A study carried out for UNESCO by the International Music Council with involvement of the MCA through its Executive Director, Richard Letts, who was the Principal Investigator. It includes information from Australia.

June 2006

This is a major and complex study involving some 50 consultants from all five continents. It was commissioned by UNESCO, which has a position in support of cultural and therefore musical diversity, in a period in which one of its great priorities is the adoption of its Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The UNESCO interest in cultural diversity has been present virtually since its inception. It has adapted to changing circumstances over the years but at present, it is probably fair to say that its current interest arises in part from a concern that diversity is being diminished.

There are various ways in which musical diversity might be threatened. Especially in music, globalisation brings with it an ever-spreading power of a relatively homogeneous western-sponsored pop music, backed by enormous marketing budgets. This music can displace local musical traditions. Local musical traditions that grew from the circumstances of rural life can weaken as rural life changes or as rural populations drift to the cities. Governments faced with multiple ethnicities within their populations may seek their assimilation into a single cultural identity in the interests of national cohesion. Religious fundamentalism may seek to silence music completely.

The first six sections of the study are:

1. Musical diversity and human rights.
2. Musical diversity and sustainable development.
3. Musical diversity and peace.
4. The standards regulating musical diversity.
5. Musical diversity and the imposition of a monoculture.
6. Musical diversity, the musicians, and identity.

The seventh section, ‘Musical diversity: challenges and responses’, is a compendium of the challenges to the protection and promotion of music diversity within the private sector, civil society, government and the international sphere.

A set of appendices follows. It includes a listing of the international agreements protecting cultural rights and a survey of the reports on a number of projects supporting music development in developing countries.

Then there are appendices, each one from a different country or region in the Arab world, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study is therefore a sort of matrix. The main report is organised around themes and how they manifest in various geographical areas. The appendices are organised around nations and regions and how all of the themes manifest in each one.

Read the main report. From June 2006.

Read the appendices. From June 2006.