Weblog 4: Music in my personal life

Music has always been an important part of my life since I was very young. Some of my earliest memories are sitting in front of the television singing along to Sesame Street and other shows. My elementary school stressed music as a way to learn about cultures, peoples, and languages and forever shaped the way I learn about the world. I was in choir throughout elementary school and was involved in 5 different choirs by my sophomore year of high school. I've always enjoyed listening to new bands and listening to things that are not on the radio. Like most people, middle school was an awkward time for me and I went through phases ranging from goth, a wannabe Avril Lavigne (see Sk8r boi), to outfits straight out of a J-Crew magazine. My taste in music changed in order to match those moods, but throughout all these different stages music was always there for me. I tutored kids for their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs throughout high school and taught them Torah and Haftarah trope. Relating this outside knowledge of music with my Judaism was one of the greatest things I could have done for myself. As a result, I decided that I wanted to be a cantor and lead a congregation in something that I love as a future career. My focus has switched to more theoretical and philosophical topics within Judaism, but I've continued to study ethnomusicology throughout college. 

Music has been a constant throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It acts as a way to console people throughout tough times and as a coping mechanism. As we say in the documentary "Channels of Rage", music acts a way for people to vent their frustrations and to listen to differing opinions about the situation. It acts a way for people to share information about the day to day situation and to listen to someone discuss problems similar to theirs without having to speak words of their own. Music is a huge part of culture and is inherent in both Judaism and Islam. Both religious practices and chants can and have been analyzed as music and have similar origins and sounds on a theoretical level. The West-Eastern Orchestra shows that music can be a meeting ground for people because it exists on the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Music can also reinforce stereotypes about each side, but people that hold these personal views would have them regardless of the music they listen to or not. They would be naturally drawn towards songs that have these views. I swear this rant without a true point will end, but what I mean by all of this is that each group has their own music. Each group is creating music of the same genres as well as different genres. It has acted as a unique outlet to vent about current issues and to spread them to people in order to speak to them, infuriate others, and to create a sense of unity on either end.