This point gets infused with the discussion on the communication of music globally, the fluidity of the medium, and how varying types of music are interpreted differently in disparate cultures and, primarily, people. For instance, reggae has achieved incredible popularity in the world and each locality listens and performs it differently, incorporating the genre and sounds into their own music-culture’s repertoire and thus creating new, original renditions. Certainly, music did not have to be digitally manipulated to have an affect; music cultures have been interacting and changing as long as people were. Native American Navajo music and traditions underwent dramatic augmentation with the inclusion of settlers, conflict and removal, and the creation of reservations. The music, like the people, spun outwards in disparate directions to represent the voices caught in context. From the four day Enemyway ceremony, used to cure a member of the tribe from the spirits of outsiders that they may have had prolonged contact with, Navajo music has also incorporated country and western music, evangelical Christianity, Mormonism, the English Language, and a strong expression of protest against assimilation into the aspects of matrilocality, leadership, nomadism, song, and spirituality that form the ‘ness’ of being Navajo (McAllester, 64). The major difference from this example in the current context is that proximity isn’t necessary for music cultures to engage and when they do it is never, and never has been, as clear as a roots to roots interaction. The urgency of media fluidity is causing us to question, along with a plethora of other things, our conceptualization of what roots are, even in a ‘traditional’ Navajo context. The greater challenge is to understand the routes, not roots, in which we are and have always been enacting. Although the integration of histories of people sounds daunting, knowing that it is integrated is a first step at understanding where globalization is taking us.
** Clıp Thesıs **
1977 'Player Pıano' by Joe Jones
1984 'Bodrum' Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan
Track 1 Player Pıano
Track 2 Bodrum