i still think that 'western' and 'eastern' are over generalisations. it is wrong to say that the western market is more developed than the eastern market.
since most of the discussion is limited to film and music, and not other performing or visual arts, lets limit the scope to these arts.
the thing that sets film and music apart from other art forms is that it is almost always delivered in a language medium. let us ignore silent films or instrumentals because they are niches; focus on the mainstream. the local industry comprises of several markets. in singapore the english market is the most dominant. chinese is a close second, which i will touch later.
if you bring economics into the picture, it is even more clear-cut. the domestic english language industry faces stiff competition from other countries; namely the UK, possibly australia, and above all, the USA. these couple of superpowers are enough to saturate the market, and are producing at a scale we will never achieve. if box office and record sales go through the roof in singapore, it probably will not translate into massive profits for local producers.
after all, singapore doesnt have an industry, only a 'scene'.
but the fact that singapore is flooded with western imports is not enough to say that other eastern/developing/uncivilised/tribal/prehistoric countries suffer the same fate. the difference is that the english language market forms a comparatively smaller part of their domestic economy. the proof is in the chart sales in countries like japan, korea, china/TW/HK, india, indon/malaysia, philippines, thailand etc. you can even bring in western countries like germany, france or italy and the point still stands.
should the development of a market be judged on its scale? i think market saturation is more meaningful.
the chinese market in singapore is a different story, especially in music. the competition in the global chinese market is a far cry from that of the global english market. local chinese producers are more willing to enter the global market. as a result local chinese artists are far more successful than their english compatriots.
it is meaningless to hypothesize or form logic around our perceptions, instead of things that are evident in our environment. it no longer becomes an analysis. i hope that by pointing out what we have already known about the structure of the economy, i have made some sense to you all
