While looking for a music to study, I came across Flamenco from Spain. I have always been facinated by Spain, so I am excited by this opportunity to learn a little of the history, culture, and music of Spain through the study of flamenco. Flamenco is beautiful to watch, and although I do not speak Spanish, I think it sounds lovely despite not understanding most of the lyrics. Here is a little taste, please don't feel like you need to watch the whole thing, rather, click through and you can see parts from a few different songs. Firstly, I went looking for some history of the flamenco, and found that it has a rich history. Described as "mysterious" by Britannica, it seems that flamenco was likely first brought to southern Spain by gypsies travelling through the 9th to 14th centuries. It is speculated that flamenco may have actually originated in India. Frequently instruments like tamborines and bells were used. In the 19th century, guitar began to be an important part of fl...
American History of Doo- Wop So as I began this blog, I decided to choose a genre of music that I wasn't familiar with. Of course, I have heard of doo- wop, but I have never actually paid much attention to the genre. Sam Houston State University describes doo- wop as: " group harmony, a wide range of vocal parts, nonsense syllables, a simple beat, light instrumentation, and simple music and lyrics". Armed with this description, I decided to head over to youtube to find an example of doo- wop to help me put a sound to the description. The first song that pops up when you type doo- wop into youtube: The music above is called Doo- Wop (That Thing). It is a "current" example of doo- wop as it was posted 12 years ago. I was actually surprised that I like the sound, the description had me concerned that I would not enjoy it. Now that we have an idea of the sound of doo- wop, we can dig deeper into the history of doo- wop. Emerging in the 1950s, doo- wop was, as is...