I hesitate to make connections (historical, aesthetic, or anything) between different groups of people making different types of music in different places. People of the world may or may not have that much in common–how can I know? I think people gravitate towards similar musical ideas because those ideas work in that context at that given time for that person/people. But “context” is such a huge, unweildly idea. I feel like the word “context” should encompass everything–the knowable and the unknowable. The fact that some music “has things in common” with other music is a hall of smoke and mirrors. It seems like any similarity reveals a difference. Superficially there may be similarities, but on other levels irreconcilable differences exist.
Furthermore, the fact that I can watch a video of music “from one place” then immediately watch a video “from another place” is as much a curse as it is a joy. It is the result of the world getting painfully small. And yet in another way the world feels larger than ever. Is it expanding and contracting at the same rate?? It is incomprehensible. In the end I can really learn nothing from placing one video next to another video. Perhaps the only thought that endures is that culture is bigger than me or you. And since it is bigger than any individual somehow it becomes very elusive. Maybe the more individuals involved in making a culture the more elusive it becomes:
just a silly thought by me lost in these crazy days of life’s great plot unfolding:)
thank you lesley for that second link:)