Music - Urban Music Bridges Cultural Differences

Urban Music Bridges Cultural Differences
By Candace Mitchell, 9th grade
April 19, 2002

Urban music, a distinctive and rebellious form of expression, has always been a sultry fusion of cultural fabrics. It has detailed our history from the times of enslavement to the age of computers and automatic cars, incorporating the traditions of its surrounding society into every note.

The trend is apparently contagious.

Turn on the radio, and you are bombarded with Latin beats, African-inspired vocal styles, Asian instrumentals, and European lyrical forms dangerously colliding to bring about the songs popular society has come to love. Could it possibly be that music has been more progressive than the very society it means to reflect? It's doing what our country has been struggling to do for centuries: bridging cultural differences for a unified result. Almost recklessly, music has integrated supposedly opposing cultural forces into a dynamic blend. There is no political message behind the attempts of the musicians-they are not trying to be social reformers; they are not trying to change the world; I have a feeling they just want to make good music.

Musicians must know a little bit more than the average American about diversity. They look beyond comfort zones and parameters to craft what is truly beautiful; differences descend when artists step on stage and tap microphones. If society is to be inspired by music, I hope that the room music allows for differences is most embraced.

Keeping in mind the events of 9-11, may music heal what rhetoric has harmed. If we all stopped to "make good music," then maybe the source of the notes, beats, lyrics, and instruments would be irrelevant. In the end, the sounds we would create would come purely from the heart.

SPONSORS

	©2003 Role Models Foundation, Inc., No part of this website may be used without the express permission of the author.