Metropolitan environments are a big part of music locality and ecology but in this thesis, we will focus more on the effects of the natural environment.
Through the above examples it becomes apparent that there is an undoubted connection between the locally produced music and the social and environment condition in which it is born, putting music ecology and music sociology on the table as a matter of research. In this thesis, through the example of music produced in Epirus, we will attempt to identify how music ecology and music sociology make an appearance in the music.
In terms of social factors, Pagode is a typical example. ‘’ Pagode originated in Rio de Janeiro. It is considered a genre of samba music. But, critics say this type of music is more in tune with true samba by exaggerating all of its clichés. As a result, pagode made its way into the popular mainstream media and it is a characteristic of Brazilian culture as much or more than samba. Its lyrics are dominated by slang and Brazilian local terms. Underground words from Rio de Janeiro’s favelas are also intensely used in this music.. ‘’ (Journeyz.co)
In this case the purpose of music is to highlight the unbalances and overcome them by reaching a point beyond these unbalances, while becoming a powerful tool for social expression. Popular music has gifted societies the valuable tool of uncensored expression and unfiltered truths of inclusivity. As a social tool, music is there to record and archive societal unbalances and injustices, and to provide a tool to unite and walk past them, creating equality in the moulding of new popular traditions. In this case, the purpose of music is to highlight the unbalances and overcome them by reaching a point beyond them.
Another characteristic example of the triptych of natural environment, social conditions and locality is Ska music. This time we will not look inwards into the change of the music locally through time, but we will observe what happens to music when it travels and is interpreted in a completely different setting from the original, where the social conditions are very much different. The music still maintains its core characteristics but transforms into a different type of expression.
Is the Ska produced in Kingston Jamaica in the environment of the island in the 1950’s and 60’s the same as the two-tone ska produced in Coventry England in the late 1970’s?
What is that changes the same music so drastically and what are the social aspect each type of Ska covers?
Ska was born in the Island of Jamaica towards the end of the 1950s
It combined musical element of Caribbean Mento and Calypso with a bit of American Jazz and also Rhythm and Blues. (…) In the early 1960s, Ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with the other communities as well, including the British Community.(Jamaican music) Ska stated intaking its influences after slavery was finally outlawed in 1834. Influenced by Calypso, Mento, Rhythm and blues, and jazz, it took its final form in the late 1950’s, which carried a lighter spirit and a sense of freedom that finally became the sound of Jamaican liberation from the British on the 6th of August 1962. Immediately we can recognise the social factors that dictate the spirit of Ska music. People celebrated their independence with hope for the future, with confidence and dreams about the possibilities that the independence would signify. Ska was there to capture the feeling and take a ‘’sound picture’’ of that period.
Ska music flourished for over a decade before evolving into rocksteady and reggae due to the deteriorating social conditions on the island of Jamaica. Every time the social situation deteriorated the tempo would come down, changing the feel of the music and its effect on the people.
It is very often that we come across distinctive music from different places around the world. This is because music has been so characteristic that it has created intentionally or non-intentionally a brand around it. Musician or not, when you hear specific genres of music you make an immediate association with a geographical location. There are evident examples, such as Reggae taking you to Jamaica, Son taking you to Cuba, Gnawa music taking you to Morocco, Tarantella taking you to Italy and Carnatic music to India. But can these styles characterise the music of an entire country? Or, if the same music will be performed in a different environment than the environment of origin, will it be the same?
In terms of national identity, a lot of music indeed characterises whole countries, but only in the ears of an external listener or on a very general and superficial level. Many people, when they hear Samba, make the association with the whole of Brazil. This is only partly true though, as within the country people could identify through a mainstream music style but also hold the identities of their local musical styles, which flourish equally strongly, parallel to the mainstream for different reasons that may be local, historical or social. Plurality of musical identities is present in different regions of the country, but in many cases also locally within the same region. In the case of Brazil, you can find different styles in the North, North-east, Centre-west, South-east and South of the country.
Ska music, and the styles from which it was influenced, were borrowing their thremmatology from everyday local stories and the way of life of people. A Caribbean Island way of life that differs majorly from that of the mainland or even that of the UK. The natural environment as much as the built one, drew a very characteristic picture that is also depicted in Ska music.
Since the beginning of its existence ska made its move slowly into the UK, infecting English society with its uplifting spirit. It did not become mainstream though, as it clashed with the social conditions of England in the 1970’s.
‘’In several regional British cities, the distinct late 1970s combination of economic turmoil, unemployment benefits (effectively an arts subsidy), and art school punks resulted in a generation of eccentric talent. In Coventry, the southernmost centre of Britain’s Midlands engineering belt, the outcome was 2-Tone, a mostly white take on ska, the music brought to Britain by Jamaican immigrants in the mid-1960s and favoured by English mods of the period, whose two-tone Tonik suits gave the latter-day movement its name (Silverton, 2010).
As a final point I would like to underline through the Coventry example that music ecology is influenced by a built environment such as urban or metropolitan. It becomes evident that in this case the natural environment passed to the background and the built environment comes forward. In this case, the nature of music and the rhythms of life but also of the metropolises themselves dictated the spirit and type of music. In this case I would like to underline an existing paradox. Since we claim that nature and environment dictate the local music we come across a paradox since the built environment is built also by people. In this case something built by people influences the music of people, so is the built environment meant to influence the music in a specific way or are we looking at the effects of a random and unplanned continuation of events? In any case, there is an undeniable variety in music produced in metropolitan environments such as Punk Rock and Electronic music.
The punk rock of the 1970’s and 1980’s in London U.K. differs from the punk rock of California U.S.A. in the aesthetics, signature sound and themes as much as Techno music from the 1980s in Berlin Germany differs from Electronic music produced in Istanbul Turkey.
In the North-east of Brazil, Samba is definitely present, but at the same time there are more, locally strong music styles/identities such as Forro. But even if we look within the same region or the same areas there can be variation dictated by music locality and ecology, and sociology. In the South-east of Brazil and in particular around Rio de Janeiro you can come across Samba but also within the same area Pagode, Samba- rock and Marchinha. In this case within a few tens of kilometres you have a plurality in music styles depending on social factors and the purpose of the music. Other times music serves the reflection of one side of Brazilian culture and lyrics reflect the social situation in the favelas, other times they reflect class and the roots of African origin communities, and other times they reflect the ridicule of higher colonial spirit due to instrumentation but also the lyrics and dancing style.
The sound of Ska music alters, and it is tailored to the local environment and the social conditions. Contrary to Kingston Jamaica and the Caribbean setting, Coventry was a city, unfortunately left in ruins after WWII and rebuilt to the industrial standards of UK in that period. Economic recession, strikes, low salaries and unemployment could not be expressed through the first wave of Ska, leading to 2-tone Ska. The social conditions as much as the built environment dictated once again the spirit of the music, and what kind of tool it would become in the hands of communities.
From these two sources we can clearly see an underlying connection between music, the natural environment, the social/sociological condition and all this within ‘’the borders’’ of Northeast Brazil. We could keep facts like ‘’the northeast has one of the driest and hottest conditions in Brazil’’ and ‘’the music originated in local farms where farmers sung while doing their chores connected to farming and the coffee plantations.’’ We once again come across the triptych of music being dictated by natural environment, social conditions, and locality.
As a matter of fact, ethnomusicologist Michael Silvers writes about the connections between the Forro music of Brazil and the environment – particularly the effects of drought – in his new book, “The Voices of Drought: The Politics of Music and Environment in North-eastern Brazil.”
Silvers claims that:
“Drought is all over the lyrics of this music. Most of the best-known songs talk about the landscape and the experience of drought exile and of being a drought refugee,”… “Some of these songs are very well-known but not thought of as protest music,” … “The north-easterners were a maligned and marginalized population in the Brazilian imagination, and one of the goals of the music was to humanize these people and paint a portrait of their experience.”
On the other hand, we have ‘’Marchinha which is is a march-style dance from Brazil. It has been specifically made for the Carnival of Rio and it represents a type of music that also features specific dancing. It is a comical type of music and dance used as a satire. Both musicians and dancers march similarly to army troops while singing. This style of music has been popularized around the world through the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Music fans can also learn to play it with instruments such as tubas and horns. These instruments are also specific to army orchestras. (Journeyz.co)
Marchinha is a beautiful example of music becoming a tool of art in the process of retaining collective memory but through satire moving forward while expressing the discontent for the past. It is a tool to process the past and remember the history, but evolve it into the ‘’own’’ and use it for the benefit of all parts of society
Apart from the social aspect there is of course the influence of the local music ecology.
In the Northeast of the country flourishes the music style Forro. According to Britannica,
The Northeast, which experiences some of the nation’s driest and hottest conditions, has nearly one-fifth of Brazil’s land area and more than one-fourth of the population. It contains the states of Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, and Pernambuco, the latter including the island of Fernando de Noronha, some 225 miles (360 km) off the Atlantic coast. The region’s oldest cities date from the 16th century, when the Portuguese first established sugarcane plantations there. The Northeast accounts for one-fifth of the nation’s agricultural production, but the industrial and service sectors lag far behind those of the Southeast and South (…) (Britanica).
What, though, do geographical characteristics have to do with the creation of a music style like Forro? Why does the specific style originate from the northwest of Brazil and not from any other place? It seems, as in many music traditions, that the local natural and built environment has its important role and gives the answer.
‘’ Forro is a type of music specific to the Northeast region of Brazil.(…) It is believed this music genre originated on local farms where farmers used to sing while doing their chores such as feeding cattle or gathering coffee. Forro also has a dance style attached to its name. If the forro music is very specific for the Northeast region, Forro dancing combines dancing influences of North and Southern Brazil. Forro is also highly established as a music genre abroad, specifically in Europe.´´ (Journeyz.co)