(Group Teaching Project) Music: Lost in Translation

Would anyone be interested in focusing on music, in light of some of the discussions that have come up in our past few classes?

I was thinking about focusing on both the appropriation of American music in Europe, American's use of European regional music, and European regional sounds fused with music from other cultures....

What happens to the original intent/meaning behind music?

For example, what does it mean when themes and sounds rooted in hip hop music and culture is used by European musicians? Is the history of the music overlooked? Or does it carry associations with the original form and given its own significance in each culture?

I think this is also applicable in the reverse situation. What happens when a regional musical tradition is exposed to (not to mention marketed to) other cultures? For example, the Balkan sounds used in Beirut, an American group who may not understand the origins and meaning of the music.

OR the Roma Rap that fuses native culture and sounds with a contemporary, hip hop culture?

Is the meaning inherently "lost in translation". Can this be offensive to the original meaning of the music and native cultures?

Is music a transnational art form that is exempt from this type of criticism?