World Music: A Collection of Thoughts on Sound

Harnish, David. “Teletubbies in Paradise: Tourism, Indonesianisation and Modernisation in Balinese Music.”  Yearbook of Traditional Music  vol. 37(2005) 103-123. Summary: The advertised version of Bali as an island paradise untouched by other cultures fails to take into account the violence, modernisation, and other elements Bali has been affected by and adapted to over the last century (the author uses the ubiquity of Teletubbies in 2005 on Bali as an example). This idealized version of the island wasn't even presented until after Dutch colonization when Bali's original culture had already been significantly changed. For example, the Dutch removed the courts, who had power over the island before they came along. The removal of the courts initiated a new type of gamelan music called gong kebyar, because the court gamelans disbanded and sold their instruments to villages, who formed their own gamelans and innovated in their separate environments. In 1959, the first gamelan co

Murphy, John P. “Chapter 3: Expressing Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Identity.” In  Music in Brazil: Experience Music, Expressing Culture . Pp. 55-70. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Summary: The first half of the chapter is dedicated to describing capoeira, a mixture of "dance, music, and sport." There are always two dancing participants, and typically only the head, feet, and hands can touch the ground. The pair direct kicks at each other, and they dodge these attacks through movements like cartwheels (one variant of capoeira is mainly a martial arts form). The most prominent instrument in these displays is the berimbau, a bowed instrument whose tone is controlled by the musician pressing a coin into the string. The latter part of the chapter talked about the Kayapó, an indigenous group of people in Brazil, and some descriptions of their rituals, like the nhiok, a rite where girls are given their names. The Kayapó are now adapting to the changing environment and a

Marshal, Wayne. "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About 'Despacito,'" Vulture, August 22, 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-despacito.html. Summary: This article talks about the various elements that made Despacito the most popular Spanish language song in the United States for years. First off, Marshal describes the ways in which Despacito is a legitimately well written song. Luis Fonsi, Erika Ender (the co-writer), and Daddy Yankee all had years of experience working with music going into the song and their choice of chord progression (vi-IV-I-V) was one of its major "hooks." Next he explains how "tropical music" has grown popular in the US and UK pop scenes, which set up Despacito for major success. He finally talks about how new methods of measuring music popularity in the US incorporates global views on YouTube videos, giving people from other cultures a say in the music scene. Discussion Ques

Seeing as this is my first formal post outside of reading responses, I figured I should give a quick rundown of what’s going on for anyone who might have stumbled upon this site. This blog is a graded part of a World Music course that I’m taking at Wesleyan University, but anyone is free to check it out. For this assignment I went to two separate locations on the Wesleyan campus for 20-30 minutes and listened intently to their “soundscapes." R. Murray Schafer, a prominent voice on the subject of sound, describes a soundscape as "consist[ing] of events heard not objects seen ” (Schafer 8). Essentially, a soundscape is a landscape for the ears. Schafer also notes that it’s nearly impossible to accurately record a soundscape, but I wrote down what I heard as best as I could and this blog post will be dedicated to describing my sonic experiences in these two areas. For my first soundscape, I sat on a bench on the lawn in front of Olin Library. The following description shou