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Author: Subject: POST COLONIAL "arabic" music & culture
charlie oud
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[*] posted on 4-11-2009 at 08:36 PM


I like what eastmountain is explaining, seeing things as they are, fluid, at the mercy of creative tension. Forming, fragmenting then re-forming, each new generation energizing. The there is a tendancy amongst many musicians to mourn over some past practice or tradition. No one is stopping them playing and their grievance starts to sound a little hollow. To those of us who do not see the present state of music as being unhealthy this can sometimes sound like they are almost playing the victim. There is nothing "wrong" with music., this is not possible.



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[*] posted on 4-12-2009 at 04:45 AM


If the situation were just the result of natural selection or the survival of the fittest, it would be alright.
But the reality is not so simple. As the Modern Western colonialism spread the rest of the world, it meant that the art forms including music were affected - either the art was destroyed, stolen or saturated by western influence - which meant that it DIDN'T naturally evolve, or just naturally vanish (if that were the case, then it would be ok as long as it is natural although it is regrettable ).

Giving a rather more graphic example, we cannot say it is OK or healthy that ALL Tasmanian indigenous people were killed. It is historical fact that literally all the people on the island of Tasmania were killed - not one remained, meaning that their unique culture was unnaturally wiped out. It wasn't just natural evolution. Of course there are so many races who suffered genocide and hard times all over the world. It goes without saying that indigenous people on the American continent and Africa, West Indies, India, etc.etc. met such appalling disaster. The population of victims runs into astronomical numbers. That was a unprecedented incident in the history of our species.

If this sounds too political for this thread, I can focus on just the music issue. I just want to emphasize that it is not so simple as music evolving - of course I agree that no music is "wrong". But If music culture of a certain ethnic group is wiped out, can you say optimistically "It is the result of the survival of the fittest"? And this is not "if", there have been so many cases of it historically all over the world. Not only genocide but also colonization by Modern Western European countries unnaturally actually killed either intentionally or unintentionally so many unique art forms of many areas of the globe. The situation is similar to languages as we know.
"No one is stopping them playing", that is right , but it only means on a superficial level . What if we are deprived of chances of knowing unknown music? It is like we are stopped playing some kind of music, I think.
Colonization had a powerful tool as well---brainwashing---and in the present days there is "softer colonization" born. And more and more commercial music is being pushed on us by a mass media with so much money. Is this a kind of "fittest surviving" as well?

If we try to get to know some forgotten and unpopular music forms that were the victims of the present music as it became the "fittest" and if we think about why such music was "thrown away", it would be meaningful to our views on music.
Suppose you believe you only like a certain type of music now, and then you discover some other music buried in a "grave", you might be able to realise what you really like.
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