My Global Music Autobiography
Throughout my life I was not exposed to a lot of diverse music. In fact growing up the only music I was exposed to at all was Gospel music. Which is a type of cultural music of its own. My mom grew up in New Orleans Louisiana and my Dad grew up in Brooklyn in New York, at the time both places were not places you would have wanted to be in...for safety reasons. So when they got married and began living for God they decided to start a family of their own. That's when they made a decision to instill something in us kids that meant a lot to them and that was positive in our lives, thus the Gospel music. For the longest time that was the only music I ever known up until about middle school. That is the time period when I started to get exposed to various different types of music, via my new found friend group. The music I was just beginning to learn about was music inside my own culture that I didn't even know about. For example Rap, Hip Hop, R&B...etc. So that began to set me on a path, on the other hand around the same time period I began taking voice lessons a Lawson Academy with Mrs.Wendy and thats where I really began to be exposed to different types of music including other cultures. One of the songs I remember specifically was this song called Siyahamba it is a South African song sung in Zulu. I remember when Mrs.Wendy first introduced it to me, I thought she was crazy. My first thoughts were “What is this.” At the time I did not want to learn that song but looking back I am now very appreciative of the exposure I gained. Since then, over the years I have been exposed to many different types of cultures. The most exposure I gained was from school. Last year in September I went to Germany with the Petrie school of music together the German choir and the American choir sung Jubilate Deo a piece with various different cultures and countries. In the piece was Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Zulu, Spanish and English. Overall it was an amazing time and definitely a once and a lifetime opportunity. All these different life experiences exposed me to new things because there is so much more meaning to life than what we know and or what we are used to.
Gospel is a huge part of American Music culture, especially in the south so there is no wonder to why that is the music that you were exposed to the most as a child. I think it was really cool that even though you were not initially interested in singing the South African song that Mrs. Wendy gave you, that you eventually came around and ended up really appreciating it.
ReplyDeleteThat is really fascinating that you grew up listening to Gospel music. That kind of music is not something I am too familiar with but wish I had more of an understanding for it. Also, that is awesome you were able to travel and be exposed to different cultures and their music.
ReplyDeleteI also have a background in church music; and I didn’t start listening to popular music until I was around 12. I performed Jubilate Deo before coming to college and really enjoyed learning the different languages and I liked how the different styles were incorporated into the contrasting movements.
ReplyDeleteI also grew up listening to Gospel and later branched out into R&B, Pop, etc. I've always wanted to listen to and understand music from South Africa and I think it's really cool that you were able to be exposed to it.
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