KeanuF

 Intro: Ethnomusicology is the study of music from different societies and cultures. Music from all over the world has given us enlightenment because much music today tells stories about either ones own life or the life of someone else to giving messages through music for the listener to take to heart. For this project I'm trying to research how music affects society in the terms of how they feel about it. For example the survey that I would like for everyone to do has to deal with questions relating to music and ther race whether or not there is a difference between the race and the type of music they listen to.


 * Please before you read on complete this [|survey] on music.**

U.S Census:  The U.S Census will help me greatly for this project because in my topic I want to know if different races or religions have to deal with what people listen to as in music. I will also be going into how literacy levels affected the people of the United States (circa. 1970) to today. Religion: As of today Christianity holds the total for most practiced religion in the United States. It estimated 33 percent. The next following is Islam that was at 21 percent. Atheism held number three as it had 16 percent of the United States population. Then came Hinduism with 14 percent of the United State’s population under its belt. African Traditional, Chinese Traditional, and Buddhism are the lowest as they each carry 6 percent of the population around. Before this time there was only 19.3 total amount of Christians. Atheism seemed to get stronger by this time as it climbed to 52 percent back in this time. Today however 38 percent converted to another religion.

Education: From 1970 the literacy rate between citizens ranged between 31.4 percent to an outstanding 69.6 percent by the turn of new millennium. By the year 2009 researchers claim that the literacy rate of United States of America is 99 percent. The population of the United States is roughly 309 million. This means with the 1 percent of illiterate citizens only tallies about 3 to 3.3 million people in the United States.

Race and Ethnicity: As of today Caucasian Americans hold the greatest population alone with 75 percent. That’s 228.2 million. Hispanic or Latino hold 2nd place with 15.4 percent which totals to 46.9 million. African Americans alone have 12.4 percent with 37.6 million people. Finally Asians have only 4.4 percent of the united States with 13.4 million.

Rittenhouse Square Adventures: About 2 weeks ago my class at Science Leadership Academy took a short trip to Rittenhouse Square. We went to to take notes and interview musicians, regular visitors to the park, and record what you found. When we broke off I searched for musicians to help me better understand about music. I met one person who I was really interested in. He was a caucasian american performer named Jim. While playing his instruments I noticed that he played folk songs mostly from different cultures so I asked him my questions. Here were his responses.

Me: Hello I'm doing research about music for my school and i was wondering if you could answer me a few short questions please?

Jim: Sure thing.

Me: Ok what does music mean to you?

Jim: Music means a type of spiritual sound from all over the world blending in to make a great big sound that's enjoyable to listen to.

Me: Ok then the next question is why did you start playing your instrument?

Jim: I started playing guitar as a replacement. I once started off with the saxophone, but the one problem was that I couldn't sing with it. I chose to play guitar because I wanted to sing and play at the same time.

Me: So the final question is do you think a musical genre belongs to a specific race such as only African Americans should only listen to R&B/Hip-Hop

Jim: Absolutely not. Music is not classified by what race should listen to it it's by what the person's heart says. Anyone can listen to any type of music because music brings us together as one race and one person. We shouldn't let something like that get in the way of our everyday lives.

Me: Well thank you for your time you've given me a great understanding of music.

Jim: Glad to help.

Fun Fact: As of 2009 58% of African Americans listen to Rhytym and Blues, 45% of Hispanics and 23% of Caucasian people all listen to it as well.

Analysis about Fun Fact: I chose to add this in because more than half of the world who listen to R&B are in the minority group. If music isn't judged by race or ethnicity then why do only 23 percent of caucasian americans listen to black music like Hip-Hop and R&B. My guess is that they just don't like that, but I can't be so sure.

Sample 1: media type="file" key="07 Un-thinkable (I'm Ready).m4a" width="300" height="50" This song is from Alicia Keys a world wide known neo-soul (sub-genre of R&B) artist. The song Un-Thinkable (I'm ready) was recently made for the debut of her newest released album. So far in the music charts Alicia Keys's hit single has made it to numer 1 most listened to dropping a previous singer Monica from the number 1 spot.

Sample 2: media type="file" key="R.Kelly - I Believe ( Obama Tribute )(1).mp3" width="240" height="20" The song I believe is from R&B/Hip-Hop singer R. Kelly (Robert Kelly). The song was originally made for when the current president Barack Obama won the race and became president of the United States. The song shows hope for change and the repeating lyric I believe shows a symbol of believing that there is hope to come.

Sample 3: media type="file" key="Green day - Good Riddance.mp3" width="240" height="20" The song "Good Riddance" (Time of your life) was written by lead singer Billie Armstrong. In his words Armstrong was saying "At the time I wrote Good Riddance, I was breaking up with a girl that was moving to Ecuador, and I was trying to be as understanding about it as I could. I wrote the song as kind of a bon voyage I was trying not to be bitter, but I think it came out a little bit bitter anyway... I thought that calling the song "Time of Your Life" was just a little too level-headed for me, so I had to come up with something different" To me the songs seems similar to what Armstrong said. This song means about understanding someone and moving on to look to the future and not hold on to the past.

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Please complete this [|survey] on which sample of song you enjoyed the most.

Analysis: After constant searching to see whether if music really is determined by race I found out that it is not at all. Instead music brings us all together and gives us peace whether if that music has a message shown in "I Believe" to never give up hope or in "Good Riddance" as to always look forward to the future and never hold on to the past. Music is a spiritual power that creates peace and harmony and unites us not as races, but as humans.

Acknowledgements:


 * Mr. G Sherif-** You helped me in not only in giving me a project idea you helped me set the whole thing up as in putting together the surveys.
 * Jim:** Thank you for answering my interview questions. You gave me a wonderful insight in what music does to the community and how it creates peace and harmony.


 * Clarinet Player:** Even though you didn't give me much useful information I do thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule in performing for the lovely people in Rittenhouse Square to answer my interview questions.

Citations: Quote from Billie Armstrong-
 * Armstrong, Billie. "Guitar Legends Magazine." //Guitar Legends// May 2005: Print. ||


 * "Major Religion." //Religions//. Adherents.com, August 2007. Web. 1 Jun 2010. . ||


 * Brinkhoff, Thomas. "Literacy Rates." //Literacy Rates of the World//. N.p., 2009. Web. 1 Jun 2010. . ||