Why music is important to world culture

Music means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. No matter where you live or your culture, it is highly likely that music will make up some part of it. Some cultures like India, have a huge music culture and it is truly embedded in everything they do.

While music is slightly different in each country and culture it still has the same powers of connection and helps to stronger communities and brings people together. Some people think music is just music, but it is certainly more than that and there are tones of reasons why music is important to world culture.

We may not fully understand other people’s culture, but we can understand music and this way we can become more accepting of others’ differences. Each culture has music that has changed over the decades and even centuries, but the power still remains the same.

Even the way we listen to music has changed over the years with the invention of radios and as well as improvements in technology which led to online music streaming services. There have also been many artists that transcended cultures and become hits right across the world.

Even major music events like Eurovision captivate the world (not just Europe) and can bring people of all cultures and walks of life together to celebrate the magic of music. Throughout history music has had the power to unify us all as a globe, and not many other things in the world have the power to do that.

With that in mind, have a look below at the top reasons why music is so important to world culture:

Connection

As touched on in the introduction music has powers of connection as it helps to bring people together, this is true for all people no matter their culture. For example, you could have a fan of Elton John in the UK and one in New Zealand, they could form a connection with each other based of their mutual love for the same artist.

People love talking about music and they usually tend to have strong opinions on who they like and who they don’t. By finding those with similar musical tastes to you, you are building strong connections. Music can connect people in all different types of ways and can make people feel the same emotions and feel like they are not alone.

If you have ever been to a live concert you have probably felt that connection with all the people in the audience (or even just those people around you) and you are singing at the top of your lungs, dancing and are happy.

We need this type of connection is our world were we have somehow become glued to screens. Building positive relationships and connections with people is how we grow, not only as individuals but also as a globe.

Identity

Music helps us express our own identity. There are all different types of music from all different types of cultures, and the music you like says a lot about you. It may also influence the type of friends you have, the type of clothes you wear, the type of activities you like to enjoy in your free time, etc.

As children grow into adults music is one of the things that helps them find out who they are as a person, they are no longer in the shadow of who their parents are, they start to become their own person with their own identity. Some people might even go through an identity crisis at some point in their life, well music is a great way for people to navigate through and find their way out the other side.

Music is important to world culture
Photo: Wallace Chuck, Pexels.

Language and communication

Music is the way we express ourselves and even though some songs may be in a different language you can still understand what message it is trying to convey from the music. Most children hear music from a young age (some parents even play music for their unborn child) and this helps establish ways of communication and expressing themselves.

Learning how to speak is even helped by music, learning the English alphabet is used as a little tune to help children remember all the letters. Music is also repetitive so it can help children learn language this way as well. In all different languages, at its most basic level music can help us learn.

Music also helps us communicate and it’s how we express ourselves. Communication is key in all cultures and by putting on a show and song it can help to express how people really feel. Communication can become easier with the power of music.

Celebration

In your life good and bad things will happen – music is how we celebrate the good things! No matter what culture is celebrating, music is used as the perfect tool to aide dancing, cheering and general happiness.

Think about it, one of the greatest days of celebration in a person’s life, their wedding, would you not have music here? Of course not! There is ALWAYS music at the wedding reception. Also at birthday parties, there will almost always be music.

People love to celebrate and music helps them do that. No matter the occasion or what people want to celebrate music helps to make people happy and connects them in mutual celebration. Even street festivals and parades have lots of different music to celebrate the occasion.

Routine

Music makes up part of everyone’s routine, no matter what you have to do during the day, it is likely that music makes up at least some part of that. There are so many great benefits to listening to music in all different situations that it has just become so normal to turn music on, no matter your culture.

You could be on your way driving to work and as soon as you turn the car on the radio starts playing, or you could be going to the gym have you’ve got your headphones in, you could even be cooking dinner with the music playing on the loud speakers. Together or alone music has become a part of our routine.

It has become so routine that we even have started to create different playlists for different situations, you could have your “Favourites” playlist, “Gym” playlist, “Happy” playlist, there is a playlist for every different situation because music has become so engrained in our lives.

Fashion

Music is so powerful that it has the ability to impact other industries like fashion. We have all followed an icon at one stage of our life and all we wanted to do was be like them and dress like them. Over the years as music has evolved and so has fashion, the two go hand in hand. It is so interesting looking back at old music videos and viewing all the latest (at the time) trends in fashion.

Fashion brands have also cottoned on about how important fashion is in music and they are constantly approaching famous artists to team up with them and be the face of their brand. They know that die hard fans will be streaming into stores and purchasing all that they can get their hands on.