Thursday 31 May 2012

If Music Changes to Reflect a Changing Culture what Does it Say about Our Culture?

I love metal music. It is something about the primal loudness and emotional release of the words that transforms me from prim and proper to relaxed and creative. Ask any child from the 1990’s what good music is and you will notice how most good music contains fragments of metal.  Somehow we associate this “depressing music” with happiness. Play it in Uganda and you will get a completely different reaction.
Walk into a nightclub like Ambiance in Masaka, Silk or Bodaboda in Kampala and you will be greeted by the upbeat music of Brandy, Alicia Keys (and I swear the Fresh Prince of Belaire).  If you try to play metal, rock or even Johnny Cash you will get mournful stares and requests to change to the local station.

After listening to the local music of Julianna and Good Life for the past 3 months I went to the office and plugged in my headphones and started to listen to AFI and a Perfect Circle on my computer. It felt overwhelming and oppressive. I tried again a few days later and it felt foreign to me. I remembered back in Canada when I used to tuck myself away in a room with an art project and blast their songs over and over, yet here I was, wondering how listening to aggressive music could have ever made me feel peaceful.



Only 16 days left until I return to Canada...as always love to moosmas, dad, my sisters, brothers and friends.

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