Diverse Cultures and their Musics Fall 2021

Our last Exploratory Blog of the semester! Same ground rules apply here as in all of the other similar  blogs (Music of Indigenous Americans, Music of Africa, etc...), but it's been awhile (we've been off doing Music and Family and our first Big Blog), so let's reiterate the rules here: All the rules from the  Music of Indigenous Americans/Africa  blogs are still in play--three separate lines of inquiry, two of which must be explicitly about a musical topic; each item needs to include a  hefty  paragraph (at the very least) of description/explanation; you need to let me know where you got your information from Please remember that your entire blog needs to be in your own words (unless you have a really specific quote that you just have to share). Paraphrase your sources, and then be sure to cite them. Scope: You may go anywhere in Asia for your topics, and you may also go into the Northern, Arabic bit of Africa (but make sure to stay with Arabic music if you hea...

    Time for some  serious  bloggin'.  For this blog, rather than exploring one of our class cultures further or turning the ethnomusicological spotlight back on your own experiences, you're going to select a unique topic, do some research on it, and create a blog post to teach your classmates about it. Here's the catch: your Big Blog no. 1 needs to be on a genre (or sub-genre) of American Roots Music. One of the unique aspects of American-born musics is that they inevitably well up from the bottom rungs of society before spreading across the globe. As we'll discuss, the Blues were born from the very poorest of Southern American society and, by birthing such genres as Rock, Country, and R&B, have basically conquered the world. This, in essence, is what American Roots music is--kinds of music that were born on American soil, musics that are almost always syncretic nature and initially connected to underprivileged communities.  So, first, select your...

This will be another blog where your turn the gaze of ethnomusicology back around your direction.  Most of us have our first musical experiences with our families, and you can often give credit for some of your personal musical taste to those experiences--whether you share those opinions or rebel against them. Too, one of the Big Points of this class is to explore how music and culture are interrelated, and cultures are built out of families. So for this blog, you're going to find out more about how someone in your family relates to music. Specifically, I want you to pick someone that's at least one generation older than you and interview them about their relationship with music. You might talk with them about the music of their childhood, or as teenagers, or what they listen to today, or all three. There are a couple of lists of potential questions on Canvas--read through them and select ones you like. You're also perfectly welcome to add your own questions that seem appro...

 Time for another Exploratory Blog! This time, we're going to Africa. A few quick parameters for  this week's blog topics: All the rules from the Music of Indigenous Americans blog are still in play--three separate lines of inquiry, two of which must be explicitly about a musical topic; each item needs to include a  hefty  paragraph (at the very least) of description/explanation; you need to let me know where you got your information from Please remember that your entire blog needs to be in your own words (unless you have a really specific quote that you just have to share). Paraphrase your sources, and then be sure to cite them. Scope: You may go anywhere in Africa for your topics as long as you are  South of the Sahara Desert.  If you're just dying to dive into, say, Morocco or Egypt, don't worry--we'll consider those places when we get to Arabic music in a few weeks. More Scope: Try to go beyond what we talk about in class. If you're just dying to explo...

Unlike the first blog you wrote, most of our blog posts this semester are going to involve you digging further into the music-cultures that we study. Here's how these blogs are going to work: Your job is to think of three things that you'd like to know more about concerning that music-culture---perhaps you want to know more about one of the instruments, or a different instrument, or you'd like to delve further into some of the dances, or into a particular musical genre, or there's a certain performer that you've liked and you'd like to know more about that performer, or find another performer in that same vein. Perhaps you just have a question that you'd like to explore. Or perhaps you have prior knowledge of the music-culture, and you'd like to share it with the class. Roam the web and find out more about those three things, and then post what you find on your blog. As with all of your blogs, you'll want to post your findings in such a way that we ...

 Our first blog posts are going to have several purposes: 1. To get you into the habit of writing about music, 2. To prompt you to figure out how to use certain tech aspects of Blogger, and 3. To let us get to know something  about each other's musical experiences and preferences. And, if we're lucky, you'll all get to learn about a music that you didn't already know about but find yourself enjoying! Here's your blog topic. I want you to write about the types of music in your personal world and specific pieces or artists that you find especially important. Specifically, I want you to tell us three things: Share with us an example of music that is your current go-to. Something that you might throw onto Spotify (or equivalent) for any reason that you care to share. Basically, something that you like right now, for no other reason than you just like it. Share with us an example of music that is personally meaningful, and has been for awhile. It can be attached to a spe...