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One Last Music Culture: Mongolian Long Song

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Mongolia is on the continent of Asia, and is located in north central Asia between Russia and China, and has been heavily influenced by these two countries. The capital of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia has longer colder winters with short cool/hot summers and has many deserts, semi-deserts, and upland steppes, which are higher altitude large areas of grasslands that are unforested. Mongolia itself rests at a high altitude and is brought to even higher heights with the Mongolian Mountains in the southwest. Most of Mongolia's grasslands are used as pastures for livestock and not as areas for crops.  Most of the people in Mongolia speak Mongolian. The Mongols had traditionally practiced shamanism as their form of religion, but Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) with some additional shamanistic aspects is now broadly practiced. About 25-30% of the Mongolian people have a nomadic lifestyle. The arts in Mongolia have developed from a long history of oral traditions such as oral heroic storie...
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Music and Family

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 I decided to do my interview with my mother. She is 41, and grew up in South Carolina, in the Lowcountry, as well as some time in Florida. Here is a picture of her for reference (also of some of my dogs) :) And here is the interview: Me: What was your favorite music growing up? Her: Probably Green Day. Green Day stood out the most in my teenage years Me: Where did you listen to music? Her: On my Walkman. I would listen in bed or also walk around the neighborhood with my boombox.  Me: Did you play an instrument or sing in a choir? Did you enjoy it? Her: Yes I sang in a choir in church and I played the flute in high school and the piano before them. Flute yes, everything else no.  Me: Did your parents like your music? How did they feel about the music you listened to? Her: Not during high school because I listened to Bone Thugs and Harmony. Because there were lots of bad words and they couldn't understand them. That's not what they said but that is the polite way of saying...
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Big Blog: American Roots - Funk

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Funk. Funk is that " thaaang" that moves around in your body and makes your knees weak and your hands go up in the air at a concert. Funk is when you move to the groove, it is going up or down or left or right or diagonal and across to go wherever the music takes you. As said by Rickey Vincent in his book Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One, "Funk is that low-down dirty dog feeling that pops up and the baad funk jam gets to the heated part, and you forget about that contrived dance you were trying and you get off your ass and jam" ( Vincent 3 ) . Funk started making its appearance in the late 60s and was gaining steam in the 70s, and in the late 70s, the 80s, and the 90s, it was influencing other music such as disco, hard rock, and rap/hip-hop ( Jazz History Tree - Funk ). Funk comes from the blues, so it originated in New Orleans, in primarily African American communities is where it gained popularity, following, and creators. One of the most pr...
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Music and Gender

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There are many ways in which music and gender coincide. There are certain themes women express in their music more often than men do, or there are trends in the types of instruments men play that do not crossover to what is expected of women. How music is marketed for men and women is different, with women normally being sexualized in their videos while men try to look "cool" or tough. All of this has to do with what the gender norms of our society are, with women normally being expected to normally be softer while men are expected to be tough, and said expectations can be harmful to both and can restrict what each gender can do based on how society thinks they should act.  In the past, there have been some pretty clear lines drawn when it comes to what instruments women should play and what instruments men should play. In the recent past the lines are becoming more blurred, with more women starting to play percussive instruments and men starting to play aerophones such as fl...
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Music and Rituals

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I have decided to use more personal experiences in this blog rather than talk about music and rituals in other cultures.  One thing that my family does every year is that on the day after Thanksgiving, we go out and buy a tree (however due to the state of the economy we decided to skip that part this year and buy a fake tree), bring it back to the house, and decorate the house as we wait for the limbs to drop. Every year while we decorate, we listen to the Carpenter's Christmas Portrait album, which is my mother's favorite collection of Christmas music. I am not exactly sure how this tradition started, but this has been happening every year for as long as I can remember and definitely as long as my sister has been alive, and she is 12.  My two favorite songs on this album are "Medley: Winter Wonderland/Silver Bells/White Christmas" and "My Favorite Things". I like the medley because it is a combination of faster and slower songs, and I like "My Favorite...
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Music and Me

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Hello everyone,  My name is Lanah (pronounced lawn-uh), and I am currently a first-year student at Converse. I am a biology major, and I am on the pre-med track. I am from Charleston, and I live there with my mom, dad, little sister, 5 dogs, a cat, a bearded dragon, and a school of fish. I love to read, watch tv, hang out with my friends and family, and do a little photography every now and then. My favorite foods are pasta and sushi and sandwiches, I love chips and popcorn, and I absolutely despise it when people eat with their mouths open. Truly, from the deepest, darkest depths of my entire being, I hate it. To end off a positive note, I love to laugh and I love to do things, watch things, and surround myself with people who make me do that. Pictured below is a ridiculous looking picture of me and my friends, and a picture of my dog, Spud.  I have a fairly eclectic taste when it comes to music. I listen to songs of different genres, different languages, and instru...
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