The Myanmar Music Association (MMA; Burmese: မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဂီတအစည်းအရုံး) is Myanmar's music industry association. The organisation was established in 1952 and consists of 5 divisions: historical traditional music, modern traditional music, contemporary music, production and technical work.[1]
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဂီတအစည်းအရုံး | |
 Logo of the Myanmar Music Association | |
| Formation | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Yangon, Myanmar |
| Location |
|
Official language | Burmese English |
Chairman | Tin U Lay |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | Burma Music Association (BMA) |
MMA established a Burmese pop library in 2010, to create a standardised list of songs published in the country, and of help musicians and songwriters obtain their proper share of royalty payments from the use of their songs.[2] In 2013, it reopened a traditional Burmese music school, which had been closed since 2007.[3]
In July 2015, MMA announced that it would launch the Myanmar Music Academy Awards in 2016 to recognise outstanding Burmese musicians.[4]
Censorship
editAll pieces of media in Myanmar are subject to strict review by the Burmese government's censor board. Producers are required to submit their records to the Myanmar Music Association, and if the record is approved it will be allowed a limited test run. As a result of this, most songwriters are forced to avoid writing about controversial topics that can be banned by the Music Association, Jennifer Leehey commented that that many writers have taken to "writing in a crazy way" that allows them to express themselves in a way which is bereft of any direct political meaning is the only way that allows their work to get approval and be published.[5]
References
edit- ^ Nuam Bawi (4 June 2012). "Musician group to hold election". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Nuam Bawi (20 June 2011). "MMA sets up library of songs". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Nandar Aung (3 June 2013). "Six years of silence broken". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Chit Su (8 July 2015). "New Myanmar Music Academy Awards to sing a different tune". Myanmar Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Ferguson, Jane M. (2013). "Burmese Super Trouper: How Burmese Poets and Musicians Turn Global Popular Music intoCopy Thachin". The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. 14 (3): 221–239. doi:10.1080/14442213.2013.787449. ISSN 1444-2213.