Music Diversity and Acculturation - Essay Example

Music Diversity and Acculturation Music Diversity and Acculturation Traditional music survives difficult times. Voice recording was invented around 100 years ago and it changed the way people perceived music (Feld, 2000). Anthropologists get great opportunity to use recording devices instead of writing down specific music by ear. Music has become more accessible, easier to reproduce and save. Obviously, those changes have great influence on music as cultural contact became more intense. Some scholars state that globalization and technological development only lead to bad consequences for folk music because it merges with popular genres and disappears. This essay will prove that there is another side of the coin in this case; even though intensive cultural contact, technological development and globalization threaten diversity, they make its signs more prominent in world culture. According to Feld (2000), in the end of 20th century, music was in the state of “constant fission and fusion”. 100 years of recording was enough to alter the world which kept different styles and genres separate from one another. Folk music became more culture-specific and more general due to the fact that it became more accessible for different people. According to Lomax (1977), intensive cultural contact stimulates the situation where less developed cultures have to adapt to more developed ones. Many oral cultures lose their uniqueness when civilization reaches them. They learn to read and write; they abandon their natural habitats and move to city blocks searching a way to cope with poverty. The number of people who represent oral cultures decreases every year as their way of life is less convenient than the civilized one. Even totally isolated tribes experience constant visits of researchers who desire to study primitive cultures in their natural conditions of existence. Inferiority of minority cultures under the insistent influence of popular ones forces people to forget their traditions and accept new ways of behaviour in order to be included in world community. Generally, this is a simple explanation of the process of acculturation which is defined by Herskovits as "those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups” (Wickwire, 1985). At the same time, globalization always includes two processes of “separation and mixing” (Feld, 2000). Lomax (1977) focuses on ‘mixing’ and forgets about separation in his works. Under the pressure of stronger cultural contact, musical genres dwell on their differences in order to stay unique. At the same time, music loses its dependence of territory or certain people and the signs of musical diversity are visible everywhere. The term world music used to denote music of other cultures and ethnic minorities is often applied to name music mix of different people (Feld, 2000). Currently, diversity in any sphere of human life is treated as a value. Musical diversity attracts attention of many institutions which spend all possible resources to preserve it (Steingress, 2002). For instance, folk expeditions often record and transcribe music of oral cultures in order to preserve and archive it. When ethnomusicologists record music, they get more chances to rebuild cultures that produce this music and reconstruct traditions of people who use it. Cultural separation is activated under the pressure of pop culture. Their preservation becomes the primary aim of scientists who use technological progress to archive its necessary components. In this way, new technologies make the process of preservation easier and faster (Steingress, 2002). Affordability of recording devices, increasing internet coverage and the speed with which information travels around the world makes people aware about the necessity of cultural preservation and their personal contribution to this process. Popularity of folk art and music in particular commercializes culture of minorities making them profitable for their representatives. Development of exotic tourism stimulates people to stick to their old traditions in order to attract visitors by their uniqueness and specific cultural attributes. Evident benefits of technologies for preservation of different world cultures object the statement that technological progress and globalization lead to destruction of diversity. Today it is popular to be unique; it is the reason why people are interested in diverse world cultures. This interest motivates commercial success of traditional music and travelling to destinations where this music exists in its cultural context According to Wickwire (1985), in the end of 19th century people treated oral cultures as primitive, not civilized and inferior to cultures where writing and rationality were governing. The situation is totally different now when oral cultures become rare. Their art syncretism is treated as a high value as it allows reconstructing the world in its primary state. New approach to ethnomusicology which utilizes new technologies for recording and archiving music studies it in its context and history. For instance, 100 years ago anthropologists provided only verbal descriptions and photos to integrate music in its context. Feld (2000) states that positive and negative outcomes of globalization for world music come hand in hand. Often music is taken away from its context; its meaning is simplifies and generalized in order to be understood by people from different cultures. At the same time, music is valued for its uniqueness. People tend to pay more attention to some features which make music authentic and original. Technologies greatly contribute to people’s opportunity to save music from extinction. At the same time, they bring popular culture to the places which can be easily destroyed by its pressure and influence. New fusion genres of world music become more popular than their sources. As a result, traditional music disappears because it is less demanded than new genres. Ethnomusicologists should find a way to protect music from global entertainment industry which exploits local oral traditions as a raw material for next popular tunes (Feld, 2000). Brunetti & Belardinelli (2003) point out another challenge caused by acculturation. Standardized knowledge of ethnomusicologists can be inappropriate for other music systems. As a result, their works are not fully relevant because they contain great difference with the original performance. Music played by a well-trained expert or musician will have evident differences with its performance by native. Summing up, globalization and technological progress do not lead music to acculturation only. They spread diversity and make it present everywhere. It becomes easier to access and save information relevant for culture preservation. It can be retrieved everywhere at any time. Research in ethnomusicology gets more resources and opportunities for advancements in music procession. At the same time, popular culture is known for its destructive influence on minority cultures. People have to adapt to it in order to be in the movement in highly globalized modern world. Fusion of popular culture and local traditions often substitute its sources in particular location. Two processes of mixing and differentiation exist together; they only become more intense with time. However, there is a positive trend which treats diversity as a value and aims at appreciation of any culture in its uniqueness. Sometime, interest to particular cultures stimulates their restoration supported by different institutions. Overall, more and more people come to the conclusion that diversity is beautiful; guided by this simple statement, they make everything possible to protect and save cultures and their music as they are. References Brunetti, R., & Belardinelli, M. A. (2003). Effects of musical acculturation: Learning, reproducing, and recalling music from different cultural traditions.Journal International ECONA–Inter University Centre for Research on Cognitive Process in Natural and Artificial Systems. Feld, S. (2000). A sweet lullaby for world music. Public culture, 12(1), 145-171. Lomax, A. (1977). Appeal for cultural equity. Journal of Communication, 27(2), 125-138. Steingress, G. (Ed.). (2002). Songs of the minotaur: Hybridity and popular music in the era of globalization: A comparative analysis of rebetika, tango, rai, flamenco, sardana, and English urban folk (Vol. 9). LIT Verlag Münster. Wickwire, W. (1985). Theories of ethnomusicology and the North American Indian: Retrospective and critique. Canadian University Music Review, 6, 186-221. Read More