As a child, I listened to mostly Bollywood songs and Barney (yes, the purple dinosaur). My obsession with Aaron Carter, Britney Spears, and boy bands caught on once I started school and was exposed to what other kids my age were listening to. A Hispanic friend in elementary school introduced me to Latin American and Reggaeton music, while I didn't join the Kpop fandom well until college. Nowadays, I'm constantly on the lookout for new music from rising artists, as well as mainstream ones. Along the way of my journey with music, I made some realizations about why it's important to listen to music from around the world.
1. Understanding Other Cultures
Radha Kaise Na Jale from Lagaan
Exposing yourself to music from other countries can help you understand more about that country and its people. Listening to artists from other countries opens the gateway to watching music videos from them that can showcase traditions and events from that artist's home country. Going to concerts of an artist from another part of the world can be a learning experience since the crowd of concert-goers can have a different vibe and the artist could have a different way of expressing themselves on stage. For example. I recently went to a concert for a popular Korean group, BigBang, and when the concert started, I realized that they did not have an opening act, which is something that I was accustomed to with Western artists. Overall, it's a less expensive way of learning about a place than visiting it and it can make the world seem like a smaller place if you have access to foreign music.
2. Learning a Language
One way to make the process of learning a language easier is by listening to songs in that language. Speaking from past experience, listening to music in Spanish made it easier to pick up vocabulary due to certain repetitive phrases from songs that I had on replay. It can also give you an idea of how native speakers of the language converse in it rather than learning the language in a formal setting.
3. Connecting to the Emotion
If you don't know the words to a song, it makes it harder to sing along. However, this allows for paying more attention to the beat, as well as the emotions that the artist is trying to relay in the song. I often find myself connecting more to a song that has a beautiful melody and being able to add my own interpretation to the music.
I hope this encourages you to explore the world through music and expand your song collection!
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