Isha's blog

  Thanks to the work of psychologists of music during the 21st century, new concepts of biological evolution were introduced to musicology. This new interest raised questions related to biological evolution and the capacity to make and experience music. In the last few years, the “evolution of musicality” has returned as an important subject and opportunity for contemporary musicological research.   What is “evolution”?   When Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, he did so without the concept of genes. Instead, Darwin based his theory on three requirements: (1) variation among individuals; (2) inheritance or transmission; and (3) selection of certain variants more likely to be inherited.  These principles have been applied equally to both biological and cultural evolution.   Recent advances in cultural evolution have led to the possibility of replacing the word “genes” with the word “variants”, leading to consider any inherited information, such...

  Music, Communication and Affect   Music, like every other way of human communication, exists in and depends upon the culture and its interactions. Outside the industrialized western world –where music is usually regarded as a commodity–, music is part of important active and interactive behaviors. (Bispham, 2009, p. 30). Even though the meaning of music is the result of a specific cultural and social context, we all seem to be able to engage with and/or respond appropriately to some aspects of music outside our own culture (Bispham, 2009, p. 30).   This paradox is easier to understand if we accept the notion that musical engagement works at different yet possibly overlapping dimensions: such as biological, social, and cultural dimensions (Bispham, 2009, p. 30).   Music is commonly associated with “emotion”. Sensations of “peak experience”, “shivers” or “chills” have all been reported as evidence of strong emotional experiences with music (Bispham, 2009, p. 30)- Ho...

  During the last two decades, Bollywood, India’s film industry has become the biggest worldwide film industry in terms of film production size. With more than 27 thousand films, and around 1000 films per year, Bollywood’s movies have spread all round the world. Bollywood first appeared around 1912 in Bombay, India. Its history abroad can be traced to small screenings in college rooms and movies watched by expatriate Indians during the late 1960’s and 1970’s. During those years, in both the U.S. and the UK, it was very rare to find Indian community centers and even less common, any media related to India’s cultural values. The future development of Bollywood and the Indian film industry wouldn’t have been the same without these spaces where people from the community could wear traditional clothes and take part in activities that reminded them of “home” (Bouka, Merkouri and Metaxas, 2015, p. 4). During the end of the 1990’s India’s presence in the media grew. Bollywood’s movies, bro...

  During the last few years, music psychologists have realized the importance of cross-cultural research when investigating the different kinds of musical thoughts. In general terms, cross-cultural research in music studies tries to join methods from different disciplines such as ethology and ethnography to better understand the diversity and richness of music, human responses, context and the cultural conditions in which music is experienced (Stevens, 2004, p. 433) Cross-cultural research in music cognition is still growing. There is much to be studied to identify unique or universal features in different musical environments. But so far, studies have proved that a common feature of practically all of the world’s musical systems is the use of stable pitch levels in a scale (Stevens, 2004, pp. 433-434). Over the last 20 years, music cognition has studied the reactions to different sequences of musical tones or melodies. Proposing that a piece of music in a familiar genre creates ce...

  Music in India: An Overview The music of India compares to its incredibly diverse population: it can range from classical music called Ragas to the hyper-pop music produced for Bollywood, the Indian film industry. So, why is music so important to the development of Indian culture? In Indian philosophy, sound in its purest form is the absolute truth. Before written language developed, the higher powers would spread their teachings, or truths, orally, allowing sound to be the only form of "knowing and understanding the truth" (Evans, 2). The significance of sound translates to music. According to Indian philosophy, the truths perceived in the universe are not rigid, not universal, and inarguable. The truth is construed as the smaller subsets of individual or communal beliefs that vary depending on the circumstances. The truth is a penetrable boundary that we can easily cross with logical criticism. The universe was created from the initial sound, "Aum." It is said t...

The UK is home to many diverse South Asian communities who value music not only as a source of enjoyment, but as an activity that allows them to build networks and make their culture audible. As a rich and engaging ground for research, members of academic institutions now more than ever, need to take part in these communities in order to produce ethnographically informed and collaborative projects.   The British Isles have always been multicultural. They have been the subject of flows of people from other lands, through migration, invasion and more; creating a culturally plural national identity. Over the last 30 years, there has been an enormous amount of sociological and anthropological interest in Britain’s multiculturalism. Nowadays, sociologists have tried to focus on multiculturalism as a concept, asking questions and having doubts on the benefits and disadvantages of past studies and arguing that multiculturalism should be about valuing cultural diversity (Hodgson and Clarke...

When Women Play: The Relationship between Musical Instruments and Gender Style By Ellen Koskoff In many societies throughout history, musical roles and performances have been proved to be divided along gender lines. In 1995, only a small 10% of ethnomusicological journals referred to women performing musical instruments (Koskoff, 1995, p. 115). These studies, classified into four basic contexts provided an important background towards a theory of gender and instrumental practices.  In western classical music and music traditions in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa musicians were supported by a small elite or ruling class. Both male and female musicians came from a low social status, however, only women were described and linked to their roles, commonly portrayed as courtesans (Koskoff, 1995, p. 116). Examples such as the Jaina in Tunisia and the geisha in Japan highlighted the ambiguous and sometimes powerful role of the courtesan/musician. Most of their roles were related to s...