Question

A person expresses his/her identity in a variety of ways. The clothes we wear, the foods we eat, and the language we speak are all outward projections of “who we are,” or more accurately, “who we think we are” or “want to be.” Biological factors, namely race and sex, are often cited as the source of a person’s identity; however, cultural factors are equally, if not more, important determinants. For example, what makes a person “African”? Must he or she have “black” skin? That can’t be the case, because Africans come in an array of skin pigmentations, including “olive” and “white.” Likewise, would it make sense to consider Australian aborigines or the Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea “African” because many of them have a dark skin color? Certainly not. Rather, people are “African” because they think “African.” And because they think this way, they behave as “Africans.” While it is obviously naïve to think that “African” denotes any specific culture, it is equally naïve to think that “Western” is a culture as well, and yet this gigantic category of identity is often applied to anyone or anything associated with a Euro-American background.

How others interpret the behaviors of an individual or group is also important to the formation of identity. If, for example, a person’s behaviors are considered by others to be representative of the qualities of being “African,” then that person’s self-perception as an “African” is reinforced. However, if others do not agree that the person’s behaviors are typical of an “African,” then a conflict arises in which either the individual must modify their behaviors, thereby altering the perception of them, or the atypical behaviors must be accepted bythe others as properly “African.” If the conflict is not resolved, then the “African” identity of our hypothetical person would be continually questioned. Obviously, discussions of identity easily run the risk of stereotyping. Music plays a vital role in expressions of ethnic identity. Groups and individuals often use music as a way to assert their unique ethnic qualities in relation to others. Outside perceptions of particular musical activities as normative behavior for a group or an individual reinforce the sense of ethnic identity expressed through the music. Along with other cultural elements, such as language, religion, dress, diet, and so on, music shapes how people think about themselves and their role within a society. In many cultures, the expression of ethnic identity through music is an essential aspect of daily life, so understanding and appreciating musical activities is an important part of getting to know how people from these cultures think. Even in cultures where music is considered a specialized activity, much is expressed and revealed through the types of music common to the culture. For example, the glitz and glamour of Super Bowl halftime shows reveals the emphasis American culture places on extravagant entertainment, even though these music performances are certainly not representative of all the music found in the United States.

please read this part of music identity and and write summery about it. thanks

Answer 1

Music plays an important role in our daily lives and is woven into the fabric of society. We listen to music while alone or in company, in a dance club or at home, through simple headphones or via high-end speakers, as background or as foreground, after we get up or before we go to bed. Music accompanies us when we are traveling, doing sports, shopping, working or relaxing. This omnipresence of music raises several questions: how does music affect our lives? What is the relation between the society we live in and the role, function, and position of music within that society? How is music influenced by and does music influence social, political, economic, technological, and multiple other developments? Do these questions trigger you?

There’s nothing quite like a song to capture what was going on culturally at that time, and like a time capsule, it’s captured for eternity. The slang and language usage are so indicative of the times, and you can probably recall exactly when a song was made based on what is mentioned.

The mentions of current fashion trends, technology, popular foods and celebrities are some of the most telling, and they eternalize key parts of our culture that might otherwise be forgotten. Pretty much every moment we celebrate in our lives is tied to music. The first dance at our wedding, blowing out our birthday candles, scoring a goal. Heck, we even get down to music in our heads when we do a happy dance. Holidays around the world have distinct music that accompanies them, and different countries have whole festivals and events centred around parades of music and celebration.

People typically have no problem being vocal about their musical preferences, and dissing someone’s favourite artist may just be the end of your relationship. In the internet age, musical fandom has brought about the ‘stan’ phenomenon, with fellow fans banding together to form passionate and loyal groups that have a strong online connection that reaches all around the world.

Music is one of the most beloved things on the planet. It is not only loved by most humans but it is also loved by animals and insects as well. Music is known for doing a lot of things, things along the lines of having relaxing and healing powers, the ability to treat mental ailments such as anxiety, serve as a source for spiritual and emotional uplifting. Most importantly music can be used as an instrument for not only individual self-expression, but also nationalistic self- expression and even as a global unifier.

Music seems to be a key to identity because it offers, to intensely, a sense of both self and the collective. Social groups only get to know themselves as groups (as a particular organization of individual and social interests, of sameness and differences) through cultural activity and in this case it would be music. Music constructs our sense of identity through the direct experiences it offers of the body, time, sociability, experiences which enable us to place ourselves in imaginable cultural narratives.

For most of us, there’s a point in our youth where we stop wanting to emulate our parents and start to form our own cultural identity, and music is usually a part of that transition. When we start to discover music for ourselves and we’re deciding what we like and don’t like, it often leads us away from the music of our parents and towards something pretty different.

This is often our first little act of rebellion against our parents, and our parents often hated (and might still hate) what we listened to, but finding ourselves along with our generation is an important part of our identity.

While our musical tastes may start to sync up with our parents a little later in life, this generational struggle is an essential part of growing up, and we can’t wait until we’re inevitably shaking our heads over the strange things our kids listen to 20 years from now. We’ll probably still be listening to Ed Sheeran classics, our kids will hate it, and that’s how life goes.