Music Genres to Know

You can use music for more than listening pleasure. Learning through music is fun, and you feel wonderful about learning new things without the usual method of formal study. What can music and music genres teach you?

Well, consider Latino music: do you agree that you know more about Hispanic culture after you have seen music videos from and attended performances ‘South of the Border?’ Similarly, you can watch music videos from India, and learn about popular customs and values in that country. This aspect of music applies to any country. A foreign language, or an exotic culture, is much easier to appreciate through the universal medium of music.

Music gives hints of how people live and think. Consider Celtic music. You may never have been to that part of the United Kingdom, yet the music tells you of the martial outlook of the community, and their closeness to nature. You can detect overtones of both yearning and great passion in the haunting melodies. The Celtic culture is poorly preserved in contemporary circles, so the music is the most durable link that people from other countries can have with this old version of Wales, other parts of the British Isles, and of parts of the European mainland as well. Formal Japanese music also speaks volumes for the precision of the people of the Rising Sun, and their use of drums reveals their military leanings in medieval times. The latter is in such sharp contrast to modern Japan, that you may have no inkling of the Samurai way of thinking if you were not to experience the thundering beats! The music of Morocco and Algeria tells us of the many different communities which have traversed the land, because the melodies and beats have so many influences from Asia and Europe, apart from the native continent of Africa.

All forms of classical music represent entire cultures. Chamber orchestras, and the Opera, are typical examples. Some of classical Hindu devotional music has been composed by Muslim artists. Devotional music can inspire the same thoughts as it did when it was first composed hundred of years ago. There is something magical in singing hymns in groups, in the same manner as our forefathers. National anthems have the same effect. Such is the power of music and the range of its effects on our brains and hearts! Make it a point to listen to many different genres, and learn to appreciate their unique qualities!