Additional Work
The Symbiosis of Music & Cultural Traditions
Abstract of Music Psychology Essay by Nick Bitzis
Culture is strictly defined as the “arts and other manifestations of [a group’s] intellectual achievement regarded collectively,”however this definition so broadly addresses the idea of culture, that it fails to honestly inform a reader on the infinite depths, variations, implications and subsequent interpretations that the concept truly bears [Merriam Webster]. Culture can be seen as a collection of parts within a society, but it can reasonably be defined, too, as the nature of the society itself. In this way, we can look at culture as the collective programming, through learned norms and values, of a given community. Culture can certainly be thought to encompass language, clothing, music, food and other arts, but the greater implications of material culture must be thought of in harmonious balance with cultural tradition at every scale.
In the context of arts in material culture, music is undoubtedly one of the most profound influences on our modern cultural traditions. So too is our cultural tradition a driving force of the ever-changing landscape of music. One can think of our cultural tradition being displayed through our society’s behaviors and the fact that these behaviors are founded upon the collectively programmed beliefs, values, thoughts and emotions of the community. It is important to consider “tradition” in this context to refer to the actions and beliefs of a given, and possibly brief, period of time and not necessarily a long-standing ideal.
Music, though, has been present in human interaction for an indefinitely long amount of time it seems. We know our music can tell stories, express emotion, or even represent the broader sociological values of an entire society at a given moment in history. Think of any gathering of humans and music is there, whether it’s a wedding, a funeral, a graduation, men marching off to war, a night on the town, prayer, a romantic dinner or a mother singing her baby to sleep [Levitin, 2006]. With power and prevalence like that, it begs the question of whether music is more greatly influenced by our cultural tradition, or is our cultural tradition more greatly influenced by the music we make?
The answer is certainly not cut-and-dry. Rather one should consider that the two live symbiotically, constantly governing one another. Matthew Kondrat writes that “music is an expressive language of culture.” [Kondrat, 2014] It is both the recipe for and the outcome of our variable culture. Award winning DJ and producer Moby considers the questions a bit differently: “The challenge is to understand the extent to which music informs culture, and the extent to which culture informs music.” [Mbe, 2017] So the answer evolves the question perhaps – a recurring theme. To what extent does one inform the other? And in Western society where music preference, like culture, is changing day to day, how do we make sense of it all? Are we writing the music, or is the music writing us?