How does music help shape our identity? Why do we seek out different musical genres? Professor emeritus of musicology and music therapy, Even Ruud, has researched this his entire career. He is a guest on TONO's podcast.
/ 01/12/2020 / Kristian DugstadIt is important for TONO to show that music has value. Music culture shapes our society, and the creation of new compositions and lyrics contributes to development.
In this episode of TONO's podcast, Lage Musikk, you can hear about how the music we choose to listen to affects how we understand ourselves. Music is identity, social anchoring and a basis for values.
This is the topic when professor emeritus in musicology (from UiO) and in music therapy (from the Norwegian Academy of Music), Even Ruud, meets Torgny Amdam in Lage musikk.
In the episode, Amdam asks about Ruud's thoughts on how geographic and socioeconomic factors have such a strong influence on which musical genres people end up identifying with.
– If you're from Kolbotn you probably play rock like that, and if you're from Horten you play rock like that. If you're a 22-year-old African-American boy from Chicago you probably don't play rock at all. Isn't that a bit sad?
However, Ruud is not concerned that everyone should like all musical genres.
– To strengthen their identity, they connect with a form of music that they feel resonates with their values, education, economy, ethnicity and things like that. They seek out a group or a genre that they can identify with, and they stay there, especially in their teens. If I ask someone what they like, and they answer that they like everything, then I become suspicious. Then they have no proper anchoring in a genre.
The episode is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
If I ask someone what they like and they answer that they like everything, then I become suspicious.
Even Ruud
