world music #6

Person I interviewed: Patrick Burke of Washington University in St. Louis. He studies musicology and he is professor at the university.

He is a reliable source because he is a professor

I emailed him

3-5 questions:

 1. How are different kinds of world music, like American, Asian, and
> African music alike?

Not very.  Music all over the world is incredibly diverse.  While all
kinds of music involve pitch and rhythm, there are many different
approaches to these parameters.

2. Are the different kinds of music's backgrounds similar?

Not really.  Music is often very specific to a given culture, and we don't
have enough evidence to uncover the origins of music itself.

3. What are Asian instruments?

There are thousands.  Some that you might research are the koto (a
Japanese zither), the gamelan (an ensemble of percussion instruments in
Indonesia), and the ney (a Turkish flute.)

> 4. How does culture in world music affect how it sounds?

Culture has a major impact on how music sounds.  For example, large,
complex societies often produce large, complex musical ensembles (think of
the symphony orchestra, for example.)  Cultures that prize self-expression
often produce music that involves a lot of improvisation (jazz in the US,
for example.)

> 5. When did world music start to come together?

"World music" as a named concept dates to the 1980s, when record companies
began marketing music from outside the US and Europe under this label. 
But musical influences have been spanning geographic and national
boundaries for thousands of years.