WORLD MUSIC WEEK 3By: Ibrahim EL Kazaz

Africa North Africa-Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and

Morocco, highly influenced by Arab and Islamic music, thanks to medieval Islamic expansion. Egypt especially has deep musical connections to the rest of the Arab world. Libya, Morocco and Algeria all balance Arab musical traditions with homegrown African styles.

West Africa- home to some of the most sophisticated "classical" and court music traditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Highly influenced by Europe.

Central Africa, dominated by the musical colossus of the Democratic Republic of Congo. However also influenced by Cuban music. In the mid-20th century, the rumba craze swept through Africa

South Africa, rich and varied musical patchwork. Angola, Mozambique and Zaire offer up unique styles of their own. Rich history of popular music in the 20th century, from the homegrown jazz, jive and gumboot styles of Johannesburg to the gorgeous Zulu choral and instrumental styles of Durban and KwaZulu Natal.

East Africa also has deep musical ties to the Islamic world. Egyptian-influenced taraab music. Also, Nubian music. Furthermore, Ethiopia and Eritrea have their own ancient, unique and interrelated musical cultures that date back more than 1,000 years.

Asia Asia: Chinese instruments and styles were adopted and

adapted. It also traveled along the ancient Silk Road-the commercial lifeline that tied China to Europe.

China has reemerged as a world power, and its cultural influence is again being felt, from the ubiquitous Mandarin and Cantonese pop found all over East Asia to Chinese opera and classical forms exported by the state for diplomatic purposes.

Southeast Asia has a welter of indigenous musical styles that reflect the competing pulls of these two cultural poles.

Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and Cambodia all have interrelated classical traditions that owe a debt to Indian classical music,

Malaysia and Indonesia are a musical universe all their own, with a cacophony of competing sounds and influences that draw on Indian, Chinese, Muslim and indigenous influences.

To the East, Japan and South Korea are both regional pop powerhouses, offering well-produced "J-pop" and "K-pop" teen idols. Furthermore, copycat bands of every Western music trend from jazz to heavy metal.

Mongolia and Central Asia, share a common musical heritage based more on Middle Eastern sources than those of their Asian neighbors.

 

Australia and Oceania There are three main island groups in the Pacific:

Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Melanesia includes some of the Pacific's larger

islands, including New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu. Melanesian music is less famous than Polynesian music but it's no less diverse. It includes the myriad of tribal styles found in New Guinea, the Polynesian-influenced music of Fiji, and even the unique music of the Australian aborigines, who are culturally related to the Melanesian peoples.

2) Micronesia contains some of the smallest islands: Wake Island, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, etc. Micronesian music is even more dependent on vocals, with a much more limited range of instruments. Polyphonic singing is also prominent in Micronesia, as are speech-singing and Christian hymns.

3) Polynesian islands range from Hawaii in the North to New Zealand in the South, and Easter Island in the far East, off the Western coast of South America. Polynesian music is the most well known by far. It includes everything from the Hawaiian hula and steel-guitar traditions to joyful, polyphonic choral music of Tahiti. Voice has long been the most important instrument among Polynesian people. Also important in Polynesian musical culture is dance!

The biggest European impact were the many stringed instruments-from guitars to ukuleles-that Westerners left in their wake

Europe Europe is the birthplace of Western classical

music, and the home of one of the most developed pop-music markets in the world!

Traditional music in Europe: traditional Gaelic music in Ireland; brass bands in the Balkans; alpenmusik in Germany, Switzerland and Austria; Basque music in Spain and France; fado in Portugal; polska in Sweden; British folk-rock in the U.K.; the yoik tradition of the Sami of Finland; and a welter of smaller regional styles that stretch from the Mediterranean to the Baltic and from the Atlantic to the Urals.

Two peoples of Europe, managed to carve out musical and cultural diasporas that extend across geographic and political borders: the Celts and the Roma (or Gypsies).

The Celts are one of Europe's oldest cultures, their culture and especially their music live on in concentrated pockets: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Galicia, etc.

The Roma people enjoy an even greater reputation as music makers. From the fearsome military bands of the Ottoman Empire, to Spain's fiery flamenco music, to the hard-driving cimbolom bands of Eastern Europe, to the sophisticated Parisian jazz of Django Reinhardt, Roma music has been one of Europe's greatest musical treasures.

Middle East Middle Eastern music is some of the

world's most compelling, rich and endlessly fascinating.

One commonality is a deep love of poetry, and the intrinsic connection between words and music that is found in music from Egyptian singer Umm Kalthoum's enormous (and tremendously influential) output to brand-new compositions written by Persian superstar classical musicians like Hossein Alizadeh.

Two cases in point is music from Turkey's Anatolia region, which was for decades heavily promoted by the country's national radio and television system, and the wildly popular sounds of the Egyptian recording industry-both "pop" and classical music-which are beloved throughout the Arab-speaking

North America North America is a collision of the native American, African

and European cultures. It started in the Caribbean where the Europeans first

arrived and destroyed all of the native villages with the diseases they brought and the colonies they were forming. They then also began slavery amd brought many Africans from Africa as slaves. There were so many Africans to the extent that the Caribbean Islands became a racially mixed culture.

The African slaves were banned to use their African Drums because plantation owners were they would be used as weapons. Therefore the Africans began creating new instruments like the banjo and the Cajon. While others mastered European instruments.

Now the Caribbean has many original styles which have evolved into new musical styles like Kaiso in Trinidad became Calypso and soca and many more styles.

The rest of North America had the same impact because of the same sequence of events happening. However different styles were created like blues which originate in Africa in something called griot and Gospel with the ecstatic worship and jazz with syncopation.

They also had a lot of European connections since America has Europeans who migrated there. There is Irish, French, and many other influences in different parts of America. There has also been a small amount of native American music like “rez rock” and the traditional flute.

Mexico and Central America are very important too. They are the only places that have stuck to their original heritage and have not given in to colonization. Mexico who originates from the Aztecs. However there is still a small amount of European influence like Polkas from Germany.

South America South America is a treasure trove of Creole

musical styles. Brazil alone is one of the world's great musical

powerhouses, boasting everything from samba, bossa nova and the world famous Carnival troupes, to lesser-known styles such as forro, choro and the myriad pop sounds of MPB, or Música Popular Brasileira.

While Argentina is the home of not only tango but also zamba, milonga and chamamé. Colombia and Venezuela are musical universes of their own, where the joropos and llaneros of the high-plains cowboys gives way to the simmering coastal sounds of vallenato, cumbia and currulao.

Even tiny Uruguay boasts a unique national style called candomble.

While on the other side of the Andes, the music of Boliva, Chile, Peru and Ecuador reflects their larger indigenous populations, and such styles as huayno, yaraví and cueca all retain strong precontact musical elements.

Of course pop music is important across the continent, and international pop, R&B, hip-hop and dance music are all immensely popular thanks to MTV's Latin American division.

South Asia The music of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri

Lanka, and Nepal is astonishingly diverse, so much so that it's impossible to paint its portrait in broad strokes.

Each genre has its own history, evolution, and performance style.

Pakistan and north and northwestern India often has ties to that of Iran and Afghanistan (and even farther afield to music of the Arab world and Turkey).

The music of Sri Lanka has links not just to its geographic neighbors-including the music of the island's very large Sinhalese Buddhist community, which is linked to that of other Buddhist regions-but also to that of Portuguese and even African music, due to Portugal's colonization of the island beginning in the 16th century.

While the classical, religious, and folk traditions of South Asia have roots that go many centuries deep, the music of this region continues to be dynamic and ever-evolving: some of the contemporary pop from India and Pakistan (not to mention the truly exciting sounds emerging from the diaspora communities

Many young musicians from the region are creating innovative sounds that aren't pale imitations of European or American chart toppers, but tunes that are wholly South Asian and proudly desi to their core.