Friday, May 16, 2008

Music History

I've been thinking lately about the history of music and how history in general is reflected in our music. According to Wikipedia"

"A culture's music is influenced by all other aspects of that culture, including social and economic organization and experience, climate, and access to technology. The emotions and ideas that music expresses, the situations in which music is played and listened to, and the attitudes toward music players and composers all vary between regions and periods. "Music history" is the distinct subfield of musicology and history which studies music (particularly western art music) from a chronological perspective."

I was thinking of my visit a few years ago to The Experience Music Project in Seattle. So much of our culture and history has been shared in music: Jazz and the blues, war time patriotic songs (or war-time protest songs), etc. "Where have all the flowers gone?" or "Born in the USA." When we look back at popular songs, what does that tell us about history?

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