ABC:
Music and lifestyle television channel MTV has launched a new service aimed at the Arab world.
MTV Arabia will show a mix of Arabic hip hop videos, talent shows, and versions of worldwide hits such as Pimp My Ride that have been adapted for the Middle East market.
MTV says it hopes that the unifying force of music will help correct the misconception that the Arab world is a place of tension and stress.
I am mixed in my reaction to this. One the one hand, I am reminded about the Cold War example of our culture seeping under the Iron curtain through things like Radio Free Europe. Culture and economics are a marked advantage that the US enjoys, so why not leverage it? On the other hand, MTV, as the purveyor of such pap as “A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” could easily become a rallying point against American cultural imperialism by local extremist elements in the Arab world.
Although it cuts both ways, I think that this will be an advantage to the US in particular and the West in general. At the very least, it will tick off those remaining pockets of Taliban trying to outlaw music.
I want my….Arab MTV?
Will they do spring break featurette’s with women clad in burqas?
I don’t see Arab Hip Hop as helping us. If they dislike Hip Hop as much as I do, all this can do is make things worse. I can think of only a few worse ways of representing Western Culture than via Hip Hop.
Exposure to MTV is only going to convince most of the Arab world that Osama is correct when he says the Western world is weak, effeminate, decadent, corrupt, and doomed.
If they dislike Hip Hop as much as I do, all this can do is make things worse. I can think of only a few worse ways of representing Western Culture than via Hip Hop.