Joshua Hug

Global Perspective Through Music

2/17/15

1. Blues music was once a minority music in the American South

that was mainly for African Americans. After World War 2 it
spread to the rest of the United States. It then branched out into
many genres that are also evolving and is still popular today.
2. The Qin is very similar to a violin or a cello. These are
chordophones like the Qin and in Western culture they are held
up as centerpieces of an orchestra and are looked at as
sophisticated instruments.
3. Pieces in Western Music also have programmatic titles that
describe the piece and evoke a certain emotion. For instance in
the Disney film Fantasia programmatic music is used to great
effect to address the themes in the movie.
4. Jiangnan sizhu can be compared to a jam session since in a jam session there is
usually a melodic baseline that is then expanded on by soloists which is similar to
the casual heterophonic style of Jiangnan sizhu. In addition both jam sessions and
Jiangnan sizhu are not for money but simply for the enjoyment of what is usually
an amateur band or group.
5. JingjutheaterissimilartoBroadwaysincetheybothencapsulatethesame
performanceideals.InJingjuthereisanemphasisonbothauralandvisual
performancelikebroadwaybecausethereismusicwhileacting.Costumingis

alsoimportantinboth.Finallybothofthemareusuallytouristattractionsand
havespreadfromacentralhuboutwardsintomainstreampopularity.
6. In Han there is a strict baseline with chord progressions with
slight variations to create a heterophonic sound. This is
demonstrated in Western music by many songs that have a strict
chord progression that does not change such as hip hop music.
This music does not have a lot of variation and usually has a
percussion accompaniment as well as a chordophone like a
guitar or a piano.
7. Music can be used as propaganda in the US because some
commercials and politicians have musical taglines that promote
themselves. A historic example is during the American revolution
there was a lot of songs sung at the retreating British as a
justification for ungentlemanly actions by the Patriot army.
8. One of the most prominent examples of this is the National
Anthem, which instills American values and nationalism into the
people when they sing it or hear it. In religion singing is used to
connect with a higher power or to praise that higher power. This
instills moral values into people when they sing songs about
religion.
9. Music is considered bad in the Communist view since Marxism
and Confucian world views are completely different.
Confucianism defines a clear social hierarchy while Marxism is
completely opposed to hierarchy and attempts to eliminate
social and economic differences.

10.

This is because the country was going through a radical

change and this was used because the older music was
considered old and outdated music that needed to be changed
along with the country itself. The modernization approach was
taken to society and music.