Music 3348: Global Listeners
It is said that the universe is expanding. Despite this fact, and despite the accelerating pace of technological development—more means of transportation moving more quickly and whatnot—the world is rapidly shrinking in my view. I have once described globalization as the perceived acceleration of time and velocity. While being able to move our bodies across borders and transverse great lengths with ease certainly has a major role in globalization, I am of the opinion that it ultimately is the internet and the digital transportation of stimuli and information that primarily drives globalization. Or even more generally, the mere departure and arrival of information.
My conversation with my good friend Mitchell Keller would be in line with this idea. Mitchell is a Columbus via Accra (Ghana) college aged individual. He is primarily of Ghanaian descent. He was born and lived there for three years. But the other half of his blood comes from his Swiss-born father who is parts Swiss, German, and Hungarian. If Mitchell was entirely the sum of his parts, he would have no anchorage or allegiance to any one place. But as society has made clear, black-looking people in America are just black. Whether it’s Barack Obama—who is 50% Caucasian and raised by Caucasians—or Tiger Woods—who is in fact more Asian than he his African. This idea seems to be hotly debated on the esteemed “Yahoo! ANSWERS” messaging boards.
But regardless, how is it that Mitchell ended up identifying as an African-American? He is a member of the vast African diaspora just as much as anyone else living in the United States is but he is frequently taken for an African-American—without even being American! I am an African-American in the traditional sense, and although I also view myself and all blacks as a member of the African diaspora, Mitchell and I have both arrived at relatively similar listening experiences: primarily black American music. Surely, it seems strange that someone born in a foreign country and is made up of four ethnicities could have the same listening experience as someone like myself. I asked Mitchell about that and this what he told me:
Mitchell: Well just to stop for a second this is kind of a funny question. I think you know and a lot of people know that I identify as being black more than white. I definitely look more black than white and I’m sure that’s what most people assume.
Me: Yeah I would not have guessed that you were mixed with anything. I did not know that before.
Even I am not fully aware of the assumptions that I make. I asked him about how his musical palate has shifted over time and he gave me a beautiful answer:
Mitchell: Yeah but, I’m mostly into rap but now I'm much more diversified. I listen to mostly rap but that goes along with rock, blues, jazz, indie rock, electronic music. Pretty much anything that people recommend me.
Me: If there was a change in taste as you aged or became more Americanized, what do you attribute the change to?
Mitchell: I think the change is mostly due to being exposed to American culture, music is so important here and plays such a big role in people's daily lives. Not just playing either, people love to talk and write about music… Part of it too is the whole black thing. You know, even if you’re mixed 50-50 you’re still pretty much just black. It doesn’t really matter to me but people see you that way and you definitely get nudged over to the black side of things. So I think like, just the way people socialize and stuff introduced me to more hip hop. I didn’t get that from my dad or mom. Even though my mom’s Ghanaian obviously rap there isn’t like what it’s like here at all.
That is where I think the marriage of culture and musical taste occurs. Neither Mitchell nor I were much into CDs or tape recordings when we were growing up. Neither of us had any ties to stereotypical rap tropes and lifestyles discussed in “hip hop culture” nor did our peers. So where did we get it? How did we even learn of it? I would have to say that it came from the internet and media.
When Mitchell migrated to the United States, he kept with him to some degree the West African music of Fela Kuti that his mother loved along with the blues and rock artists his Father followed. But that did not wind up dictating his taste. The first hip hop song I remember actually paying attention to and liking was Jay Z’s Roc Boys (2007). My dad was playing it on a CD in his car. The first song I remember coming across and truly loving on my own accord was Gorillaz’ Feel Good Inc. (2005) on YouTube, sometime later in 2007. And the Gorillaz wound up having a much more profound effect on me than Jay Z. But what about Mitchell? He stated that neither of his parents listened to any hip hop. Did his tastes as a child remain in line with African music, blues and rock (modern or otherwise)? No.
He and I both attribute it to spending our formative years growing up within a black American context. So while Mitchell has expanded his tastes to include the indie folk band Fleet Foxes, electronica act Pretty Lights, instrumental ensemble Snarky Puppy, and jazz fusion band BADBADNOTGOOD (among others) his core revolved around hip hop artists like Kanye West, MF DOOM, Kendrick Lamar, Run The Jewels, Open Mike Eagle etc. Although he did make mention of the east African band Mulatu Astatke, there seems to be little lasting influence of the more traditional forms of music that he heard from his mother as a child or the music he got from his dad growing up. He pointed to, what he essentially called, being socialized to be an African-American.
I would like to expand on how such a process could occur. I do not believe that individual people or events determine a culture or make up one’s identity. For example, the process of someone becoming more Americanized is not the result of any one thing. In my opinion, it is the result of the composite consumption of American ideas and media. I think that we tend to identify with things and people that remind us of ourselves. So when the Ghanaian-Swiss-German-Hungarian Mitchell Keller moved to Columbus from Accra, he surely noticed that people who shared his heritage were sparse. He told me there was not many Ghanaian children around him. I myself always assumed he was African-American until I asked him recently and I am sure that that is what his young peers also thought when he moved here. So now he stands at a cultural crossroads. He is as equally European as he is African but he certainly does not look that way and that does not allow for others to perceive him that way. While I do not believe that a typical person actively organizes people into subgroups or actively projects ideas on onto people, it is something that we all do subconsciously. So what did Mitchell choose? Did he choose to be white in this new context, choose to be black, or choose to simply exist as he was in America? The decision was made for him. After some reflection, Mitchell referred to his formative years in the US as being nudged to be black—above all the other components of his heritage.
So what does this mean for musical taste? This means learning to identify with and consume his surrogate African-American culture. As he stated, his parents did not listen to hip hop and it was not very popular in the countries that make up his heritage. He himself did not make any hip hop, neither did his peers. So where did it come from? The internet and American media. I can say that that is where it came from because people like Mitchell (who is my age), and myself, and anyone else for the matter, tend to filter information and be receptive to messages that they perceive are aimed at them. It is the same reason why boys play with cars and girls play with dolls. Not because they intrinsically have those preferences, but because the entirety of the packaging around a toy car or a doll—from the advertisement to the plastic itself—is aimed at reach either boys or girls. This divide does not truly exist. But children caught up within this accurately gender binary cycle then get peer feedback during their formative years (i.e. boys playing with cars seeing other boys playing with cars) and then they eventually grow to form what we call gender roles. In my analysis, taste in music is no different. Unless you choose to break out of the rigidity, what you and I listen to is largely the result of how we are socialized and what we see people like us listening to. So in short, that is how one goes from Fela Kuti to Kanye West.
For fun, here is some music that Mitchell and I would like to share:
From Mitchell:
Kanye West - We Major
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6mVccIqq2I
Run The Jewels - Sea Legs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbnhUVTTdHE
Flying Lotus - Do The Astral Plane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8E5KnNPt4g
Mulatu Astatqe - Tezeta (Ethiopiques vol. 4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foHcCspcLjs&list=PL5EAF5DB9530EDDFE
Fleet Foxes - Meadowlarks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lobwr6pBbmU
From Me:
milo - Going No Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FVGeGZrp_k
Beach House - Wishes (one of my all time favorites)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS6duOoxctw
Aesop Rock - Save Yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHhbGhW8g98
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E0fVfectDo
Madvillain - Figaro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nQe5efg--c
:)
