Music and Culture

I experience music everyday mainly through my surroundings. Sometimes I don't even notice that there is music playing around me. When I do something like walk around campus I can hear music playing somewhere. When I go to work out there is music in the background. When I go eat there is music playing in the caf. Of course when I'm driving there is music playing somehow. And when I'm sitting at home I can hear music from somewhere around me, whether it be from me or a roommate. I also experience music by listening to my iPod or the music I have on my computer. I usually like to have music playing at all times when I'm alone in my room, except when I go to sleep. When it comes to viewing music as an art form, I really see it when someone is performing music. Not everyone can make music that is "enjoyable" for the general population, including myself, so I find beauty and art in performing music. As for culture, when people perform music it shows you a part of their culture and where they come from along with a part of your culture. It becomes a part of your culture because both you and the artist who is performing the music share at least one thing in common: the music being performed. So both share just a little bit of the same culture in music and experience the same music as an art form. I also tend to experience music as art when I'm looking at art. Museums usually play some music in the background and when I am looking at an art piece I take in everything around me as an art form, but I think a lot of people do that too.

Music Culture

My music culture begins with the music that my parents listened to when I was younger. I basically only listened to what they listened to and then it just grew from there. Songs from my memory include "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, anything from Journey, and "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffett during the summers at the lakehouse. Once I started to find some music that I liked on my own my taste began to deviate a little from what I had listened to in the past. So along came groups like the Spice Girls, Nsync, and of course the Backstreet Boys. Like every 12 year old girl I was obsessed at first, and then the phase began to fade. After that I got into some country music and that is just about where I still am today. Today my music culture includes country and a little bit of rock from Texas. When I was a senior in high school Texas country was all that I listened to. It got so bad that every Wednesday night I would go to a concert with friends where some band that we all knew would play for hours on end. For many 16-18 year olds in San Antonio this was all that they did. I remember listening to bands like Stoney LaRue, the Eli Young Band, Randy Rogers, and many others that I'm sure nobody here has heard of just about 24/7 and then Wednesday nights and weekend nights there would be a concert for us to attend either free of charge or at a decent price. So it all came from parents in the beginning, then from the radio and television, and finally from friends in school and around the city. So of course a big part of my music culture came from the people and friends around me, and they have definitely influenced me the most.