The Critique Of World Music

Music defines our culture. As Americans, we listen to music while we drive our cars, are at work, doing housework, studying, etc. We have songs for special occasions: Christmas, Hanukah, birthdays, weddings, parties, etc. We have taken songs from the various cultures that make us diverse: Arabic, German, Mexican, Native American, etc. We have many genres: country, hip-hop, rap, pop, blues, jazz, rock, heavy metal, etc. And although we may think of music as simple and easy, looking at all this makes one realize how diverse and complex our music truly is. Two things that contribute to this diversity are theme and symbolism.

1. Why does the Indian classical tradition dominate the musical image of South Asia in the west?

I think the music and musical instruments expresses national identity in Europe because there are different styles of music according to where they are from in Europe. And different countries have different types of instruments. For example the bagpipes in Scotland. Many people recognize music with pipes to be from Scotland or Ireland. Spain has flamenco and Russia has their balalaika. They all express their nationality and where they are from. The countries in Europe have different types of musical styles that are distinct to their own country and culture.

The adoption of Western music inspired new ways of viewing music and resulted in a transformation of Chinese music. It prompted “Chinese composers to either fuse Western music with traditional sounds or turn their back on traditional Chinese music [because they Westernized] their music modeled on the perceptions that Western music equates with modernization” (Lau 90). Additionally, because many traditionalists feared that traditional Chinese music would gradually disappear due to the modernizing Western music, “they began to focus on promoting Chinese music as a way to counteract the encroachment of Western culture and music. But they did it in a 'modernist' rather than preservationist sort of way. Many musicians experimented with new ways of composing music and modernizing traditional instruments” (Lau 92).

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

In the late 2004, a series of papers (research project) on the topic of world music and globalisation became a hot topic in a conference and gradually took on a life turning onto a virtual laboratory for teaching and research on the relationship between music and globalisation under ethnography which was funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and humanities Research Council from 2003-2006. Since then this topic has got wide meaning and more complicated.

Africa – to play the Cora you must be from the proper family lineage. * Music can be the property of a village. Also, this can be from a certain group. You don’t cross groups. * Music not treated as property at all

Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a

Though, in spite of waves of cultural differences causing ebbs and flows of the rising and falling of war and peace, the cohesive effects of music seems to ignore cultural differences by giving them reasons to celebrate their commonalities. And the almost infinite number of sounds that creates the musical kaleidoscope of jazz perhaps best embodies music’s cohesive elements.

     The music industry is in a time of growth at this very moment. The environment for its growth has been increasing rapidly on many geographical boundaries and has been established through information technology and Internet. In this paper I will analyze how the music industry not only has been affected by Globalization as an economic institution but also that it has become a worldwide-globalized commodity. First, I will begin by analyzing how the music industry, though its consumption is not a necessity, it is affected by large economic factors and has become a large Music Market. Furthermore I will analyze how the music market has globalizing tendencies

Music plays a significant rule in our lives. It’s a melody and rhythm we live in. It plays a very essential rule in our day to day to life when it comes to expressing feelings, passing time and for other uses as well. Though we in general may not think about how music has changed so much in the past few decades we must acknowledge the fact todays music is the outcome of the various change in the past. Today’s majority of music we hear is what we define as more as a “westernized” music. Considering other cultures in the world, a huge impact of western music is seen within them. Westernization and modernization are two different words with different meanings and they have two different impacts on a society. Modernization is used to define the improvements and show a progressive transition from one stage to another. Westernization is the concept of being influenced by the customs and techniques of the western society and reflecting them in a non-western culture. This essay will discuss furtherly about the impact of the western society on music cultures of North India and Korea by looking from both the positive and negative point of this impact.

So whilst some parts of the world stayed traditionalist, other parts were taking music to the next step. Western cultures have used music for almost every aspect of life. Music was used for entertainment, religion, war cries and important ceremonies. Some countries have unfortunately lost their culture and heritage thanks to more developed countries trying to expand their empires. A good example of this is when the indigenous Mexican people were murdered in their homeland by the invading Spanish – and replaced the traditional drums and flutes with more vibrant shakers and trumpets. It is no doubt that the way upper countries have acted has greatly affected the distribution of music worldwide.

Scholars have attempted to define music, and to be quite honest, it will be a huge challenge to try to weave a definition around the art that is music, because it is beyond definition. However, for the purposes of this work, we shall adopt the definition by Aluede & Eregare (2009), not because the definition is, in itself, complete, but because it captures the very essence of what we look for in the definition of music. Music, according to Aluede & Aregare (2009), is not only an organization of sound but also a symbolic expression of a social and cultural organization, which reflects the values, past and present ways of life of human beings. Also, Jones (1975), cited in Amana and Onogu (2015), defines music as “a language which encodes emotions, aspirations and people’s goals in autonomous and self-expressive arts forms.” These definitions are important in understanding music, because they highlight the fact that music does not only appeal to the feel-good emotion, it is not only used for entertainment; it is a valid form of social expression and this underscores the centrality of music in African socio-cultural life.

rest of the world are not used to hearing. This is because we are used

The literal meaning of the word 'music' according to any dictionary is: 'art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds in a harmonious or expressive way.' But music has a meaning which is far broader than this. Music is life. Music means Self-expansion and oneness. It is an art by itself. Art, in any of its forms, is generated by a person, or a group of talented yet usually ordinary people, that express, willingly or not, an opinion regarding present times. It is not a want; it is a need. If you try to imagine yourself without it, you are bound to feel incomplete. For many of us, it has become a necessity of our lives. Music has no boundaries. Music is the