Okay fellow Music Educators,... listen to this
I guess this is an entry for my fellow music educators. Tell me if you agree with me or not...
I have this aquaintence of mine who is an elementary school teacher. Today, she came to me asking if I have any recordings of Japanese music. I'm going through my collections, and found a copy of some rock and roll thing in Japanese. I offered it to her, and she didn't want it. "That's not Japanese, I need something like Sakura." I don't have a copy of Sakura, but I was intrigued. "Why do you need Japanese music?"
She then proceeded to tell me that she's doing a big compare/contrast unit with her 4th graders and she's using countries from around the world... a different one each day. She wanted to include music in her compare/contrast for Japan next week. She wanted to use Ace of Bass' "I Saw the Sign" from the '90s with her 4th graders to represent American music and Sakura to represent Japanese music, then have the students compare and contrast.
I told her, at that point, that it would be best to use that rock tune that I had. Sakura is folk music. Ace of Bass is pop music. You can't compare the two and accurately represent the two different cultures. When you go to Japan and turn on the radio, you don't hear Sakura,... you hear music very similar to what we listen to. If she really wanted to compare and contrast music of the two cultures, her best bet would be to compare Sakura to an American folk tune,... like "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" or "Oh Susanna" or something like that. Her compare and contrast can focus around instrumentation, language, singing style, scales/pitches used, etc. Her current plan works more to compare folk music to pop music, not the two cultures. Even at that, she can be specific and say this is Appalacian American music, not just American music,...and explain the region that this music comes from in America.
She kind of scoffed at me, said that she liked her plan better, and walked away.
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Am I right to be little nervous now that there's a bunch of 4th graders out there who, if they ever travel to Japan, will expect Sakura and the such on the radio? Talk about CULTURE SHOCK.
Is it OK to be nervous that she wants to use Ace of Bass music to represent ALL American music? Furthermore, isn't Ace of Bass Swedish or English or something like that?
The scary thing is, a non-music person observing her would never pick up on these things and probably think she's a genius for incorporating the arts in her curriculum. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy that she wants to use music in her class and include the arts in her teaching! But I don't think the authenticity is there, and it's misrepresenting these two cultures to our students to the point of possibly stereotyping.
I have this aquaintence of mine who is an elementary school teacher. Today, she came to me asking if I have any recordings of Japanese music. I'm going through my collections, and found a copy of some rock and roll thing in Japanese. I offered it to her, and she didn't want it. "That's not Japanese, I need something like Sakura." I don't have a copy of Sakura, but I was intrigued. "Why do you need Japanese music?"
She then proceeded to tell me that she's doing a big compare/contrast unit with her 4th graders and she's using countries from around the world... a different one each day. She wanted to include music in her compare/contrast for Japan next week. She wanted to use Ace of Bass' "I Saw the Sign" from the '90s with her 4th graders to represent American music and Sakura to represent Japanese music, then have the students compare and contrast.
I told her, at that point, that it would be best to use that rock tune that I had. Sakura is folk music. Ace of Bass is pop music. You can't compare the two and accurately represent the two different cultures. When you go to Japan and turn on the radio, you don't hear Sakura,... you hear music very similar to what we listen to. If she really wanted to compare and contrast music of the two cultures, her best bet would be to compare Sakura to an American folk tune,... like "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" or "Oh Susanna" or something like that. Her compare and contrast can focus around instrumentation, language, singing style, scales/pitches used, etc. Her current plan works more to compare folk music to pop music, not the two cultures. Even at that, she can be specific and say this is Appalacian American music, not just American music,...and explain the region that this music comes from in America.
She kind of scoffed at me, said that she liked her plan better, and walked away.
-----
Am I right to be little nervous now that there's a bunch of 4th graders out there who, if they ever travel to Japan, will expect Sakura and the such on the radio? Talk about CULTURE SHOCK.
Is it OK to be nervous that she wants to use Ace of Bass music to represent ALL American music? Furthermore, isn't Ace of Bass Swedish or English or something like that?
The scary thing is, a non-music person observing her would never pick up on these things and probably think she's a genius for incorporating the arts in her curriculum. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy that she wants to use music in her class and include the arts in her teaching! But I don't think the authenticity is there, and it's misrepresenting these two cultures to our students to the point of possibly stereotyping.