Music & Us

This blog was challenging (but fun) to put together because I had to find a lot of new music from cultures I'm not incredibly familiar with! I've only included one music selection I had heard before creating this blog. However, I learned a lot of interesting information about the music and cultures I picked, so I look forward to sharing my findings with you!

Because I was already a little familiar with it, I first looked into Celtic music. The Celts have been around Europe since the time of Ancient Rome, but today, the term "Celtic" is usually applied to the traditional culture of Scotland, Ireland, and other areas where Gaelic is still spoken. I found a traditional Celtic love song from the 1500s/1600s called  "Eleanór a Rún." The song was written in Gaelic. In this video, the performers incorporate the guitar and harmonium which are not traditional Celtic instruments but are common in modern recreations. My favorite aspect of Celtic music is its use of vocal ornamentations. To me, ornamentations make the music sound more lively in faster tunes, and more graceful in songs like "Eleanór a Rún." You can check out this website for more information about the song. (Traditional, Europe)

Next, I wanted to find music from somewhere completely new to me, so I decided to look into Kazakhstan which is a country located between Russia and China. I don't think any history class I ever attended even mentioned Central Asia, but it is an interesting place. Like other Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, so its culture has some Russian influence. However, for most of history, the people of Kazakhstan had a nomadic culture (fun fact: horses were likely first domesticated in Kazakhstan). The music I selected features a woman singing with a dombra. The dombra is one of the most important Central Asian instruments. It is a two-stringed plucked chordophone with fourteen frets. I'm very surprised with how rich it can sound despite only having two strings. Click here for an interview with a dombra player! (Traditional, Asia)

Keeping with the theme of countries I know little about, next I decided to go to Vanuatu! All I knew about Vanuatu was that Surivior season nine was filmed there, and they have volcanoes. For those who don't know, Vanuatu is a group of islands about 1,000 miles east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. It gained independence from the United Kingdom and France less than 50 years ago in 1980. At first, I wanted to look into its traditional music, but I found out reggae is quite popular in Vanuatu. This was really surprising because I always associated reggae with the Caribbean, thousands of miles away. I discovered the genre of Pacific reggae, which is basically like normal reggae but with instruments common in the Pacific. Even though I couldn't find information on Vanuatu specifically, reggae became very popular in the Pacific after Bob Marley toured there. The song I selected is called "New Day" by Naio Band. I cannot tell for sure if any of the instruments in the video originated in the Pacific, but the drums may have. (Modern, Oceania)

For my final selection, I decided to pick a song from a band I already know and love! I got really into Japanese pop and rock music recently, and I've found it very interesting how Western pop genres have diffused to other cultures. There always seem to be subtle differences between Western pop versus other cultures' take on pop. For example, I've found that J-pop tends to incorporate more rhythmic subdivisions in vocal melodies. Individual syllables tend to come out much faster than in Western pop, and the singing sometimes almost sounds like rapping because it happens so quickly. I'm fairly certain this has to do with how the Japanese language works. The J-pop music I listen to uses chord progressions not commonly used in Western pop music (here is a fun video on the topic). I've also heard a lot more key changes in Japanese music than in recent pop music. For my selection, I picked "Darken" by the band ZUTOMAYO. I think this band exemplifies the differences between J-pop and Western pop. In this performance, the band incorporates a Chinese bowed chordophone called an Erhu into the song. At about 3:15, the band showcases the many instrumentalists playing with them. I highly encourage watching that section because it's very interesting how many different types of instruments are blended together in one song (this band uses very unique instruments...). One of my favorite things about ZUTOMAYO is how textured their performances are. (Modern, Asia)

Those are all of my selections! I really hope you enjoyed listening as much as I enjoyed finding these :) Almost all of the cultures I included in my post and the ones we discussed in class experienced decades or even centuries of colonization, war, or unwanted occupation from outside forces. Despite this, these places managed to preserve their culture by continuing to learn, create, and perform music. It is truly amazing to see how music helps keep cultures alive to this day.