Wrap up blog

During our final presentations, I found the group that did Brazil to be particularly interesting. For instance, I was not aware of the political atmosphere in Brazil so when they talked about the dictatorship, I was fascinated to learn that they were scared by the tropicália music of the people. It was awful that they banned the people who played it and it just goes to show just how powerful music can truly be.

When we studied blues music, I learned that the immigrants and the slaves had a lot more in common than I ever thought. I did not realize that they actually switched instruments with the banjo and the guitar because before this class, I was not aware of the origins of the banjo. Blues music was some of my personal favorite music that has come out of the United States and I think it is a staple for learning about our American culture.

I really enjoyed being able to watch and hear people play music from all around the world; I was introduced to so much cultural music that I may never have gotten to know if I did not take this class. I also appreciated when we would have guest speakers come in, such as Dr. Weeks, and either teach or talk about their own experiences traveling the world and exploring the cultures of many countries. I was not the biggest fan of the textbook solely because I know a lot of people had trouble with it, particularly at the beginning of the semester. Also, I know that since we are in JanTerm, we have to have longer classes to meet all of our hours, but I found it hard to be completely awake because it was just so early and so long. I am not sure how much control you have over that, but I feel that this class might be a lot easier to sit through in the afternoon rather than in the morning.

I think that doing the blogs was an excellent way to really expand our knowledge of cultures that we may not have discussed in class. I loved diving deeper into the music of places such as Mexico and India in my blogs, and have found a lot of new songs that I enjoy wholeheartedly.