You can use a little BRIC Pop of your own
Whether you’re on the business, political and academic, or creative side of globalization, in the BRICs or the West, people who can navigate cross-cultural juxtapositions, samples, remixes and fusions in their work will be better equipped to compete in a BRIC Pop world.
Some western artists and creative professionals, namely Hip-Hop producers in the US and dance music DJs in Europe, have done this already. Those in the BRIC who can package their output for global appeal without losing their distinct local authenticity are most likely to meet our Globalability model. There’s no exact formula of 1 part BRIC and 2 parts global, but there are ways to work across cultures that ring true, and those that don’t.
And it don't stop...
Two final thoughts. First, the Brazilians made a point when I was researching the book down there — what good is it being the next global superpower of any kind if we don’t do something about the globe? Global warming threatens to submerge Kolkata, turn Beijing into an extension of the Mongolian desert, and sink the eastern half of the trans-Siberian railroad. Brazil had its first hurricane in 2005, and China its worst blizzards in memory. None of the BRICs have enough water of any kind, let alone safe drinking water for their poorest residents. I drove along the shore of Tamil Nadu a year after the Tsunamis, where I could see clearly the visible line 500 meters inland where the salt water killed vegetation and many of the people who lived along the shore, with today’s survivors crowded in makeshift huts. I shrugged off my Dengue fever episode, but more than 50 people have died in Rio this summer, face masks remain a regular sight in Southern China, and Russia still has 30% more people dying every year than being born.
That’s just the natural phenomenon. We’re going to have to stop killing each other because we don’t like someone’s race, religion, non-religion, gender, skin color, orientation or behavior. It’s great to love your country, but when you use that as an excuse to hate others, it ought not to be called patriotism. It’s easy to point at someone other nation’s misdeeds, but glass houses come in every culture. We’re going to lose a lot of talented, capable people everywhere, and we can’t afford that.
Second, cultural globalization, in reverse or any other direction, isn’t going to be just about the BRICs. It’s moving into a place where anything that’s good, universal, and accessible is open for play anywhere else that wants it. I could have easily done Islamo Pop, Afro Pop, or Hispano Pop, and might do so next. Just as Sweden punches above its weight in pop music today, so will Thailand tomorrow in graphic design. Spain, Britain, and Japan have jumped over France and Italy in avant-garde cuisine, and the Germans (!) are coming on next. Before you know it, the US will win the World Cup. Things ebb and flow, and while money is a factor, so is plain old luck and hard work, which knows no cultural border.