(More) Music From Around The World

So I decided to talk about a couple more music styles from around the world, which you should be familiar with, but I'm going to just explain a bit more about them and how and where they started. I hope you enjoy!


Reggae:
When you hear 'reggae', you probably immediately think of Jamaica, but in fact this style of music has its roots in the USA and Africa, not in Jamaica at all. However, in the 1960's it was mainly only being played in Jamaica, and this is where it made its debut in popularity, which is why it is now associated with Jamaica. The man who was mainly responsible for popularising the music genre was Bob Marley, who was originally the lead singer of The Wailers, the band that produced the first ever album of reggae music. Since his death on May 11th 1981, Marley's legacy is larger than ever. In December 1999, his 1977 album 'Exodus' was named Album of the Century by Time Magazine, and the BBC recognised his song 'One Love' as the song of the millennium. Nowadays, reggae isn't even in the top ten most popular music genres in the US. 

Latino Music:
Latino (or Latin American) music is a very broad genre as it encompasses everything from contemporary Latin music to salsa and flamenco styles. Latin music generally refers to music originating in the Latin American countries that speak Spanish and Portuguese, namely in South America and the Caribbean. After Columbus arrived in America, something positive came out of that traumatic experience: Latin American Music. First of all, the Europeans brought over the Spanish and Portuguese languages, which is one of the defining characteristics of Latino music. However along with their language, the Europeans also brought their music and more importantly, their instruments. The music was of course vital, but without the instruments, the new inhabitants of South America wouldn't have been able to change it and adapt it to make what we know today as Latino Music, now one of the fastest growing genres of music. 

Soul Music
When I say 'soul music', you probably think of great names like Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King and Otis Redding, or at least I hope you would as it is people like them that are the greats of soul music. Soul music is defined as a mix of R&B (rhythm and blues) and Gospel music, and it began in the 1950's in the United States. Soul music really took off in the 1960's and it dominated the black music charts for the majority of the  next two decades and inspired many other music styles of the time. Although its popularity has dwindled over the years, it was so influential that its traces and impact can still be heard in much of the popular music of today, in a number of different styles including  Rock, Funk, Neo-Soul and Contemporary Pop. 

SOURCES:
http://www.scaruffi.com/history/reggae.html
http://www.bobmarley.com/history/
http://latinmusic.about.com/od/basics101/a/Latin-Music-History.htm
http://randb.about.com/od/rb12/p/SoulMusic.htm

6 Of The World's Strangest Instruments

Okay, so I thought I would change it up a bit today and make a list of some of the weirdest musical instruments that I could find from around the world, some of them you may have heard of, others I expect will probably be new to you. Anyway, I hope I can at least attempt to mildly entertain you and somehow you may even learn a thing or two.

1. Didgeridoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is the world's oldest instrument that is still being played today, thought to be over 40,000 years old. It is a wind instrument believed to have originated in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Traditionally didgeridoos were made from eucalyptus tree trunks or bamboo, but today didgeridoos are made from a large variety of materials such as glass, leather, ceramic, plastic, aluminium and other metals. You may not realise it but nowadays the didgeridoo is so versatile that it can heard in almost every style of music, rock, jazz, blues, pop, hip hop, electronic, techno, funk, punk, rap etc. The once traditionally 'Australian' didgeridoo is now owned, made and played by people from all corners of the globe.

2. Pikasso Guitar

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/lots-of-strings-attached-1

This instrument is named after the renowned artist, Pablo Picasso, because of its likeness to the cubist artist's works. The Pikasso Guitar was created by luthier Linda Manzer, specially for guitarist Pat Metheny. He is one of only a couple of people in the world that is able to play this strange instrument. The guitar, with four necks, two sound holes and 42 strings, took over two years to build (approximately 1000 hours). When all 42 strings are strung up to high tension, the Pikasso Guitar is under approximately 1000 lbs pressure. Altogether it weighs about 6.7 kg or 14 3/4 lbs.

3. Singing Ringing Tree

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/07/singing-ringing-tree.html

The Singing Ringing Tree is a wind powered sound sculpture in a tree-like shape, overlooking Burnley, in Lancashire, England. The sculpture was finished in 2006, and was created  by the Panopticons arts and regeneration project as one of a series of four sculptures. The sculptures are located all across East Lancashire as symbols of the renaissance of the area. The Singing Ringing Tree is three metres tall and is made up of over one hundred stacked pipes of galvanised steel of varying lengths, orientated to lean into the directions of the prevailing wind. As the wind passes through the different lengths of pipe, it plays different chords. The idea is that each time you visit the tree, you will hear a different song. In 2007, the sculpture won the National Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for architectural excellence.

4. Theremin

Léon Theremin
http://thereminsociety.com/

The Theremin is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact invented by the Russian musician, Léon Theremin in 1919. It was the first ever entirely electrical instrument, and also the first one you didn't need to touch to play, so in its day it was ground breaking in many ways. It is controlled by two metal antennas that can sense the position of the musician's hands and therefore you are able to control pitch with one hand, and volume with the other. The sounds are then amplified and played through the loudspeaker that is attached. The instrument is associated with an 'eerie' sound because it was used in movie soundtracks such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and in the theme tune for the ITV drama Midsomer Murders.

5. Pyrophone

http://www.ugress.com/post.asp?id=960

Originating in the 1800's, the Pyrophone is also known as the fire organ, or the explosion organ. It is powered by combustion or rapid heating, which means that to be able to play it, a part of it needs to be on fire. Of course it is all completely safe, and can be powered easily and safely with gasoline and propane, and everything can be controlled, including the explosions that force exhaust down the pipes to make the sounds. However, even so it can be dangerous and needs to be played carefully. At first, it was created purely as an experimental instrument but after a while it began to be played for music. Nowadays, it is very rare for a Pyrophone to be played.

6. Zeusaphone

Also known as the 'Singing Tesla Coil' or 'Thoremin', the Zeusaphone's name comes from 'Zeus', the Greek Lightning God, and 'Sousaphone'. The Zeusaphone is basically just a normal Tesla coil that has been designed to play music. According to wikipedia, it "uses low-voltage, high-frequency current to create music by adjusting the spark output." You can play anything from the Mario theme tune to the latest chart music on them. You may recognise this strange instrument from the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which it was featured, I have put the relevant scene to the left. It's hard to say who exactly invented the Zeusaphone, but it was first played in public in 2006.

SOURCES:

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om23350.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

icfm.com/discover/music/weirdest-musical-instruments/#bmIvqHf3cU5PJB6c.99

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om23350.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Ringing_Tree_%28Panopticons%29

http://www.cracked.com

Music From Around the World

In my last post I talked about some of the earliest forms of music and how it first spread around the world, so today I thought I would continue on to talk about a few of the different music genres that are typically associated with different parts of the world and explain how and why they originated in that area.

Country Music:
Where was country music first played? If you said Nashville, you would be wrong. Even though it is known as the 'Music City', it actually derived in Bristol, Tennessee by fiddle players around 1910. These early Bristol recordings laid the groundwork for much of the country music that followed. Because Bristol is not usually thought of as the place where country music began, it was especially important that the U.S. Congress recognised its contribution to music history. In 1998, Congress passed a resolution declaring Bristol as the "Birthplace of Country Music". Jimmie Rodgers, now known as the "Father of Country Music", was an instant success. He was the first country artist ever to get 1 million record sales for his single 'Blue Yodel'. The cowboy films of the 1930's and 40's also greatly aided the evolution and spreading of country music. 

Bollywood:
The name 'Bollywood', also referred to as Hindi cinema, comes from Bombay (former Mumbai) and Hollywood, the centre of the biggest film industry in the world. The music of Bollywood is generally what many viewers associate as one of the defining characteristics of Bollywood films and because of this, the music is just as important as the costumes. The history of Bollywood films goes as far back as any other film industry with the first feature film being produced in 1913, and by the 1930's, over two hundred films were being produced every year. Bollywood film changed dramatically when it became possible to record the music and the image of the film separately and the connect them at a later stage, as it allowed producers to let the public see their favourite actors while hearing their favourite singers. It soon became rare that the people on screen were who the audience was actually hearing, as often even the speech had to be dubbed because the filming equipment was so loud. 

Irish Music:
Seeing as I am Irish, I thought it was only fitting that I talked about Irish music as my final international genre. In the past couple of decades, Irish music has gained a great amount of international recognition, however its roots can be traced back to almost two thousand years ago when the Celts landed in Ireland. With them, they brought their music from Eastern Europe, and it is even speculated that the iconic Irish harp originated in Egypt. On their travels, the Celts left their mark almost everywhere they went, but it's here in Ireland that the traditions have survived the strongest. The first written collection of Irish music is from 1762, containing 49 songs by the Neale brothers in Dublin. When the Great Irish Famine struck in the 1840's, it led to millions of people emigrating to America and the UK, bringing with them their songs and music, so the Irish traditional music quickly spread to major cities such as New York, Boston and London. Up to the 1960's, Irish music was still mainly only in the houses and pubs of the rural areas of Ireland being danced to, however now in the twenty first century, with traditional music making a comeback, it seems as if its future is secure.

Sources:
http://countrymusic.about.com/od/trivia/tp/HistoryofCountryMusic.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Bollywood
http://jillbrary.wordpress.com/bollywood-and-libraries/brief-history-of-bollywood/
http://www.discoverdublin.ie/musical-pub-crawl/story-of-irish-music/

The Origins of Music

Have you ever wondered whether some of the first humans on earth had music? What instruments they played? And where on earth was the beginning of music? These are some of the questions I hope to answer in this post, while hopefully also teaching you a thing or two in the process. 

          To answer these questions, I am going to be bringing you back to prehistoric times, to before any written records were ever kept. The answer to my first question, did some of the first humans on earth have music, is actually yes. Experts in the field believe that the origins of music probably came from naturally occurring sounds and rhythms. It is likely that mankind subconsciously mimicked the sounds around them, creating the earliest forms of music. We still do this today, with some cultures around the world imitating natural sounds in their songs. 

Some of the earliest paleolithic bone flutes
https://storify.com/WindofEpiphany/paleolithic-flute

          The earliest musical instruments, if you could even call them that, were in the form of simply tapping rocks and stones against each other, and other percussion sounds that could be composed using materials found in the surrounding areas. One of the first instruments that would be recognisable to you or I nowadays, is a paleolithic bone flute made from a cave bear's femur which is estimated to be over 30,000 years old. 

          Now, as for where on earth all of this was happening, the first humans evolved in Africa so it began there, and as time went by and mankind dispersed around the world, different countries began to devise their own cultures and therefore their own music types and genres. It was a slow process but over thousands of years, we now have the thousands of distinctive kinds of music that can be found in every corner of the earth.

          However, one way that music hasn't changed in the past 50,000 years is that even then, it served as a form of entertainment, just as it is today for billions of people all around the world. Another more practical use for music all that time ago would have been to lure animals in hunt, a tactic that would have been crucial to their survival because they were reliant on hunting and gathering as a source of food. In a way, they were almost dependent on music.

A Neanderthal Man
http://geniusofancientman.blogspot.ie

          To put all of this into perspective, just try imagining these people living on earth up to 60,000 years ago, residing in makeshift tents handmade out of animal skins, hunting and gathering all of their food, the English language still tens of thousands of years away from being created, and yet in many ways, mankind hasn't changed at all. We still love music just as much as some of the very first humans on earth, and just as they subconsciously hummed to the rhythms around them, we still mindlessly hum our favourite songs every day. 

Introduction

Hello! My name is Katy and welcome to my new blog! Here I will be writing about The Geography of Music. I chose this topic because I absolutely love music, I play guitar and listen to it practically 24/7, so I thought it was only fitting to write about something that I love. I hope that maybe I can pique your interest in some of the topic areas, and you might even learn a thing or two along the way. Enjoy!