On the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the celebration of various cultures around the world is an everyday occurrence. Whether it be a performance at Memorial Hall or playing Javanese Gamelan, college campuses seem to encourage cultural exchange its faculty and students. However, where is the line between appreciation and appropriation? At a World Music Concert, a diverse set of students performed traditional Javanese gamelan with traditional clothes to match. Interestingly enough, none of these students were actually Javanese or even Indonesian for that matter.
“The term "gamelan" refers to various indigenous music ensembles of Java and Bali, the core instruments of which are usually drums, variously tuned bronze gongs, different sets of bronze metallophones, cymbals, and flutes. The bas-reliefs of some of the ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples in Central and East Java, dating from the eighth to fourteenth centuries CE,” (Ramstedt).
A gamelan is a traditional musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Java and Bali using metallophones, xylophones, kenons, kethuks, kempuls and gongs. It can sometime feature singing or dancing and is undoubtedly a vital part of Indonesian culture. It has also become vital outside of the Indonesian islands, which would seem like intercultural transmission occurring, but it leads to interesting questions when the reason for gamelan’s impact is due to colonialism.
Cultural appropriation is a group taking something from another culture in order to adopt it as their own. Cultural appropriation has roots in colonials, racism and the dehumanization of people around the round. These acts are not necessarily violent, but manage to manifest tis ways into mod...
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...s and colonial rule, UNC’s performance of gamelan does not fall under any speculation of using gamelan purely for aesthetic gain. The performers were not seeking to use gamelan to capitalize off of Javanese culture. This was simply a festival to bring people together through the spirit of music. In a way, the performers say a lot about identity and what it means to identify with a culture outside of your own. Connecting to a culture that’s never been experienced is difficult and shows the dedication of the performers. When music becomes more than producing sounds, it becomes a whole other identity that people can recognize regardless of which part of the world.
Music is something that brings people from each corner of the world together, but how people choose to portray their appreciation is when factors such as respect to culture and history become of importance.
1. Music is a strictly local expression, rich in variety since each culture expresses affective differences through art, 2. Music is a poetic process--complex, vague, and irrational--based upon borrowed traditional musical materials (melodies, rhythms, forms, etc.), 3. Music is for a religious, elitist-class performer who can understand and appreciate its mysterious nature and power, 4. Music is played softly in intimate gatherings, 5. Music making is the activity of Everyman, exacting the talents of variously trained amateurs who, with industry and practice, decorate their recreation and leisure in moments of social intercourse.
Music is magical: it soothes you when you are upset and cheers you up when you are down. To me, it is a communication with souls. I listen to different genres of music. When appreciating each form of music, with its unique rhythm and melody, I expect to differentiate each other by the feelings and emotions that it brings to me. However, I would definitely never call myself “a fan of jazz” until I witnessed Cécile McLorin Salvant’s performance last Friday at Mondavi Center. Through the interpretations and illustrations from Cécile’s performance, I realized that the cultural significance and individual identity are the building blocks of jazz music that create its unique musical features and support its development.
Ethnomusicology: a short introduction is about describing the growing discipline of how ethnomusicology researchers are going about studying different music from around the world, looking for perceptions in both humanity and music. Ethnomusicologists believe that all people are musical, not just people that label themselves as “musicians” and that there is music in all beings. This thinking causes a lot of debate in which ethnomusicologists argue that we must first study all forms of music such as its Geographic’s and history in order to answer any questions. Not only are traditional forms of music acknowledged but also more contemporary musical forms.
Over the course of history, music has developed from a personal, academic pursuit to an extension of a global marketplace and an attribute of this global community. In order to better address this conversation and the surrounding idea, Feld utilizes the platform he has developed to pose the argument that music has long been cultivated as a means of communication and interaction. This relationship is developed and analyzed as a case study in this article, which happens to be in discussing a traditional lullaby first developed in the Solomon Islands, which was in turn recorded by a European pop group that sold millions of copies of a rendition of the song. Furthermore, the article goes to show the trend of music to be redistributed and developed in the sense that it is later reused by a popular jazz musician in Europe. Feld then begs the question about the nature of the redistribution of music and whether this facilitates a hybridization of music or an alienation and artistic degradation of the original work for the indigenous artists.
If one were to look back into the world’s history, one would find that an important and consistent element is the world of music. Music has presented itself in various forms throughout its spread and through our identification of its magical realm, people have been fortunate enough to come across a means of relation. Whether it is blues and reggae or rap and pop rock, there is music out there for everyone. Music can serve as a stabilizer for some, a relaxant to others, and to many a form of inspiration.
Music is an art and a wonderful gift to human race. It soothes, stimulates and makes us feel happy. It affects our moods in many different ways from lullaby to war cry for changes in the society. Music is actually distinct to different people. Above all, it has a transformational importance that is captured in its art and nature. Music draws our emotions and it has an impact of bridging different cultures across the continents. Slave songs were very vital channels through which all kind of information was conveyed both positive and negative.
One is bound to influence the other. Take New York’s music scene for example, it is a melting pot for all types of cultures and all thrive off of on another. But for one culture to take something from that culture and put it off as their own that is wrong. This is why cultural appropriation is a different problem all within itself. Cultural appropriation has next to nothing to do with someone’s exposure to different cultures. Cultural appropriation has more to do with the fact that someone from a privilege background or lifestyle exploiting someone’s culture from a less than privileged background hence Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry, Elvis Presley, and Miley Cyrus. This is more than often done through ethnic and racial means all while having little to no understanding of the history, experience, or
Over the past couple of years, you have probably heard this word more than ever. Cultural Appropriation
Have you ever taken offense when you saw someone dressed in traditional garments from your culture? In America, this happens quite often. Some people may not recognize it and some refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Cultural appropriation is a situation in which a dominant culture steals aspects of a minority culture’s, such as hair, clothing styles, and music.
Miller, Terry, and Andrew Shahriari. World Music: A Global Journey. New York, London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2006.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
Throughout the semester, various styles of music and the aspects of culture associated with these styles have been analyzed. Musical elements such as dynamics, texture, form, timbre, melody, instruments, etc., have been used to thoroughly explore each kind of music from different areas of the world, with an emphasis in music from Africa, India and Indonesia. These aspects of music go far beyond just music itself. Culture also plays a huge role in music and the accompanying musical elements. Each country and culture has a different style and distinctiveness that add to what makes the music of that certain culture unique. Music in Africa may differ dramatically from music in Indonesia or India not only due to those certain elements but also due to how it is interpreted by people and what it represents for those people. In addition to this, what one may consider music in one culture may not be music to another. These differences have been made apparent in the several demonstrations that we have been exposed to in class.
Long ago, during the 14th century, instruments were used as a form of entertainment and was the primary source of money for most musicians. Instruments, like ours today, were classified into groups, depending on tone, pitch, and how they were played. There were string instruments, such as lutes, mandolins, and early forms of guitars, woodwinds, an instrument played by blowing across the top, which included flutes, pipes, and recorders. Among these instruments, percussion instruments such as drums and small bells. Although the mediums used to create such wonderful items have varied, the style and basic idea of them has barely changed. Today, different string instruments have been developed such as the violin, cello, and bass. Music: Then Woodwinds have been evolved immensely from wooden and brittle to solid and metal. Reeds, small samples of wood that musicians have to keep moist, were included in some mouthpieces, such as bassoons, oboes, and clarinets, after the medieval era. Percussion instruments have changed size and shape as time has passed. In the middle ages, most drums were made out of hollow tree trunks, and covered with the skins of water animals to create a drum head. Nowadays, shells of drums are created by bent wood and fastened with a polyester shell to form the head. Instead of strings holding the skin in place, like they did long ago, the polyester is secured with a metal ring and knobs used...
The influence that music has throughout the world is immeasurable. Music evokes many feelings, surfaces old memories, and creates new ones all while satisfying a sense of human emotion. With the ability to help identify a culture, as well as educate countries about other cultures, music also provides for a sense of knowledge. Music can be a tool for many things: relaxation, stimulation and communication. But at the same time it can also be a tool for resistance: against parents, against police against power. Within the reign of imported culture, cross cultivation and the creation of the so-called global village lies the need to expand horizons to engulf more than just what you see everyday. It is important to note that the role of music in today’s world is a key tool in the process of globalization. However, this does not necessarily provide us with any reasons that would make us believe that music has a homogenizing affect on the world.
During the time of Greek City states and the Roman Empire, the creation of musical instruments led to the refining of modes and scales (“Music in the Greek...