Def agreed Skept... What you have said is so true... I have seen in it again and again... some people think that because techno is without words, and that because so many people around the world appreciate it, that everyone should have the same universal views... they also feel that everyones views should be the same... thats why we end up having so many arguments about what is considered good vs bad. Cultural differences are an interesting thing to study. Research into cultural differences shows that, even in cultures that are similar, ie within the USA (pittsburgh and detroit for example), unless you were born and raised in that specific city, there are a lot of hidden cultural differences that cause citizens to react differently. Detroiter's for example have a way of doing business that is unlike what I've seen in any other city. Its difficult to explain, but there's different politics and ethics of business here that I've not seen anywhere else. I always find it interesting when people who are from outside of Detroit place judgements about what is right for the city or the citizens, or the development of the music. No matter how much those people do research into the city, unless they were born here or lived it for a long time, they won't understand the city in the same way we will. Not that we dont want people to keep researching and be interested, as sharing of stories from other cultures helps people understand more, and us Detroiter's love that people from other cultures love ours so much. The whole point is that judging one culture based on the cultural views of another becomes a bit tricky sometimes.
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu 31/08/2006 21:21 To: Thomas D. Cox, Jr. Cc: 313@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: (313) Production > music is probably the most universal language there is for > the human species. the best music does the same thing, reguardless of > who made it or where it comes from. i used to think that music was a universal language. then i had some cheesy LER class where the professor did some "clever" thing by asking the class if music is a universal language. everyone said yes. then she played some song from some far off place and asked us to write to the emotion that was being conveyed. everyone wrote down something pretty similar. saying it sounded happy or what not. after this the professor told us what it was about... mourning over death or something like that despite the fact that the class thought it was a happy sounding song. so yeah cheesy story but whatever... it fits. where i am going is that music comes out of different cultures across the word. emotion, or better yet methods of expressing emotion are not the same from culture to culture. therefore when expressing emotion through music is it is going to be expressed in each culture's specific manner causing these emotions to not be delivered or interpreted in the same way. so very culturally specific music is definitely not a universal language. maybe music that is a fusion of culturally specific forms of music (techno) can be a universal language. it represents many cultures combined so many more people will interpret it the same. i guess i could have made this post more simple by saying it's just not so black and white to say all music is universal language. techno may be but the traditional music of native *insert country* people is most likely not universally understood.
