To continue educating myself about my unit project topic in the process of posting here weekly, I found another pop tune from Turkey. In something of a contrast to my last post, this one does not so obviously showcase Turkish folk influences. If I was asking students to identify a country of origin, it would not be easy since this seems to fit into a more unified international taste in pop music. And, by the way, I think it is pretty interesting that no matter what country you select on National Geographic to sample pop music videos, you almost as easily see the song coming from the US as from the actual country of origin.Anyway, in the song that I chose, the rhythms and string parts hint at a Middle-Eastern origin, but much more subtly than my song from last week. The big tip-off, I think, is the vocal style at the pre-chorus.
I completely agree with you on how americanized pop music is becoming. I posted a Japanese pop tune a couple weeks ago and I wasn't VERY surprised that it was much like the music videos we have here. I can hear what you're talking about with the middle eastern rhythms and I think that it could be too subtle for most students to pick up on let alone assign to a country.
I agree, Dana, that the pre-chorus vocalization is the biggest hint to Western listeners. American pop has greatly influenced pop music in other cultures. I think one could argue that it is the strongest musical influence from our country, even more so than jazz at this point.
I agree with the americanization of pop music as well. I took Italian for 5 years and every time we listened to a pop tune, it sounded like something you would hear in America, just in a different language. I don't really like that this is the way the world is approaching pop music, because just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good. If other cultures incorporated more of their culture into their pop music, it would help to diversify pop music across cultures.
I completely agree with you on how americanized pop music is becoming. I posted a Japanese pop tune a couple weeks ago and I wasn't VERY surprised that it was much like the music videos we have here. I can hear what you're talking about with the middle eastern rhythms and I think that it could be too subtle for most students to pick up on let alone assign to a country.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Dana, that the pre-chorus vocalization is the biggest hint to Western listeners. American pop has greatly influenced pop music in other cultures. I think one could argue that it is the strongest musical influence from our country, even more so than jazz at this point.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the americanization of pop music as well. I took Italian for 5 years and every time we listened to a pop tune, it sounded like something you would hear in America, just in a different language. I don't really like that this is the way the world is approaching pop music, because just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good. If other cultures incorporated more of their culture into their pop music, it would help to diversify pop music across cultures.
ReplyDelete