Growing up, my family hosted many exchange students, 7 in total, from all over the world and one

way that I connected with them was through music. They would always want to have the popular

American music and I would always ask for their favorite songs. For Christmas, my exchange brother

Konrad from Hamburg gave me a MP3 player full of his favorite American songs and German songs. This

sparked an interest in me to make mixtapes for everyone I knew. My English teacher in high school told

me that 10 percent of every genre is excellent, which lead to an avid search to find that 10 percent for

the mixtapes. I would incorporate a wide variety of artists because I enjoyed sharing different sounds

and seeing people’s reactions to these sounds. My mixtapes would have artists ranging from Songhoy

Blues from Mali to Caetano Veloso from Brazil to Brother Ali from Minnesota to Kaizers Orchestra to

Danger Mouse to The Young Dubliners to Dumbfoundead to MF Doom and countless others. I would use

these different artists to learn languages, different cultures, and try to memorize the lyrics to impress

people. One of the ways I fell in love with learning Spanish was by trying to memorize raps by Nach, El

Chojin, SFDK, and Kaseo. This course allowed me to think about the globalized context of music that I

grew up with and that I have been fortunate enough to be fully engaged with throughout my life.

Without the globalization of music, I would not have been able to search for this 10 percent as easily,

access the variety of songs as effortlessly, or learn the context of the songs as readily.

I understood through this course that learning the context and history is incredibly important and

often overlooked, especially ever since globalized music has become more commonplace. I appreciate

all the music that I come across, but appropriation can occur with even the best intentions. This course

demonstrated the importance and impact attributing sounds, rhythms, and instruments to their creators

has in establishing agency, compensation, and recognition. Attributing the sources of information has

always been stressed throughout my college career and the same is equally important for music and the

music industry. However, this practice is not always enforced or, more accurately, the systems in place

permit artists with power and means to avoid providing proper attributions and compensation. I think
the example of Paul Simon’s Graceland shows how an artist with good intentions can still exploit the

music industry to their benefit. While Simon did compensate the South African artists and brought more

awareness to South African music and sounds, he did so to further his career and did not include the

original artists in the final production of the music. The documentary “Rumble” demonstrated how

important contributions to music come from groups that don’t receive recognition or compensation.

Something I found incredibly noteworthy is that this musical innovation and creation came from

oppressed and marginalized groups like Native Americans and Black people. I valued the context with

which our conversations and discussions took place. Understanding the larger socio-political pressures

like colonialism that move people provides greater insight into how music mixes, melds, and molds to its

surroundings. Music is an integral part of culture and self-identity.

I took this course along with Spanish in Ohio by Dr. Foulis this semester. The overlap between

learning about the societal, economic, and political forces of Latinos in the United States and music

moving was intriguing and inspired me to look at Spanish-speaking artists from the US. Through the final

course project, I learned that there are far more Latina emcees from the United States than I had known

about beforehand. The Spanish male rappers listed above are all from Spain and learning about Spanish-

speaking artists from within the United States was eye-opening and demonstrated the extent of rap as a

genre for self-expression. With the final project, I learned that there are more musical connections and

cultures within my community than I had known before this course. I had assumed that music from

faraway places was faraway, but through this course and final project I realized that pockets of such

music and culture can be found nearby. The onus is on me to search for these cultures within my

community. While faraway music may be difficult to find or there may be limited sources nearby, the

search and attempt to connect with these cultures is just as important as the connection itself. In doing

so, I must be sure the connection is authentic, appreciative, and respectful. I will look to music as a

primary method of connection with new people, areas, and cultures as I move forward through life.