whenever i hear a piece of
arabic music, all i think of are
deserts, guys in
turbines,
camels, (
stereotype1), (stereotype2), (stereotype
n).. and i think, there have
got to be arabic songs that are
happy, or
sad, or
inspiring, or
commemorative, or any sort of
emotion. i just have no
idea because i haven't listened to enough of it.
this leads me to
wonder, if we wanted a wider
range of
moods or emotions covered in music, why don't we just start using different
scales or unused
chord progressions (all of which would sound to
the average american, like
utter crap) and, when we raise our
kids, and find them
anxious, for instance, we play them whatever new piece of music we've decided to go with being anxious. i don't think i've heard much music for when i'm anxious or anticipating something. maybe there are a few. anyway, that's how i think music works. as kids, we listen to certain music only during certain
times. we watch
movies and notice the kinds of music that are played in
love,
death,
sad,
happy, or
action scenes--or rather, we associate the music with the emotion. the only reason i have no idea what
arabic,
hebrew, or
asian music is about is because i associated the
music with stereotypical mages, instead of with emotions, because, when is arabic music ever played in america if the
Padres win a
baseball game? never in my
house.
i'm sure it's not
too late to begin
adjusting yourself to
foreign music. furthermore, maybe you can do your
future kids a
favor by playing them music other then
western, if anything, to prevent them of thinking of
men in
funny hats or
eggrolls and
rice when they hear
chinese music, because any associations with foreign
cultures that aren't factually learned become stereotypes :D