This week, we discussed the idea of “local” music, and how different styles of music have become the mainstream. We had a class padlet to put forward our thoughts:
One main point that stands out to me is the idea of cultural appropriation. This has been a topic that we have discussed previously in other lectures, and I personally feel that in regards to music genres, cultural appropriation has lost its weight. I believe that a lot of modern songs and songwriters can be accused of cultural appropriation even though nothing will come of it, even if these songs are simply incorporating elements of traditional, local music.
In what I consider my “local” area of Cornwall, I cannot say that I know much of the musical culture in the area. I have had glimpses at traditional Cornish folk musical at festivals and the occasional gig, although based on my experience, it does not differ much from what you would expect folk music to sound like (aside from the lyrics, which are all very much patriotic Cornish).
The session also consisted of us using the software “BandLab”. I had previously used this software for a brief amount of time, although this minimal experience did nothing to help me in the session. I worked with my group (from the prosody song) in order to try and make some sort of short song. However, we were unable to come up with anything that stood out, due to a mix of technical issues and general frustration with the software. I was able to plug my guitar into my interface to connect it to BandLab, and I came up with a simple 4 chord progression consisting of Ebmaj7, Emin7b5, Fmin7b5 and Bb7, accompanied by a simple snare/kick pattern.
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