export

Avanti! was formed – with an exclamation mark – in April 1983. At that time, Finland was ruled by Urho Kekkonen and Finnish music by Joonas Kokkonen. Consensus was the name of the game, and any deviation was regarded as childish provocation.

Exports of Finnish music have been growing since 1999 at a rate of about 40 per cent a year. Finland's goal-oriented cultural export policy is, however, still in its infancy. Not until the beginning of this millennium did the government show an interest in cultural exporting, and in March this year it published a Proposal for Cultural Export Promotion 2007-2011. This report sparked off lively debate that still continues in the field.

Why have HIM and Hanoi Rocks been the only Finnish bands to make it in America? Sami Valkonen, a music industry veteran involved with rock bands on both sides of the Atlantic, debates the factors that make up a success story on the American market.

In the summer of 1998, Americans watched the U.S. House of Representatives debate a proposal to eliminate all national arts funding - contentious issue that was wrapped up in the "controversial" art such funding supported as well as questions over the very idea of federal funding of the arts. Meanwhile, news reports began to tell how the government of Finland had an advanced system of supporting music through its school curriculum.

In the course of the year 2000 Finnish popular music has made a dream come true: it has at last achieved a breakthrough on the international market. Bomfunk MC's, HIM and Darude are names that have this year crept to the top of the charts in a number of European countries.