Music & Us: Our New Playlist

 Even though this is the last blog, it is definitely my favorite for a different reason. While I have enjoyed learning so much about these other cultures, I get to share some of my favorites that were not talked about in class. I wanted to focus on different cultures from Asia and North America.

Starting out, I figured I would start with a modern rock band from Mongolia. The Hu is a folk metal band that was formed back in 2016 in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.

 I came across their music while playing the game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They are in an opening cut scene where the main character is listening to an original song, Sugaan Essena. Along with this song that was made for the soundtrack of the game, I also enjoy listening to some of their other songs, such as Black Thunder, Wolf Totem, Upright Destined Mongol, This is Mongol, Triangle, and quite a few more. What really captured my attention was the way they incorporate traditional Mongolian musical culture into their songs. They use elements of throat singing (khoomei), along with the use of traditional instruments like the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and the tovshuur (two-stringed lute).

Next up, I figured I would talk about Mexico and the ways its culture is represented in movies. I picked Coco because I love all the ways it portrays a lot of different aspects of Mexican culture, both musical and general. The movie incorporates a lot about Día de los Muertos and uses that theme to greater portray the impact music has on their culture. The movie incorporates different genres, such as mariachi, along with traditional instruments such as the guitarrón.

Diving deeper into more traditional music, I love Chinese and Japanese culture. Firstly, China's history is very deep and rich with all kinds of culture. Firstly, China's history is very deep and rich with all kinds of culture. Music in China spans thousands of years. Starting out with traditional bone flutes 9,000 years ago, then evolving through many dynasties such as the Zhou, Tang, and Yuan. I remember in a middle school history class, our teacher gave us a project to create some type of artifact from ancient Chinese or Japanese history. While I was researching different ideas, I just fell in love with both histories and cultures. 

I wanted to end with my favorite culture of them all. I fell in love with Japanese history and scenery, and I would love to visit the country sometime in my life. When it comes to their music, it spans a lot of history. Traditional Japanese, or hōgaku, refers to music spanning the 17^th to 19^th centuries. Under the main subject of traditional Japanese music, there are a number of subgenres such as Japanese folk music, court music, theatrical music, and instrumental music. 

Overall, I really enjoyed doing these blogs and being in this class. It has been so refreshing getting to learn about other cultures and countries while listening to cool music and instruments. I look forward to adding this music to our playlist, and I'm so happy to have learned all we did in this class, as well as going off on our own for this blog and exploring more of the world.