Last Day

Question #1
Probably one of the most surprising things I learned about another culture was during the time my group was researching Australia. I had never thought about the music landscape of the world’s largest island, but I had always assumed that it was a place similar to that of the quiet rural towns of old stories, not too risqué or anything of that sort. And, I’m pretty sure all in my group were of the same opinion.
BOY, WERE WE WRONG!!!!
I’m not going to go into the gory details, but let me tell you Australia is not what we imagined it to be! The traditional music of the Aborigines was pretty much what we expected, maybe a bit more soothing and remarkably similar to the music of the Native Americans. But the modern musical landscape is much more scandalous than we ever would have thought. I suppose that goes to show you that cultures will take many different perspectives to the influences regarding their music. Plus, it shows us to never make an assumption about a culture based on what we’ve seen in the modern media. You can’t always believe what you see or hear, and we learned that lesson in a very clear fashion.

Question #2
The thing that struck the closest to home with me about our own music culture is the absolute need for perfection within the music. Most musicians in our society today strive to be in tune and in rhythm all the time, never making a mistake and never missing a beat. They never want to appear human, and while it is true that in order to truly be good at something you have to make it look effortless, not enough of our own humanity is fused with the music. Listening to the other cultures’ music and watching their particular rituals made me realize that they weren’t trying to be perfect: they were trying to convey a message, an idea to their audience to help them feel the powerful message of the music as they felt it. In typical American society today, we don’t focus so much on the beauty of the music’s performance, but rather the theory and structure behind the music. We don’t perform the music according to our own thoughts and feelings, we perform it according to the ideas and opinions of others.

Question #3
One thing I would really like to learn more about is the music of Indonesia. That was the one culture in class that I had the most trouble listening to and yet it was the one culture in class that our teacher truly expressed a keen interest in. I want to know what I am missing, and I want to know what makes it so special. Are my ears just not ready for that kind of music, or was it just too early in the morning? I would love to hear some more of the music, especially the lullabies, and see if maybe I can’t form an opinion about this music as well.