A Report On An Example Of Global Music Report Examples

It goes without saying that nowadays the popularity of Western music is growing from year to year, despite the fact that it has become less technical, less emotional and more commercial and business-oriented. Therefore, any sophisticated music fan will try to find something new and fresh for listening sooner or later. He or she will definitely discover some new genres that might be more appealing to him.
The main purpose of the current report is to provide the most prominent example of something that may be characterized as non-Western type of music. Such genres are usually called “world music” or “global music” and they tend to contain traditional sounds of the lands and cultures they come from. They vary from Cuban and African to Eastern types of world music. The following paragraphs will describe one of the most popular example of South African world music, which significantly contributed not only to development of African music, but inspired many musicians and music bands from all over the world, including the Western musicians. This is a band that consists of a male choir that has a name “Ladysmith Black Mambazo”.
They are the best known representatives of iscathamaya genre, which can be described as Zulu a cappella genre; however, the band has somehow mixed the African vocal techniques with Christian gospel and this music mixture made the sound of the band unique and well-recognized among the others. Moreover, they tend to use different growls, exclamations, vocalized beats and imitations of different sounds that made this sound mixture even more untraditional for each Western listener, despite the fact that this mixture is perfectly designed and organized so that it never loses its musicality.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo exist for more than 40 years till now with their founder and director Joseph Shabalala, who decided to make isicathamiya the main foundation of his band’s music. Isicathamiya is a traditional music genre that was invented and developed by the miners of South Africa, who have found the only entertainment in singing songs. Another interesting fact is the creation of the band’s name. Three words that constitute the name of the band hide deep meaning for each member of the band. Ladysmith is the hometown of Shabalala and Black means an oxen, which is the biggest and the strongest animal in farms of South Africa. Mambazo literary can be translated as “an axe” from Zulu; however, this axe is also a symbol for undergoing the challenges and cutting them down. Shabalala always defined the main goal of the band’s existence to bring the feeling of loving each other all over the world. In addition, the lyrics of the band’s songs tend to have globalists ideas, as they sing that different languages and cultures, different religions do not make people different.
As an example of band’s creation, it is necessary to analyze a particular song of the band. This report will analyze a song named “Homeless” composed by the band in terms of texture, duration, tone color and vocal techniques that have been used in the song. To start with, the homophonic texture of the song is clearly visible throughout the song; although, some parts appear to be monophonic, especially the ones sung by the front vocalist. Moreover, the texture is being thickened during the chorus of the song, when the respondents sing along with the caller. As for the rhythm of the song, it can be characterized more as “free”, as this song does not “pulse” strongly; however, the pulse tend to change to a stronger one on 02.22, when singers use corresponding vocal techniques. As for the tone color of the song, it is bass, alto and tenor parts performed by male choir that tend to sound deep, but airy at the same time. The variety of vocal techniques throughout the song make the song more dynamic and diversified, for example some short yells on the background of the sustained singing and the vibrating vocal glissandos in a shape of “krrrrlll” sound.
The band has found its recognition in the middle of 1980s, when Paul Simon has discovered the band and cooperated with it during the recording of his album called “Graceland”. Moreover, he was the producer of the band’s first album, which was the first introduction of the band to the mainstream music arena. This introduction resulted in a great success with a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in 1988. Afterwards, the band has received a numerous amount of different prizes for their creations, their music has been heard by the largest audiences possible in the movies and soundrtacks, the band has performed with different popular Western performers of various genres on the same stage etc. Furthermore, the band keeps on working on their new creation, as they feel themselves like teachers that are supposed to teach love towards each other among all the people of the world.
Summarizing all the mentioned above, it should be said that Ladysmith Black Mambazo is the brightest example of the world music, which not only provides the listeners with joy of magnificent music, but also appeals to the heart and soul of each listener.

Works Cited

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO. the official page for LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO. 27 01 2015 <http://www.mambazo.com>.