Western popular music has long had a major influence on the world music scene, and the massive appeal of rock music since the worldwide impact of the Beatles and other groups from the 1960s has altered the popular music scene in different regions of the world, including the nations of Asia. This change has meant the creation of some cultural tensions as some Asian governments have tried to stem the tide of Western influences and to maintain traditional cultural forms. Such efforts have had only limited success and have often come long after the battle has been won by Western music. The Beatles and Elvis Presley first reached these nations more than 30 years ago, and efforts to hold back the flood have been brought to bear more recently either on specific musical styles or on the general influx of Western ideas and trends, to little avail. In many of these countries, a thriving pop music industry has developed which promotes local talent as well as importing big-name product from the West.
Most of the trappings of popular music derived originally from the Beatles--long hair, an irreverent attitude, certain musical styles. Western music in any case differs from traditional Asian musical forms, and rock music seems to be even more alien not only because of its style but because of the life-style that is associated with it. This seems to be what has offended the government of South Korea which imposed regulations that have muffled the development of the alternative music scene in South Korea. The Park Chung Hee regime has been known in the past to ban such things as long hair, miniskirts, rock and psychedelic music, disco dancing, and protest folk songs seen as diverging from traditional Korean Confucianist values. Major singers as well as lesser knowns have been banned from playlists for allegedly tampering with the moral standards of the nation. Local artists have been forced to create music which does not antagonize the es...