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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

Music and Us: Bridging the Gap to Bring the World Together

Kenneth Davis

Global Connections

Gregory Falls

December 8, 2017

Abstract
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

The focus of this paper is the examining of music and how it connects the different countries and

their cultures to different parts of the world. This discussion first talks briefly about the history of

music in folk music and how this genre branched off into different genres like Punk Rock and

Jazz, which branched even more into genres that people know today. The paper then goes into

how culture is broken into three main parts when it comes to music, social, political, and

religious. These distinctions are then elaborated on even more, discussing topics like social

conditioning, social manipulation, and social movements for the social branch, music as a less-

lethal weapon in the military for the political branch, and how religion has an influence in the

way that music is produced in religious branch. This is all discussed using sources from different

books and articles that help the author’s argument in saying that music is able to connect the

world in many ways than one.

Table of Contents
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

Title…………………………………………………………………………………… 1

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………... 3

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….4

Limitations……………………………………………………………………………..5

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………6

Discussion……………………………………………………………………………...8

References……………………………………………………………………………...14

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….18

Introduction

To the average person, what is music? A compilation of different sounds and rhythms? A

form of entertainment made by others and nothing more? While some factors of these questions
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

are true, there is more to music than what the naked eye can see. Music can be considered a

labyrinth of sorts. A labyrinth dating back to the beginnings of civilization, that is made up of

many twists and turns and containing many messages dealing with topics such as politics,

religion, and social properties. To those who have overcome this labyrinth and seen these

underlying meanings, no matter where they are in the world, they can come together and connect

on a much deeper level than someone who is just listening to music with their ears and not their

heart and soul. With this factor in mind, it is safe to say that the diffusion of music has cultural

roots through oral traditions and storytelling while in today’s cultural diffusion, it is influenced

by age of audience, through specific genres of music, and factors such as politics, religion, and

social structures.

In order to fully address this thesis statement, a good amount of research shall be

conducted. This research will be taking data from charts of the popular music genres worldwide

and discussing how these genres music have gotten so popular around the world. The research

will also discuss the social, political, and religious aspects hidden in these music genres and how

they affect the overall culture of communities. However, before tackling the modern realm of

music, research on the ancient ways of communication must be looked into. By looking into

different folk stories, songs, and other oral traditions, we can pull information as to what they

were, how they were implemented in ancient communities, and how they evolved into what they

are today. This will segue into how today’s different genres of popular music evolved from those

oral traditions. After stating the research for all of these categories, it will then be tied into one,

explaining how these factors connect the world together.

Limitations

Time constraints
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

Technology is always innovating itself, bringing light to new genres of music or

improving on ones that have already been established. As a result of these innovations, trends are

constantly changing. Because of these two factors, the study of how music can connect different

cultures together can go on indefinitely. However, with the time limit that is given to complete

this project, which is shorter than previous years, the researcher would be unable to examine the

trends in popular music as much as they would like to. The researcher is also trying to make a

living for themselves, working after school at least five days a week (including weekends),

which cuts down on the time that they would like to spend on this project.

Broadness

With the amount of music in the world and how many genres there are, even those that

may not have been discovered yet, there is no true limit to what the author can use for this

project. With that being said, this broadness can also be a curse. With so much information, it

could be hard to find sources that are actually reliable to use, degrading the project if they are

used.

Introduction

Everything in this world comes along for one reason or another, whether it be intentional

or not. With that being said, modern music has its roots. One of those roots is folk songs, which

have many elements that a lot of modern day songs have. Going off of an article from “The

Economist”, published on August 19, 2017, is a summary of research conducted by someone that
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

goes by the name of Steve Roud. Folk songs, or what he likes to call songs “of the people”, were

actually made by professionals in music composition and playwriting, but were only made

famous from the milkmaids and ploughboys that brought them to the public’s attention. Roud

then goes on to talk about different collectors of folk songs like Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, and

Ralph Vaughan and how all of their discoveries were compiled into the “Journal of Folk Song

Society”. However, the craze for folk songs ended up perishing in 1914 due to World War 1.

Then, in 1960’s, folk songs ended up being revived again with the introduction of blues. Roud

then goes on to talk about how folk songs were used socially and politically in both negative and

positive ways.

Connecting to the last paragraph, there is a video documentary on Steven Roud and how

he created a database specifically for folk songs that not only he discovered and recorded but

what others discovered as well. In this documentary, he goes over the challenges of making this

database and how he keeps it relevant to those that wish to study folk songs. One of these

challenges was the constant evolution of technology and how Roud has to constantly keep

rearranging the site in order to keep it up to date. Although it may seem irrelevant, this point has

something to do with the overall paper because of one word, technology. Because of the

evolution of technology, we have been able to open the floodgates to new types of music,

making it a lot more engaging to the people of the modern age of listeners. But aside from

sounding good, music also reveals social and political aspects.

All the way back from its roots to present day, music has always had a social aspect to it.

Looking at a book called “Music in Society: A Guide to the Sociology of Music”, which was

written in 1988 by Ivo Supicic, it brings up the idea of social conditioning, which is dependent

on the current events of a certain time period. The creation of music can be heavily influenced to
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

have elements of specific events in the song, whether it be in the lyrics or in the instrumentals.

For example, historical events like the Great Depression or the Vietnam War have had influence

on the production of songs, most noticeably in the lyrics. Social conditioning is also dependent

on the personality of the artist. Supicic also goes a bit further with economic, political, and

religious activities of a community or country that can really influence the production of music

in different areas of the world. A good example of this would be music that’s been created in

America and has spread out to different countries of the world.

Looking at an article by E. Hennessy named “How American Music Took Over the

World”, many American genres like hip hop, jazz, and rock music have taken the world by storm

in the modern age. By going in depth into the origins of these genres of music, a sense of why

these genres of music distributed to different countries around the world and became as popular

as they are now is shown. For example, punk music actually originated directly from folk songs,

starting with an album with a collection of many folk, jazz, and blues songs called the

“Anthology of American Folk Music”. This album created a chain of music styles that’s still

prevalent in today’s musical bands, most notably with Mumford and Sons, who originally are

from England and Of Monsters and Men, coming from Iceland. Later, bands like the Holy Modal

Rounders started taking those same folk songs into uncharted territories, eventually leading to

the creation of punk music, which is listened to a number of people worldwide. This is also

evident through a chart that was made in Google Trends using popular music genres like Rock

and Jazz and how often they were searched in Google. The results of these charts show that a lot

of eastern hemisphere countries like Indonesia are searching up these musical genres the most.

Discussion
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

To many, music can be found as an entertainment piece, a way to help cope with hard

times, or simply just white noise. Yes, music can be all of those things, but what if there was

something more beneath the surface? Well, there is a lot more that can be uncovered by just

listening to lyrics or the beat itself. Hidden messages from the artist with deep meanings can be

found in all kinds of music. Especially when dealing with events like the Vietnam War, which

had many songs with the meaning of trying to get the president to withdraw the troops from the

war. Seeing as though music is one of the oldest ways of communication known to man, it

should not be a surprise that these undertones are implemented into the songs of today. With this

in mind, along with how the different genres of music came about, it is safe to say that music can

connect a number of different regions around the world. This connection of music on a global

scale is mainly proven not only in the history of music, but through different cultures’ social,

political, and religious aspects that are established. In order to discuss this topic thoroughly, the

first thing that needs to be discussed is the history of music and how the popular genres that we

know today evolved from its primitive form, folk songs.

History

One of the earliest forms of song is, as Steve Roud likes to put it “the song of the

people”, or folk song. Folk song really started to get popular in England in the 17th century,

when when milk maids and ploughboys started reciting them, even though they were originally

made by professional playwriters and poets. This may have been for the best however because

they became embedded into the bloodstream of the communities of England because of that fact.

(Global issues in context, 2017).

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In America however, folk songs did not start to kick off until the beginning of the 20th

century. The term “folk song” was often used by scholars to describe music that was made by the

whites of the rural south with European ancestry. Just as it did with the European versions, these

folk songs were good at communicating the feelings of the people that used them, reinforcing

that this is the song “of the people”. Eventually, instead of only the rich whites using this genre

of music, other races like Mexican Americans and African Americans began to use them in their

goings to church, small gatherings, or while they work out in the field. Later in the 1960’s, this

type of music really started to take off in America, thanks musicians like Bob Dylan introducing

an intimate, acoustic performing style based off of community based musicians (Litwack, 2017).

With this in mind, the evolution of folk music into different popular genres, like punk rock, took

off very quickly afterwards. Bands like the Mumford & Sons, a band made of people from

England, and Of Monsters and Men, a band comprised of people from Iceland. (Hennessey,

2017). This example reinforces the author’s claim on how the history of music helps connect the

world together because it takes a genre of music that originated from another country, in this

case being England, which transferred to America and started to thrive there, despite it having its

fallouts of not being as popular as other emerging genres over the years. Because of the

innovations that folk music went under during the 1960’s, people from other countries decided to

come over and add their culture to the genre to make it more unique to them. With that being

said, the author also conducted research on different popular music genres worldwide and how

the culture of those countries are affect the music produced in those countries.

Culture

The culture of a community basically boils down to how that community goes about

dealing with their day to day lives. By researching different social aspects music and how they
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change these communities, the author was able to look one step further into how the culture of

these communities work and how it connects them to the world.

Social

Before conducting this research however, identification of the more popular music genres

worldwide needed to be done. This was found out mainly by looking at charts on the different

music genres. One of the charts was a google trends chart of the top music genres and how many

times they were searched in google. Some of these genres being Jazz, Hip Hop, and Rock. The

results of this graph indicates that these music genres are mostly searched up in areas in Asia,

with the number one searcher being Indonesia. (see Appendix A for more). The author has also

looked up other graphs on the sales of music albums in the United States based on genres to help

solidify the popular genres even more. These graphs indeed show genres like Rock and Jazz are

high up in the charts, correlating with the one from google trends.

With this in mind, the author was able to start collecting information on the social aspects

of not only these different genres and how they affect society, but to all music genres. Looking at

the book, Music in Society: A Guide to the Sociology of Music, there is a specific idea that the

author, Ivo Supicic, talks about. Supicic states that the goal of sociology of music, which is the

study of human behavior based around music, can be split into two categories. One of them

being “to examine the relationship of music to diverse global societies as well as various groups

within those societies.” (Supicic, 47). The other category being how “music itself is a social

phenomenon, or rather, to examine the social aspects within music.” (Supicic, 47). After saying

this, Supicic then goes on to describe social conditioning, an idea that is essential to the social

aspects of music when looking at it from a substantive and methodological point of view. He

says that social conditioning is based around a particular artist’s personality as well as the current
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state of social conditions in a given period of time. This is influenced heavily by religion,

politics, and economics, similar to what the author of this paper has stated before. In addition to

the concept of social conditioning, , social movements formed by music can be recognized as

another social aspect of music.

Revolts or movements help cultures develop on a very high scale. Although the system of

these cultures can be thrown out of whack more often than not, the community is able to reflect

and make adjustments to ensure that these events don’t happen again. Music connects to this

through its ability to help cultures remember past “traditions of resistance”, helping even more in

that department, according to a book called Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions

of the Twentieth Century, by Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison (Eyerman, 6). Music can also

have bad connotations when it comes to the social aspects of music, one of them being

manipulation.

In a book called Music and Manipulation: On the Social Uses and Social Control of

Music, the authors, Steven Brown and Ulrik Vlogsten talk about the use of music and its

manipulation methods in different settings. One such setting that caught the author of this

paper’s attention was the the chapter discussing censorship in music back from the time of Plato

to present day. Censorship of music is mainly used by the government and religious in order to

have “cultural protection and intended mass behavioral control” over a selected community

(Brown, 240). These big figures censor things by banning the use of certain instruments,

preventing the use of certain words in lyrics, and even sometimes killing people to preserve

protection. This can affect the social behavior of the masses by either having them bend to the

government or religion’s hand out of fear of being punished or killed or starting a revolt, which

connects to the studies of Ron Eyerman in his book.

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Politics

Discussing the topic of manipulation and control of social aspects from the last section

proves to be a great segue into the new section of how politics with music can bring people

worldwide together. This may sound surprising, but music can actually be used as a weapon. An

article from The New Yorker basically confirms the author’s idea of this. The article describes

the use of loud music in the United States military in 1989 as a viable tactic to cover up and keep

a meeting between an American general and the papal nuncio of Panama City as discreet as

possible from the news reporters. Later in the article, seeing as though the military found this

tactic very useful, the United States military started to use this tactic against their enemies, not

only to help interrogate them, but potentially kill them. Since we listen to music with “not only

with our ears but with our body,” this tactic is not as farfetched as it seems on paper. The

military essentially uses music as a form of less-lethal weaponry (Ross, 2016). Just think, you

being tied down and being forced to listen to music that you despise at a really loud volume.

That doesn’t sound like a fun time at all.

Riding off the topic of less-lethal weaponry, a research project named LESS-LETHAL,

along with a sound art CD, was produced by AKLU, a record label based in Barcelona, on the

topic of music being a less-lethal weapon in the military throughout history. The CD comprised

of music composed from multiple artists around the world and was made to “compensate for the

armies’ and PSYOP’s (Psychological Operations) complete lack of research” of the topic

(Jericho, 09).

Religion

The last aspect of what makes up the culture of a community is religion. Just like the

other categories, religion has an influence on music. Going back to Steven Brown’s book, Music
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and Manipulation, religion can have a massive effect on music in manipulating what kinds of

music are produced. They do this by restricting the people that they rule over in what can be used

instrument wise and who can say it. Also, depending on the religion, there are certain taboos that

followers cannot talk about within the lyrics, which is another form of the religion influencing

the music in communities.

Conclusion

The roots of music, going back to when folk music was a lot more prominent, has

essentially set the stage for modern age of music when looking at the overall culture of different

communities in the world. The three different aspects of culture to the author, social, political,

and religion, all have a very big influence on music. Starting with the social component, music

manipulation, social movements, and social conditioning come out, changing the attitude of the

community on a deep level for the better or worse. The political aspect of music is another way

of connecting the world with music. This is mainly through the military’s use of music as a less-

lethal weapon against enemy forces which make others like the AKLU music label try to bring

this use of music to light by conducting a research project themselves. The religious aspect of

music is mainly influenced by the community’s beliefs, in which it is taboo to do certain actions

as use a select set of lyrics. The main point of how all of these aspects bring the world together is

that no matter what type of genre the music is, these cultural aspects apply to all of them,

especially the sharing of popular genres like Rock and Jazz which potentially could have the

same restrictions and rules in two different countries. Music is definitely one of the factors that

helps keep this world together for that reason.

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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

References

* All products require an annual contract. Prices do not include sales tax (New York

residents only). (n.d.). Music album consumption in the U.S. by genre 2017 | Statistic.

Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/310746/share-music-

album-sales-us-genre/

* All products require an annual contract. Prices do not include sales tax (New York

residents only). (n.d.). U.S. music sales by genre. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

http://www.statista.com/statistics/188910/us-music-album-sales-by-genre-2

Brown, S., & Vlogsten, U. (2006). Music and Manipulation. Retrieved December 08, 2017,

from

https://books.google.com/books/about/Music_and_Manipulation.html?id=cQ4WWl8ZrfMC

&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false010/

English national anthems; Folk singing. (2017, August 19). The Economist, 424(9054), 71(US).

Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=va_s_128_0920&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%

7CA501219944&asid=e5ade673cf1c1876168c47c527fb39c3

Explore search interest for Pop music, Rapper, Punk rock, Jazz, Rock music by time, location

and popularity on Google Trends. (n.d.). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F064t9%2C%2Fm%2F06bxc%2C%2Fm

%2F05r6t%2C%2Fm%2F03_d0%2C%2Fm%2F06by7
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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

Eyerman, R., & Jamison, A. (1998). Music and Social Movements. Retrieved December 08,

2017, from

https://books.google.com/books/about/Music_and_Social_Movements.html?id=_91CHh8sbgU

C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false

Fernandes, S. (2014, December 15). Why USAID Could Never Spark a Hip Hop Revolution in

Cuba. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://nacla.org/news/2014/12/15/why-usaid-

could-never-spark-hip-hop-revolution-cuba

Hennessy, E. (n.d.). How American Music Took Over the World. Retrieved November 01,

2017, from http://www.universitytimes.ie/2014/03/how-american-music-took-over-the-world/

J. (2009). Less-Lethal. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://videotage.ic.hk/project/less-lethal-a-

lecture-about-music-as-weapons/

Koonce, K. (2017, December 04). Fractal Fridays [E-mail interview].

Litwack, L. (n.d.). American Roots Music. Retrieved November 28, 2017, from

http://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_itc_historical_background.html

Mannes, E. (2011, June 01). 'The Power Of Music' To Affect The Brain. Retrieved December 08, 2017,

from https://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain

Meyers, C. K. (2012). Influences on music preference formation. Retrieved from

https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=

1&article=1010&context=pure
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Moore, M. C. (Ed.). (2012). Critical Essays in Music Education. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

https://books.google.com/books?id=wy8rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA246&lpg=PA246&dq=%22political

%2Binfluence%2Bon%2Bmusic%22&source=bl&ots=mxbYVvL5gf&sig=cn7YxPBRi4wwO1oSY

XufvfyCMmw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC_aG4v-

vXAhWrqlQKHVg1DnIQ6AEITjAE#v=onepage&q=%22political%20influence%20on%20music

%22&f=false

Musicmap | The Genealogy and History of Popular Music Genres. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08,

2017, from https://musicmap.info/

Ross, A. (2017, June 19). When Music Is Violence. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/when-music-is-violence

Steve Roud. (2011). Challenges of Designing the Roud Folk Index. LibraryofCongress. (2011)

Video about the difficulties faced when creating The Folk Song Index

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTMoN4Arvo

Supicic, I. (1988). Music in society: a guide to the sociology of music. New York: Pendragon Pr.

https://books.google.com/books?id=JfNoezFwn3kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_su

mmary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
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Appendix A
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Appendix B

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Christian /
29.79 27.82 24.23 23.73 22.9 19.53 17.36
Gospel*

Country 47.66 46.13 43.72 42.92 44.6 36.46 30.46

Dance /
- - 8.74 10.05 8.7 7.11 5.26
Electronic

Latin 25.13 16.5 12.35 11.81 9.7 8.27 6.26

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R&B 77.01 69.89 57.87 55.44 49.7 47.78 35.75

139.6 124.1 103.7 105.6

Rock 102.5 92.93 85.25
7 6 1 9

Pop - - - - - 24.62 27.71

Alternative 80.92 68.2 53.73 55.03 52.2 - -

Classical 13.32 12.14 8.96 9.57 7.5 - -

Jazz 11.79 11.78 8.78 11.08 8.1 - -

Metal 50.48 38.73 32.55 32.21 31.9 - -

New Age 2.94 2.35 1.66 1.93 1.7 - -

Rap 33.41 26.44 27.33 28.25 24.2 - -

Soundtrack 20.85 18.98 16.41 13.23 12.3 - -

Appendix C

E-mail interview with Mrs. Koonce:

1. What's your name?

My name is Kristen Koonce.

2. What's the name of the band that you play in?

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Music and Us: Bridging the Gap

The most recent band I was in was called Fractal Fridays.

3. What's the role that you play in the band and how long have you done this for?

I was the singer for the band and wrote the lyrics and melody to the songs. I did this for two

years. Prior to that I was in several Hampton Roads bands spanning a career of twenty years.

4. What got you into playing with this band?

What got in me into this band ? I had a friend who was a bass player in another band I was in

and he was starting his own band and wanted to know if I’d be interested in writing and singing

in his band so I said, “count me in!”

5. What type of music do you produce?

The type of music Fractal Fridays produces is an original sound all its own with hints of the Red

Hot Chili Peppers and even a little jazz thrown in.

6. What's the target audience for your band, if you have one?

Fractal Fridays tends to cater to anyone who likes the music we produce.

7. Is your band influenced by religion or politics in anyway? Could someone tell it very easily or

not?

I would have to say that overall the band is not influenced by religion or politics but I did write a

religious song for Fractal Fridays. It’s a song about a girl who has to decide which way she

wants to lead her life and the path in which she needs to take. It was written as a religious song

but the lyrics themselves are written in such a way that no one would know if you didn’t tell

them.

8. What message does your band convey in the music you produce?

The message the band conveys is a sense of self-knowledge and emotional expressions ranging

from heartbreak to love to sadness, etc..

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9. To your knowledge, has your music influenced social change in the people that listen to it?

Have you undergone social changes do to playing it?

I can’t say that I’m aware of any one person being influenced by our music in regards to social

change but I’d certainly hope that people can connect to the thoughts, emotions, and groove

behind it.

10. How has music brought you closer to your fellow members and your audience?

I believe I have undergone changes the process of joining with this band. This was the first

band I have been in where I have creative license to write and it has been an amazing experience

to see the words on paper turn into a melody and given music parts to become a full song. It was

personally gratifying and I felt free to express my thoughts, feelings and opinions through song.

Music is a common thread between all musicians. I believe working together on songs has

helped us grow together as bandmates. We spend time each week practicing the songs we’ve

created and hang out as a group outside the band on occasion. What helps us connect with our

audience is having fun. Sure, it is important to have a groove, a hook, emotionally charged lyrics

that people can relate to but in the end people are really just there to have a good time and be

entertained. I think it is that common love of music we all share that helps us connect with each

other.

11. Do you have recording of your past performances? Is it available to the masses?

We do have rough copies of our music but ,unfortunately, not available to the masses.

12. Do you know if people of other cultures cultures around the world listen to your music? How

do you know this?

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Fractal Fridays does not, at this time, have music available to the public but it would be such a

thrill to know that if we had it available that there might be people of other cultures around the

world who would listen to and enjoy it.