Pluto Press Critique of Exotica: Music, Politics and the Culture Industry

In this innovative book, John Hutnyk questions the meaning of cultural hybridity. Using the growing popularity of Asian culture in the West as a case study, he looks at just who benefits from this intermingling of culture. Focusing on music, race and politics, Hutnyk offers a cogently theorised critique of the culture industry. He looks at artists such as Asian Dub Foundation, FunDaMental and Apache Indian to see how their music is both produced and received. He analyses ‘world’ music festivals, racist policing and the power of corporate pop stars to market exotica across the globe. Throughout, Hutnyk provides a searing critique of a world that sells exotica as race relations and visibility as redress. Review 'An enjoyable read. For Hutnyk, Asian pop represents a hybrid of the contemporary culture industry and old fashioned Orientalism which produces a transatlantic exotica' -- Mute 'Shows how musical production can claim a powerful position in anti-racist and internationalistic politics ... Hutnyk reminds us of the need to analyse pop culture not exclusively on the consumer level.' -- Sociological Review 'A wake-up call to armchair academics' -- Bakirathi Mani, Stanford University, USA About the Author John Hutnyk is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London. He is the author of The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representations (1996) and co-editor of Dis-Orienting Rhythms (1996).