Emorie's Trip Around the World of Music and Culture

Good evening,  I wanted to start my blog off with saying congrats to everyone, we are almost done with the first semester of freshman year. SO much stress, time, and effort put into this school year while a pandemic is going on. Keep y’alls head’s up and remember that we are almost halfway through.  On to my blog, and some background on what I will be discussing… In class when we went over all the basics of Arabic and Islamic music and its culture, I started thinking about what I wanted to talk about. Normally I start with where the culture originated, where it came from, and how it formed, but I wanted to dig deeper in other parts of the Arabic/ Islamic culture. I searched for a little bit and came across an article about “Culture, Traditions, and Art” within Saudi Arabia, and was very interested in finding out about their folk music, dance and poetry. Saudi Arabia’s cultural inheritage is celebrated at the Jenadriyah National Culture and Heritage Festival. The Jenadriyah Nat...

Before I get into my blog, I want to say that I did not post the video because my Grandmother and my Aunt were in the line to Starbucks, getting a coffee and having little conversations off to the side. The video was originally 10 minutes long and had so much information on it, but I narrowed it down a good bit so that y’all could understand what she was saying. My Grandmother is my rock, and has always been there to support me, and I really wanted to get her perspective on how she feels about music, and the ways that music pertains to her life. Below is the transcript of our conversation. (Oh we also call my grandmother “Memommy”) Transcript of our conversation:  Me: What kind of music did you listen to growing up? It could be from when you were super young or even to your teenage years .  Memommy: When I was very young, my mother sang me silly songs and my father sang anything he could think of. My sister sang on the radio and I listened to her sing songs like, “Somewhere O...

  Hello everyone!      I hope things are going well, and you are able to relax this weekend. The past week we have learned about The Blues, and Jazz music. What really attracted me to The Blues was the sound of the music, the sliding between pitches, and the 12 Bar Blues. I have never really been a fan of Jazz music, but learning about how it started, and the instruments used within it, made me realize how beautiful it was. What really surprised me is that other genres of music were formed from the blues, and that the blues was an experimental stage of music. It absolutely amazes me that so many different types of music were formed from the start of Jazz. Below, in my blog, I talk about Funk music, and how it started as well as the different types of artists and instruments that initially form Funk. Before I dive deep into it, I want to say that I had no educational background about funk music, and that this is why I decided to talk about this genre. I wanted to lear...

Good evening everyone,  Welcome back to my blog, where today’s topic we will be focusing on South Africa, and its culture. Before I get started I wanted to touch base with y’all, and see how everyone is doing? We have made it halfway through the semester!! Keep up the good work everyone.  My blog today, will mainly focus on the music of South Africa within the early 20th century and the different types of traditional foods. I feel like my last few blogs have been focused on traditional and more modern music, and I wanted to introduce another time period within my blog. However, before we get started on specific decades of music, we need a little background information.  Within the 1600’s, the Dutch colonized South Africa and forcibly brought slaves from other parts of Africa over. The Dutch brought over music, where they formed bands using brass and wind instruments. Later on, European missionaries soon followed over, and brought with them Western Christian music like cho...

  Hello everyone!  I hope all is going well. I am beyond excited for the weekend, but before the weekend begins I wanted to discuss music and gender.  I wanted to start off with my thoughts on the societal images and preferences within music and gender. I, for one, do not believe in separating gender based off of music genres or types. I believe that anyone can listen to ANYTHING and enjoy it because their soul and ears enjoy it, not because they are expected to listen to a certain type of music based on their gender identity. The sound of an instrument, voices, and dances are all ways that express emotions. Music is what sets the mood, what makes people able to connect emotionally when they cannot verbally or physically do so in person. SO with that in mind, let's read on to the main part of my blog.  As a young girl, I was always interested in what the boys were doing, I wanted to be a part of their group and to connect with them. One way that I could connect with ...