Music - Journal Assignment

Let me start this off by saying I love music - I mean, who doesn't? I wake up every morning and have to listen to my iPod for roughly half an hour before I even get out of bed (it's partly to blame if I'm ever late to a morning class..) There's not really one genre I'm interested in, it's kind of just a mix of everything. I'm not sure how it would define me - I understand that if you listen to one particular style that it might be a reflection on who you are or where you came from, but I don't really have one set genre that I'm interested in, so I don't know how it would go about defining me. I love club music for dancing, acoustic for relaxing, and The Lonely Island for when I'm feeling sassy, haha. There are certain songs that I love for defining moments in my life, though.

When I lived in South Africa, I first heard Mama Africa so I associate all her music from when I lived there. (also, kudos to Google for recently remembering her birthday!) Whenever I hear her music it takes me back to 2007.

Also, Fairuz and Um Kalthoum remind me of my childhood and family in Amman, particularly Fairuz. N'Sync and Britney Spears were pretty big then too..

I'm sure I can find so many examples, but those are probably the most striking.

I think music in general is pretty important in cultures. It's a great source of stress relief, and because music (or at least, good music) spreads so quickly, it's an easy way to communicate something to large number of people. You can express yourself through music and create a bond between people, and so something like that seems pretty important for people in conflicts like the Palestinian/Israeli one. Whether you're Israeli or Palestinian you have a message to share, and there are plenty of people willing to listen. It's also a way to reach an audience you normally wouldn't have any interaction with.