Hybrid & Postcolonial Music

Ethnomusicology

¥Bruno Nettl, a music and anthropology professor, lists some of the various definitions for "ethnomusicology." Meanings, in terms of the material that is studied, range from "folk and what used to be called "primitive," i.e. tribal or possibly ancient music, to "all human music" (The Study of Ethnomusicology, 2-3). Definitions that define by type of activity involve denotations that include "a comparitive study (of musical systems and cultures)." Nettl states that all musicologists, "at some level of conceptualization, they regard all musics as equal. Each music, they believe, is equally an expression of culture, and while cultures may differ in quality, they are bound to believe in the fundamental humanity, hence goodness, of all peoples" (The Study of Ethnomusicology, 10).

Colonialism and the Production of Hybrid Culture

Colonialism affected the people who were colonized economically, socially, and poltically. In addition, cultural changes manifested themselves in literature, art, and music, which is the focus of this site. When elements are brought, coerced, or drawn together, they may either repel, mingle, or do a bit of both. Examples of musical hybrids abound as the post-colonial period of history reigns. The colonized and the colonists affected and influenced one another. The diaspora of migrants contribute to the fusion of different cultures' musical instruments, structure, and sound. The result of the hybrids demonstrates a new world sound, one that can not be compartmentalized according to land, language, and political borders.

Responses to Western Influences

¥Nettl cites three types or groups of motivation of non-Western societies as expressed in their musical behavior in an essay entitle "Cultural Grey-Out" (The Study of Ethnomusicology, 347-48). The first is "the desire to leave traditional culture intact, survival without change" (Study, 347 ). The second is complete Westernization, "that is, simple incorporation of a society into the Western cultural system" (Study, 347). The third is moderate compared to the first two and is the motivation of "modernization," a term which Nettl defines as "the adoption and adaptation of Western technology and other products of Western culture, as needed, simultaneously with an insistence that the core of cultural values will not change greatly and does not match those of the West" (Study, 348).

Hybrid Music Forms

¥In addition to Westernization, one must also consider the influence that the colonies have had on Western culture. Since the 1960's, the promulgation of hybridity constitutes a large facet of music.

¥The band Yothu-Yindi derives its moniker from Aboriginal Australian identity as expressed by the mother-child or yothu-yindi link... which is an organisational feauture of traditional ritual song and popular music (Stokes,136 ). Aboriginal pop music groups formed in the 1970's and were powered by the business of the music industry, so that bands such as "the Galiwin'ku pop group, Soft Sands... accomodated familiar Western music styles by playing a mixture of Country and Western and Gospel songs" (Stokes, 146). Yothu-Yindi was part of a shift in the nature of Aboriginal pop as the group applied Yolngu worldview in their second album in 1991, entitled Tribal Voice, which incorporated traditional songs with their original form and words. The "restructuring of song texts by incorporating a mixture of ritual symbolism and concern with colonial hegemony" builds further resistance against European musical values (Stokes, 147).

¥On the opposite end of the spectrum, a band such as Cibo Matto exemplifies the assimilation of Western culture and the band displays the effects of Westernization with extreme and indulgent lyrics. <<White pepper ice creamÑIt's like a line drawingÑIt's snipped my heartÑWhite pepper ice creamÑIn my mouthÑIt stings my lips,Ñ It's like an eclipseÑAs if I'm in the crossword puzzleÑBut I can't fill in the blank... C'est ma égal.>> The band also makes the most of the technology raised by Westerners and the suave of the beat-poets and apply it to the Japanese group's own purposes. All of the lyrics on the album Viva! La Woman, a hybrid combination of inter-Western language and motto, are in English.

¥The distance between the two ends of the spectrum of hybridity abounds with smart rhythms and fresh sounds that demonstrate the movement of people as they migrate and circulate across the man-made boundaries between land and sea. Ravi Shankar has been instrumental in fusing classical Indian music with Western sounds since the 1960's , when he began collaborating with The Beatles, specifically, George Harrison. DJ and producer Talvin Singh released a compilation of dance tracks called Soundz of the Asian Underground, ranging from trip hop to junge beats to ambient, created by Asian musicians and features instruments indigenous to their culture.

¥The multi-talented Ashwin Batish joins "contemporary rock rhythms with Sitar melodies and solos as the lead voice" (Sitar Power #2) in his 1986 album named Sitar Power, which is followed up by Sitar Power #2, which blends tablas and sitar with synthesisers and guitars. Started by two brothers, the band Cornershop hails from England and composes songs that have evolved drastically over the course of their career. The band began with outspoken political views, a denouncement and demonstration outside of icon Morrissey's record label (because he had been showing racist behavior much like that of the National Front), and were less than proficient at playing their instruments. The latest Cornershop album, When I Was Born for the Seventh Time, places the group as a forerunning example of the possibilities of mixing eastern and western instruments (dholki, sitars, and tamboura work alongside keyboards, samples, and fuzzy guitar) as well as languages (Tjinder Singh sings lyrics in English, Punjabi, and some French is rattled off in the mix).

¥Lambarena: Bach to Africa is a tribute to physician, musician, and Bach scholar, Albert Schweizer ( 1875-1965), who spent a large part of his life in Gabon. African rhythms and the sound of the Western classical compositions of J.S. Bach meet and engage in an aural cross-cultural dance. A sample of a work with the sounds of consolidated cultures is the simplest way to demonstrate the aural fecundity that exists at this time in the history of music. On this page is a clip from track #13 of Lambarena. The piece is "Ihr lieblichste Blicke, ihr freudige Stunden." "Against the rhythm of the Ndjobi dance from Haut-Ogooué, Bach's horn part is blended with the sounds of the antelope horn, an instrument which is used in both hunting as well as for invoking the spirits during ritual ceremonies" (Lambarena, liner notes).