MUSIC X CULTURE

“Music is not just an expression of identity; rather it helps to form and constitute that identity. Instead of a group of people having a ready-formed identity which they then signify, to themselves and others, with a given form of music, identities are in a constant process of formation and change and generally do not easily correspond to clearly defined categories or groups of people. Music – listened to, danced to, performed, talked and written about – is part of the process of formation and change. As such, particular styles are not tied in a simple fashion to specific groups: Instead, music is integral to the complex relationships between changing and overlapping sets of people” —Peter Wade

All objects are draggable on screen

Nenets Child Photo by Øyvind Ravna

Stella Chiweshe, Shona from Zimbabwe, a great Mbira player and singer.

MUSIC X CULTURE is a platform aiming to :

Educate

people about cultural music traditions, its histories, how they have been used as emblems for social marginalization and even repression.

Empower

ethnic minorities to embrace their heritages. By re-spark connection with their proud past, they can use music as symbols to push for more visibility, recognition, and ultimately more rights.

Engineer

new music. By utilizing past traditions, musicians can push the boundaries of contemporary music synthesizing past sounds and re-imaging them for the present.

FOREWORD

With our hyperconnected mass media, we are moving towards a global pop culturization. The immense presence of American music norms has homogenized global music traditions, where popular music in different countries are different variations of Americanized pop, hip hop, and R&B. Because of these increasingly shared musical forms, traditional musical traditions are losing popularity, sometimes forcibly, and are under threat of completely dying out.

However, Keith Howard asserts that “while music will change over time . . . , it’s important to find strategies to . . . give [communities] the power to promote, preserve, and maintain their musical heritage, allowing that heritage to develop but to maintain their sense of identity and belonging.” Music plays a particularly important role for the development of identity among adolescents. Larson (1995) has found that adolescents ponder the themes of the songs in relation to their own lives while listening to music. Popular music, throughout history, has created topics for conversation, set new values, developed new vocabularies, identities and symbols. Lull (1985) argued that “music helps create a culturally binding consciousness among young people who in the process develop an awareness of things they are motivated to learn about.”

Therefore, by archiving music traditions, Music x Culture seeks to preserve identity, heritage, and cultural traditions of sub-ethnicities within larger nations, and add to the rich music heritage of today.

A Note from the Creator

Hello fellow music enthusiasts!

My name is Marika Saito, a Senior at Phillips Andover Academy who has an interest in cultural anthropology, with a specific interest in ethnomusicology. As a mixed ethnic Japanese-Korean, two countries that have had hostile relations, I have grown up grappling with my two identities. However, these two musical cultures also gifted me an interest in music. Growing up with K- and J-pop, I notice how K-pop’s Brazilian phonk and J-Pop’s jazz beats capture the essence of each culture.

Because of my experiences, I empathized with Latin youth, who I learned through my Spanish classes grow in an environment that could marginalize and hem them into negative stereotypes. I confirmed these notions when I read “Young Latinos: Born in the U.S.A., Carving Their Own Identity,” where Jason Mero, Berenize García, and Alma Flores-Perez talk about their experiences growing up being “told it’s really important that you only speak English and you know how to speak English well because… you’re going to face hardship” and to not “show these roots to the world outside.” Just like me in the past, these youth were forced to erase or minimize their Latin identity to be accepted by their school and social communities.

To see whether music can be a positive force to empower these youth, I spent this summer in Guatemala, a dynamic culture that remains in Mexico’s shadow. There, I learned how subtle differences in cultural norms and political histories are reflected in Latin America’s musical diversity. I also solidified my belief in the power of music. While fighting against opposed expectations set on them by past generations, their communities, and mainstream society, I saw how young musicians are navigating their conflict between identity and social norms by drawing from their indigenous music traditions. In taking pride in their heritage which is being brutally stamped out, they use their platforms to reach and urge other Latin youths of different nationalities, ethnicities, and genders to do the same.

I began this project as a natural progression of these combined experiences. These Latin musicians resonate with other indigenous youth whose cultures are being lost, both forcibly or through changing conditions. However, like the musicians I met, other peoples can be empowered to embrace their unique identities through music.

Therefore, with you, my fellow readers, musicians, and historians, I’m excited to document, archive, and further explore how music is both shaped by the past and can shape the future!

BECOME A COLLABORATOR

Contact Us to become a contributor to this project below:
marika.saito.2007@gmail.com