As arts have been transformed by technology, a longstanding domain of music has begun to rapidly disappear – that of making music in daily life. As a result of the increasing relationship between the arts and technology, especially in the United States, it has become far more acceptable for one to enjoy music on headphones than to make music out loud in most social situations. Even those who sing in the privacy of their own showers are often laughed at. While people often view shower-singers as a laughable trope, the scrub-and-sing population represent a rapidly disappearing demographic of US society – that of people who integrate music into their daily lives.
Interestingly enough, other cultures do not have the same perspective on daily music that Americans do, likely in part because they do not have the same technological influences affecting their arts as there are affecting arts in the United States. In Liberia and other parts of West Africa, for example, the arts are a part of daily life because all young men and women go through special training as part of their coming-of-age, which includes training in music and dance. Everyone is expected to be at least somewhat musically proficient, and they mix music into everything they do. When they are working in the rice fields, they sing a song and beat on drums so they can work in time to the music.34 In Ghana, even the postal workers, when cancelling stamps, devised a song that they whistle while creating an intricate rhythm with the stamps.35
This presents a stark contrast to post offices in the United States, which are generally silent, or have quiet, piped music. In the United States, it seems like it is often the case that unless music is the focal point of an event, then live performance, especially in an official capacity, is viewed as less dignified than digitally produced music or silence.
In Brazil, music is also enmeshed in daily life. In the past, Brazilian slaves who were trying to escape invented Capoeira, a sort of martial arts that they disguised with music to make it look like they were dancing.36 Although the need for slaves to escape has disappeared, the tradition is carried on in the form of modern street performers. Those who go to Brazil now report that there are always some kind of street performers out on the streets playing music and dancing. This is considered perfectly acceptable in the Brazilian culture, and those walking by understand what is going on, and would likely feel fine joining in the performance.
Yet if someone in the United States were to sing at the top of their lungs and dance in the center of a public square, in most instances it is unlikely they would have an appreciative audience who felt free to join in. More likely, they would receive a few stares by uncomfortable people walking by. A 2007 performance by Joshua Bell, a world-renowned violinist who decided to perform in a New York subway, went entirely unnoticed by those passing by, and made it into the news simply for the fact that it went unappreciated by everyone else.37
In South India, people are taught the principles of music, but then when they get together, they improvise what they play. Because they have learned the rules, they can play whatever they like. This enables them to combine with others who know the rules and be able to play with them, because they have all learned basic music.38
In the US, Americans have a similar tradition in the form of jazz music, but the openness of jazz is not the same as Carnatic music. The basic principles of jazz are not commonly taught, and while the jazz tradition stemmed from street performers, jazz has been largely boxed up in concert halls and distributed through recordings. As an essentially American type of music, jazz has the potential to be a great source of music in daily life, were it to be more publicly taught and re-opened to public, spontaneous performance.
In Finland, music is considered to be a core part of a child’s learning development, and is seen as making them more able to be calm and concentrate in daily life. Children attend music play groups starting at very young ages, often going with their parents, and integrating the music they learn into their family lives. Music is an active part of the Finnish school and home lifestyle.39
In the US, schools are increasingly underfunding music programs and phasing them out to leave room for other technological pursuits. Those pursuing careers in American music education know they will experience little career respect and cannot expect a wealthy lifestyle from their choice.
In Bali, the Balinese people learn from the time they are children how to play instruments in a Balinese gamelan musical group, and everyone in society knows how to play. Grandparents teach grandchildren, older members of society teach younger members, and the tradition continues as an integrated part of society where everyone knows how to create music, and a strong sense of community is created through music and passed down from generation to generation.40
In the US, those children who choose to learn music are generally taught by a formal music teacher who teaches the child in a setting detached from the child’s regular life, or the children are taught by musical computer programs, which, while having the potential to be very helpful, are at the same time very impersonal.
Certainly different cultures value different things, such as Canada's interest in hockey and Brazil's passion for soccer, but it seems that musical expression is a universal language that transcends the boundaries of nations. While not everyone can kick a soccer goal or skate on ice, pretty much anyone can listen to music. Yet it takes a bit of effort to learn to produce the music itself, and that brings a whole new experience. This experience can be especially rewarding when the learning experience is mixed into normal life along with the musical knowledge being taught. It seems that American culture, by becoming a society focused on the convenience of vicarious participation, is missing the joy of integrating music into everyday life.
Since technology has made American society different from many of these other cultures, it is unlikely that integration of music will occur in the same settings. Most Americans do not find themselves harvesting in the rice fields or planning to escape from slave-drivers, but there are many other instances in which the creation of music could become more acceptable, even in a technology-driven society. A wait in the DMV would be transformed into a much more enjoyable experience if the grim officials were to pull out keyboard and sax and drums and start jamming. A daily bus ride would be far more entertaining if the bus driver sang show tunes. The wait at a doctor's office could be much more tolerable if the receptionists started typing in rhythm and tapping their pencils and singing scat syllables. Waiting in a long line at a ticket office would be much easier if everyone in line started clapping and singing while they waited. While digital music is a great advantage in many situations, and technology can be very helpful in sharing music and other arts, there are instances where modern life could be much improved if more people were to take out their earbuds and join in the creation and sharing of music in daily life, becoming participators and not just consumers.
The USA has a great musical heritage, but in some ways it is beginning to fall behind other cultures in terms of arts participation in daily life. Ironically enough, while technology has enabled Americans to remove music from concert halls and traditional educational settings so they can enjoy it anywhere, the technological forms of music have caused Americans to focus on enjoying music through listening for personal enjoyment only, and they have largely forgotten the value of open education and joint participation in the production of music for enjoyment in the average American lifestyle.
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