Music and the Transfer of Culture

              Music is an ancient and beautiful concept that has been around as long as humans have been able to communicate with each other. I feel that music is an odd and interesting art form with a very strong power to capture the attention and imagination of a listener when done correctly.  Therefore, it is no surprise that it is also something that can deeply imprint emotions, stories, and ideas in the listener. This is the true power that music holds, by simply listening to a song you are being shaped by the rhythm and lyrics that the artist creates. You might love the song and take its message to heart, in which case you have now absorbed a bit of the morals and ideals of that songs creator. On the other hand you might hate the song and reject everything it says, even then it transfers to you a stance on the issue that will shape your future perceptions, even if only a little. This has become increasingly true ever since radios first ancestor, the phonograph, was created by Thomas Edison in 1877. With each new evolution of sound transfer technology, music has become more mainstream and common in our lives and now a radio in the house or car is something almost anyone around the world has access to. Understanding this, how is it exactly that music transfers not only emotions and single ideals, but tastes of entire cultures to a new audience?

                There are two ways that I can see this happening, or two examples at least. The first is when “culture” is considered as something varying between people of different nationalities. In this case having a population that is becoming increasingly more diverse causes a melding of cultures. For example, in the past few years the Hispanic population has grown in the United States through immigration into the country. As that population grew, they brought with them music from their own respective countries. It’s true for a long time their music stayed isolated on the Spanish only radio stations but already now we see this cultures music permeating into American culture through music on hit music stations. Artists like Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, and Pit-bull have in recent years had their music blow up on American charts. Songs like “hips don’t lie” by Shakira, the many songs Pit-bull has been featured in with American artists like “Mmm Yeah” by Austin Mahone or Enrique’s current english radio hit “Bailando” have opened a window into Latin culture in this foreign land, and it has caused Americans to try a music type that was completely unknown to them 20 to 30 years ago. I believe as time goes on this music will slowly become more popular and will be seen as often on hit music stations as other genres like pop and rap, and with that we will see a successful cultural transmission and fusion.

                           Shakira- Hips Dont Lie

                           Enrique Iglesias - Bailando
 

Austin Mahone ft. Pit-Bull - Mmm Yeah

 

                The other example I can think of is within a group of people of the same nationality. Even in a group of same origin there will always be separate views and sub cultures brought on by the difference of opinions and experiences every person faces in their lives. With each sub culture I feel there is a type of music that they create that will for the most part represent that groups ideals. These ideals will vary as the population ages and soon a new generation will come of age and begin to form their own ideals. This is where music comes in, as even though the new generation will have their own thoughts and experiences, all of that will be shaped by the experiences of the prior generation, music being the main instrument for this. For example today in the US the current generation in the ages from 15-22 have their own music coming out that represents them and their generation’s thoughts and perceptions, but most of them know and have grown up listening to the music their parents enjoyed. We all know old artists like Elvis, the Beatles, or Tupac. We may not play them as often as the older generation did but we have heard them played by that generation and that music was the stepping stone our music came from. Their ideals, morals and stories are the beginnings of ours, therefore we see not only a transmission, but an evolution of culture as time goes on.

 

 

Print Media to the Future!

Print media has had an enormous impact on our intellectual culture ever since Johannes Gutenberg created the first mechanical printing press and published the first copy of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Ever since then print media has become an essential cultural tool that has allowed information to cleanly travel through the ages without having to rely on hazy and forgetful word of mouth. That being said, today even as digital formats become all the more common around the world, print media is still essential and very popular as each year more print media is released and helps shape people’s perceptions and experiences of the world around them. In this sense print media can define key aspects of the generation they appear in. If by some chance we were able to travel forward in time, say 150 years or so, and wanted to take a bit of the past with us to share with the future about our time, some printed media would be an excellent choice to do so. And that brings me to today’s topic, if I could go into the future like I have just said, and take only 3 objects of print media, what would they be and why?

                First object I would take is one well known in the first decade of the 2000’s, a copy of the Deathly Hollows, book 6 of the Harry Potter series. Now why would I take this book you might ask? It’s not because it was my favorite series or even my favorite book in the series. Harry Potter is a character everyone in my generation knows. Whether the read the books or not, you have heard about him and maybe even seen the movies. Anybody you ask will be able to give you even just the slightest bit of knowledge on who Harry Potter is and whether the series was good or not. The series may never become classic literature, or it might, either way no one can deny that it was a very big phenomenon of our generation and has shaped many people’s perceptions of good literature in our time.

                The next object of print media I’d take is book 1 of Naruto. I’m not a huge fan of Naruto, I prefer One Piece or FairyTail honestly, but I have kept up with the story over the years. The way I see it a lot of people in our generation have begun to enjoy many creations from outside countries as media becomes more easily accessible. The fact that Japanese Manga’s and Animes have done so well in the American market and are growing still is proof that we are becoming worldlier and that we are being affected and shaped by media from even outside our culture. Naruto is another character that not everyone may follow in his story but has become well known enough for most Americans below 30 or 40 to at least recognize his name. This alone I think makes it relevant enough to take and share with the future, and compare it to see how much outside media is enjoyed then compared to now.

                For my last piece of print media I’d Take the latest edition of the New York Times. Newspapers are print media too and are very important sources of worldly information as long as you don’t take everything at face value. They are good for at least realizing what is happening throughout our world recently and because of that, would be a treasure to take to the future. It would be like getting an almost firsthand view to the events of the past without the usual distortions information might receive over 150 years. I’m sure someone in the future would find what’s going on here today interesting as it would be a firsthand account, something they would never see in their accounts of the past. Unless they already had a copy of course.

Introduction

 My name is Arnulfo Casco, I am a first generation Honduran-American from Atlanta, Georgia. My hobbies include playing video games, watching Animes, biking, fishing, watching TV shows and generally anything fun. Because of these hobbies my media consumption often involves a lot of gaming information updates and event updates, some Anime episode updates, and fan generated content of both. I do also enjoy trending media, TV and show discussions and also think it important to devote part of my time with keeping myself connected with up to date world events information. A big part of it is also updates on what my friends are doing and thinking. Id like to think my media consumption is pretty well balanced looking at it now though this is my first time thinking about it. Having listed all that out I can very easily see the aspect of cultural convergence that have taken place in my media consumption ever since I started having an online presence. Cultural convergence, as I have come to understand it, is the coming together of the different types of media that shape the beliefs, trends, practices and media of a country or culture into one or few easy sources that are globally accessible. This I now know leads into another topic called Cultural transmission which I can very easily tell already affects me. Being a First generation Honduran-American, American media was a big help in learning not only the English language, which was never spoken in my house hold, but also normal American mannerisms which somewhat differ from Honduran ones. Even right now I have noticed myself becoming more knowledgeable of mannerisms, popular phrases and other cultural objects from the new types of media I've come in contact with in the past few years from around the world. These mostly include TV shows from Great Britain like Doctor Who and Sherlock that I have begun watching. Others include Animes I have recently begun watching from Japan. The fact I watch these shows how far Cultural convergence has gone in making our world smaller and making media more readily available for more people and I think prove cultural transmission is very real. I hope this class I'm taking in media studies will help me better understand how the media i watch effects me and if their are negative effects to it i must watch out for.