Critical review of music

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MUS 2433 Writing Assignment: Critical Review of
“World Music” Recording

Choose either Topic A or Topic B.

• Suggested length: 3 pages or 600 words.

• First Draft Due in Module 4

• Final Paper Due in Module 5

• Completion Time: First draft – 4 hours. Final draft – 3 hours.

Topic A:

A defining feature of “world music,” “world beat,” or “ethno-pop,” as it has variously
been called, is the production of recordings by well-known American and European pop
musicians that include traditional musicians from other cultures performing in a back-up
role, or that call attention to themselves by the use of musical exotica extracted from
traditional cultures. Such recordings suggest a range of issues and questions that invite
critique and debate. Some of these are listed below:

1. How do a recording’s musical arrangements, title, graphics, and accompanying
notes represent the relationship between Western lead musicians and
participating traditional musicians?

2. Is music on the recording attributed to an author, composer, or arranger? Who
holds the copyright? What do attributions and credits suggest about rights to, and
ownership of, the music?

3. Are the musical and personal relationships negotiated through the production of
the album compatible with beliefs about rights to, and ownership of, music in the
imported tradition represented on the recording?

4. Does the lead artist show musical respect for the imported tradition(s)
represented on the recording? What is “musical respect” and how might it be
shown or not shown?

5. Do artists who employ traditional musicians have obligations not only to the
musicians but to the political entities or cultural traditions that they represent?
What factors would determine whether they do or do not?

6. Should traditional musicians be implicated in the capitalist culture of risk that is
an inherent part of the record business? That is, should traditional musicians get

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a fixed “session” fee for participating in a recording, or should they be paid
royalties based on sales?

7. Are cross-cultural “world music” and “world beat” projects inherently opportunistic
and exploitative?

The Assignment:

Choose either a recording from the attached list or a recording not on the list that meets
the criteria of “a cross-cultural fusion in which Western musicians work with artists or
musical material from traditions different than their own.” If you choose a recording not
on the list, please let me know what it is before you begin your work.

Write a critical review of the recording in which you do the following:

1. Offer a concise description of the musical and aesthetic concept behind the
recording, or answer the question, “What did the artists or producers set out to
do?”

2. Discuss the way in which “roots” music is incorporated into the musical sound.

3. Discuss musical, aesthetics, and ethical issues that the recording raises, taking
into account the list provided above. Think about the relationship between
aesthetics (what is beauty?) and ethics (what is good?). You are welcome to
consider issues on the list provided above as well as issues not on the list.

4. Offer your critical judgment about ways in which the project succeeds or fails as
music and as an exercise in developing cross-cultural understanding and
relationships.

Topic A: Suggested Recordings:

• Paul Simon, “The Rhythm of the Saints” (with Latin American musicians)

• David Byrne, “Rei Momo” (with Latin American musicians)

• Peter Gabriel, “Passion” (created for the soundtrack to “The Last Temptation of
Christ” based on Middle Eastern Music); (may discuss together with Gabriel’s
“Passion Sources”)

• Kate Bush, “The Sensual World” (with Bulgarian women)

• Mickey Hart, “Planet Drum” and “At the Edge” (“world percussion”)

• Paul Winter, “Earthbeat” (jazz and Russian village music)

• Outback: “Dance the Devil Away” and “Baka” (Aboriginal music combined with
folk guitar)

• “Spirit of the Forest” (Baka Beyond) jam sessions with Baka Pygmies and
composer/guitarist Martin Cradick

• Linda Ronstadt, “Canciones de mi padre” (with Mexican and Mexican-American
musicians)

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• Talking Heads, “Reamin in Light” (appropriation of scratch, funk, Afro-Beat and
jùjú rhythm)

• “A World out of Time” Vols. 1 and 2 (Pop/avant-garde guitarists Henry Kaiser and
David Lindley join musicians in Madagascar)

• “Talking Timbuktu” (Guitarist Ry Cooder grooves with griots from the Sahara)

• Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble, “Music for the Native
Americans”

• “The Sweet Sunny North” (avant-garde musicians Henry Kaiser and David
Lindley jam with traditional musicians in Norway)

• Paul Simon, “Graceland”

• Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, “No Quarter.” (collaboration with musicians from
Egypt)

Topic B:

The mirror image of the “world music” phenomenon described in Topic A is the
appropriation of Western musical instruments, sounds, structures, and styles by
musicians whose cultural origins are outside the West. Recording by such musicians —
also frequently referred to generically as “world beat,” “ethno pop,” or “world pop” —
raise issues that are the obverse of those listed under topic A. For example:

1. Do musicians from non-Western cultures tend to sell their own musical traditions
short when they merge these traditions with Western styles and techniques,
usually in a pop or jazz groove?

2. Can music remain “traditional” while incorporating elements of Western musical
modernity? What are the criteria for classification as “traditional” music?

3. Does the commercial success of fusion recordings tend to undermine the cultural
authority of more traditional musicians in the non-Western countries from which
these projects emerge?

4. Do these projects tend to produce music that wears well with time, or does the
music appear in hindsight to have been slapped together quickly as a response
to the music industry’s hunger for fads and novelty?

5. Even though native musicians are ostensibly in control of the projects, do they
invariably end up being exploited by the entertainment business? (i.e., recruited,
recorded, and rejected as soon as they fail to meet marketing goals).

The Assignment:

Choose a recording from the attached list or a recording not on the list that meets the
following criteria (if the recording you choose is not on the list, please let me know what
it is):

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• The featured artist is either from outside the United States or has musical roots in
a style or repertory outside mainstream American music (e.g., jazz, blues, pop,
Anglo folk).

• The recording merges elements of traditional ethnic music with more mainstream
musical styles and structures.

Write a critical review of the recording in which you:

1. Offer a concise description of the musical project presented on the recording.

2. Explain how the resources of Western musical traditions (e.g., instruments,
styles, textures, cultural references, recording techniques) are merged with those
of the featured non-Western tradition(s).

3. Discuss musical, aesthetic, and ethical issues that the recording raises, taking
into account the list provided above.

4. Offer your critical judgment about ways in which the project succeeds or fails as
music and as an exercise in developing cross-cultural understanding and
relationships.

Topic B: Suggested Recordings:

• The Ravi Shankar Project: Tana Mara (a fusion of Indian raga, the technology of
synthesizers and digital sampling keyboards, and Western popular music.
Vocalists include George Harrison)

• Sheila Chandra (a fusion between Indian classical and film music and English
pop)

• Ofra Haza: “Kirya” and “Fifty Gates of Wisdom” (Yemenite Jewish songs
performed in a pop style)

• R. Carlos Nakai: “Feather, Stone & Light” (New Age Native American music
featuring flutist R. Carlos Nakai, guitar player William Easton, and percussionist
Will Clipman)

• King Sunny Ade and his African Beats: “Juju Music” and “The Return of the Juju
King” (“Afro-Pop”)

• Ebenezer Obey: “Get Yer Jujus Out” (“Afro-Pop”)

• Baaba Maal “Firin’ in Fouta” (“Afro-Pop”)

• Yat Kha, “Yenisei Punk” (Tuvan “techno-ethnic-acid-folk music“)

• Shakti, “The Best of Shakti” with John McLaughlin, Shankar, Zakir Hussain, T.H.
Vinayakram (fusion of Indian classical music and jazz)

• Deep Forest, “Boheme” (samplings of music from Transylvania)

• “Deep Forest” (samplings of pygmy music)

• “Dead Man Walking” soundtrack album: cuts by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with
Eddie Vedder [see me for source recordings of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan]

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• The Bulgarian Voices “Angelite” Featuring Huun-Huur-Tu and Sergei Starostin,
“Fly, Fly My Sadness” (Bulgarian female choir joins forces with Tuvan overtone
singers)

• “Planet Soup: A Stirring Collection of Cross-Cultural Collaborations and Musical
Hybrids” [3 CDs] (from the liner notes: “Three hours of compelling global music
created by over 200 musicians in over 35 countries)