and advancing the quality of music industry in the country.
The government does not only encourage the proliferation of local popular music, but the introduction of export-centered initiatives. Hence, it has provided funding for conducting a marketing research, for taking a musician into a territory, and for intense marketing of a musician with a record.
The government has also increased the financing of New Zealand magazines and has provided budgeting to related participants and activities. At this point, the introduction of new local bands popularizing indigenous culture and national identity issues has become much more acceptable and effective.
Conclusion
The research on the success of governmental policies has revealed tangible shifts and significant contribution made to the development of creative industry in New Zealand, particularly to music sector. Hence, the government has launched a solid ground for local musicians and performances to sustain, develop, and improve cultural trends aimed preserving national identity.
This initiative is achieved through the implementation of reforms in the sphere of media and telecommunications. Reinforced influence on media channel has made it possible to introduce more culturally driven music product and diminish the influence of the ‘imported’ repertoire.
Second, the government has successfully introduced a number of programs initiated by New Zealand Music Industry Commission that has encouraged the increase of employment rates as more and more jobs are associated with creative workplace. Creative specialists have become in high demand by local recording studio realizing the benefits the local music can bring to their businesses.
Finally, the government has also supported the initiative to export music at the international market to facilitate the popularity of New Zealand music and culture. Particular credit should be given to the development of Kiwi ‘garage’ rock genres and Polynesian music that managed to foster the image of New Zealand culture and conform to the international market demands.
Hence, despite the emergent challenges and constraints the government has faced, state agent still manage to diminish the influence of cultural imperialism and highlight the importance of cultural projects and reforms. In whole, governmental programs have had a positive impact on social, economic, and political recognition of New Zealand identity.
Reference List
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Creative New Zealand. Strategic Plan – Te Mahee Rautaki 2010-2013. Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. Web.
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