Music of Africa

      While living in the United States my whole life, I have seen what music means to the people who enjoy it.  It means a whole lot.  Without music, a lot of the times, people could not live without it, including me.  I have grown up with music in my system.  I cannot live without music because music truly means a lot to me.  In other countries, music serves a similar purpose to many people for similar or different reasons than mine.  Today we will be visiting music in Africa and the cultural aspects of music along with the historical context of music.

       There are different types of music in Africa in different areas.  For example, in North Africa, classical music is very popular throughout that area.  In the sub saharan area, music is often used for many different purposes.  For example, it is used to ward off evil, for childbirths, marriages and even hunting.  These performances go on for extremely long periods of time.  

 

        The different types of musical instruments that are used in Africa are, musical bows, harps, xylophones, trumpets, flutes, drums, gongs, double rattles and many more.  These instruments are used along with vocals at times to create a definite kind of music.  When discussing music in Africa, a lot of the influence comes from Christianity and Islamic views.  These types of religions truly do influence the type of music that they listen to or even play with their instruments at ceremonies.  Time is extremely important in Africa when it comes to music.  Time is important to space, context, moments, biographical time, social time, historical time and much more.  All of these times may not make complete sense to me or you, however, to the people of Africa, Time is a key in order to be successful in making or playing music.   

        Music in Africa and music in the United States have very similar and different types of music and different purposes they serve.  Music in America is mostly contemporary music and when we play music to perform, it is called a concert.  This is somewhat similar to the purpose that it serves in Africa but a lot of the times, there is no meaning behind the concert music these days which makes me ponder upon the significance of music.  People just go to the concerts of their favorite bands and they go to mostly party and just to have a good time.  In Africa, there is much more meaning to why they play music.  Not stating that one is right or more accurate than the other, but music has more meaning to individuals than others.  Concerning time, the only emphasis on time in the United States during concerts or shows is valuing when an event will start or end.  Also, time can be important when we determine how long a song is.  The United States does have specific instruments that go along with vocals, however, they are fairly different to the instruments that African tribal music utilizes.  Here is an example of how different music is in the United States. 

    
 As you can see, this band utilizes different types of musical instruments in order to play their music.  The instruments can be similar concepts to what people in Africa utilize, however the instruments in the United States are a lot more technologically advanced.  
         It is extremely interesting to see the different purposes of music all around the world.  Because I personally am not used to the music in different countries, like Africa.  Music has a great influence all around the world and it is interesting to see the what music serves in different countries.