Music & Us

 It's been fun in this class to learn more about what music in different cultures sound like, and but also to see their similarities and differences. It definitely made me have more of an open mind after taking this class and now every time I listen to music, I pay more attention to it and I am able to enjoy it more. This "playlist" was so exciting to make and I hope you enjoy listening to!

For this first culture that I picked, I am going to talk about Brazil (shocker) for one last time. Brazil is located in South America, but its songs has nothing to do with the other South American countries that we learned about it in class (it's better of course). In the modern world, Brazilians like to take songs and remix them into a Funk beat. This type of songs are played a lot in clubs and in the night out in general, and there's no instruments to it, it's mainly the beats made by the DJs equipment. This kind of song is definitely not what I used to on a daily day to day normal life, but something I will always listen to when I want to get hyped up! "Pump it" by DJ GBR is a little "older" but it's still so good and it's one style of song I love to show it to my friends in the US.

Next up, the country that I pick is Jamaica. This country is located in the Caribbean Sea and West Indies and it's filled with mountains, and beautiful beaches. Jamaica is the birth place of reggae music, so of course I am going to talk about Bob Marley.  Marley started of playing the ska, which is one of the traditional instruments, along with mento. The reggae has a "chill" and I tend to listen to it sometimes when I'm very overwhelmed and need to calm down. Along with reggae, dancehall is another thing important in the Jamaican culture, with energetic performances and a street level voice to the international stage. Hawaiians listen to a lot of reggae songs, and this song by Bob Marley reminds me so much of Hawaii. 

This next country I picked is South Korea. This country is located in Asia, and its know for having heavy military boarders, specially the boarder with North Korea. South Korea however, is know for its k- pop, which is a dynamic industry with pop, hip-hop, R&B and electronic styles. The boy band BTS is very famous and they have been breaking Korean music out for other countries. Traditional South Korea music is known as gugak, a rich expression of the country's history, emotions and natural beauty. It includes Pansori- a dramatic story telling, samulnori- an energetic percussion ensemble featuring four traditional instruments. I attached bellow a video of a woman singing where she includes the Pansori- so her singing is a story telling!

For my last country I chose Greece. TRaditional Greek music is rooted in ancient history, with instruments such as bouzouki, lyra, and santouri, and styles such as ratiko, a soulful urban fold genre. Fold dances like syrtaki and kalamatianos often accompany lively melodies. In modern days, Greek music fuses these traditional sounds with global genres, and have famous artists like Sakis Rouvas, and Helena Paparizou. For this example, I chose a song that also brought a lot of the traditional dance as well as traditional music.

Like I said, it's fun to see how similar and different at the same time the songs from different cultures are. I think the Greek music might be similar to some Italian songs and also mentioned how the Jamaican music are just like the Hawaiian songs. It's fun to see how unique they are at the same time, Koreans traditional songs are filled with emotion and very interesting to see!

Music & Family

Since my dad plays instruments at home and is always playing Samba with his friends, he becomes a big reference for me when it comes to music. However, I decided to interview my mom for this assignment because she listens to more of a diverse music genres, my dad only listen to Samba and the Beatles, so it would be no fun to interview him. My mom was born in 1965 in the south of Brazil, and the moved to the Southeast, which is where I was born. 

Interview

Me: What did you listen to when you were my age?

Mom: A lot of Nacional rock like Titans, Barao Vermelho, Cazuza, Legiao Urbana, and international would be Queen. Also, a lot of the songs that played at nightclubs from the 70/80s like Tina Turner, and I loved to dance to these songs.

 

Me: Do you still listen to those kinds of songs?

Mom: I rarely listen to music now but when I do is normally Christian music, I really like the ones from Padre Marcelo.

 

Me: How would you describe your relationship with music?

Mom: In my adolescence music was never really that big of a deal for me, but I’ve always liked to dance. Dance was the most fun part for me. I now listen to Christian music because I am on the choir in my church. I only started listening to samba after a met your father.

 

Me: If you could listen to only one artist who would you listen to?

Mom: If could only pick ONE artist? Oh that’s a hard one. I think I would pick Tim Maia. This is a hard question, I’m saying Tim Maia but I like a lot of different artists too.

 

Me: What about songs in movies

Mom: Whichever song from Saturday Night fever, I LOVE IT!! I still want to go out dancing to these songs to this day.

 

Me: I thought you were going to say Mamma Mia.

Mom: Oh I also love Mamma Mia, see it’s so hard to only say just one there are so many options.

 

Me: What do you think of the songs I listen to now?

Mom: I think you can listen to a lot of nice songs, that Samba playlist that you have is so good and I love it, but the American rap songs that you listen are so boring and I hate it. I also hate the Brazilian Funk songs that you listen to; they are so dirty. But besides that, you listen to some good songs.

Me: How does music in general makes you feel?

Mom: Happy. Every time there’s music I dance, and I love to dance so that makes me happy.

 

Me: Is there any particular music genre that you like to dance?

Mom: Umm I don’t really have a favorite one but I like to dance music from the 80s. I also love to dance Samba, not by myself though because I can’t “sambar” by myself, but I like to dance it with your father.

 

Me: How do you think music connects you to your community?

Mom: Recently is more of the choir song, because everyone that is in there has the same purpose, it’s similar connections with God, everyone gets emotional sometimes and it really is just amazing to me.

 

Me: What’s your memory of music when you were a kid?

Mom: My parents weren’t really music people, so I would just listen to kids songs whenever we were playing with friends.

 

Me: How did you connect me with music when I was a kid?

Mom: I used to sing you the same songs that my mom used to sing it for me. “Alecrim Dourado,” you used to love that song, so it was Brazilian kids’ song of the time that I would sing for you. Your dad is more of a “music person” so the music in you life comes more from your father, when we would take you to his Batucadas.

 

Me: Is there any song in your wedding day that was special to you?

Mom: To be honest I don’t really remember the songs that played in my wedding, but one song that will always stay with me is “Jesus Alegria dos Homens”, because it is the song your sister walked in at her wedding, and it also played at my wedding when we were signing the papers.

Me: Did you every wish you played any instrument?

Mom: Today no, but when I was younger I really wanted to play the flute but I stopped taking classes because of money. I was really young; I was like 15 years old.