Heather MacLachlan of the University of Dayton presents "Pop Music in Contemporary Myanmar." (Pictured: Chit San Maung, the most famous and beloved rock guitarist in Burma.)
The military government of Burma conducted what it claimed was a free and fair federal election in November 2010. The election was widely criticized as fraudulent. However, to the surprise of pundits, scholars, and most importantly, Burmese citizens, the new and supposedly democratic government immediately embarked on a series of reforms. This presentation will focus on the impact of these reforms on Burma’s pop music industry. The reforms include, first, welcoming foreign investment in the country, which has led to an increase in the Anglo population of Yangon, where the pop music industry is centered. A small number of these recently-arrived Anglo foreigners have become involved in the industry, and their influence has a somewhat distorting effect on the Burmese pop music scene. Second, in September 2012, the government permitted the Myanmar Music Association, an umbrella group which defends the interests of recording musicians, to freely elect board members to represent them in negotiations with government ministries and private businesses. The new MMA board is struggling to reformulate itself as a representative and transparent body, and to earn the trust of musicians. The first contentious issue the MMA is mediating is the payment of royalties, a payment system which did not exist when I published a book about the Burmese pop music industry in 2011. Third, in October 2012, the government announced it would cease censoring musical recordings. However, freedom from government censorship presents its own challenges, and musicians worry about the influence of “bad words” on the poorly-educated Burmese population. The presentation is based on fieldwork conducted in Yangon in May and June 2013.
Heather MacLachlan (PhD, Cornell University, 2009) is assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Dayton. Her research focuses mainly on music-making among Burmese populations, both inside and outside of Burma. She is the author of Burma’s Pop Music Industry: Creators, Distributors, Censors (University of Rochester Press, 2011). Dr. MacLachlan has also published articles about Burmese refugees in Indiana, music theory pedagogy, and American country music. She recently began work on a second project involving the gay and lesbian choral movement in North America. She speaks English, French, and Burmese, and has taught in each of these languages at various times.
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