Song Conversion Sunday: Leading Me Into Deep Thoughts About Culture

Last week, my randomly selected song for this next series of Song Conversion Sunday posts was one that sent me into some deep thinking about culture and cultural appropriation and that has challenged me to think a bit differently about the music that I have on my iPod and how I use that music.

Now, to start all this off, I am not an expert on culture, cultural appropriation, cultural misappropriation, or anything other than my own experiences. My own cultural experiences are that of middle-class, caucasian America. I am a woman, I prefer the pronouns "she" and "her," and I do not have to spend much time thinking about cultural misappropriation because my cultural background seems to be prevalent in the place where I live. I have never really thought too much about whether the music that I use in sessions is something that I'm taking from another culture and shaping it into something other than what it was intended for originally. I guess this is something to start thinking about.

Getting here has been interesting. It started with some research (several years ago now) into the music therapy feminist perspective. To tell you the truth, some of the comments that I read about not being able to use music written by someone who did not share any cultural characteristics with me in a way that was authentic was a bit off-putting. Now, I understand some of what is being said, but I am NEVER comfortable with definitive statements. I should re-read that information in an attempt to further my understanding of what was being said. Something else to add to my list of things I want to know more about...

I have to start my attempt to understand this entire concept somewhere, so I am going to Wikipedia. (Now, this will NOT be my final research source - I find Wikipedia to be a starting point only. I use the references at the bottom of each page to help me start to figure out what else to look at and read and experience.) So, I type in "cultural appropriation" and immediately find out that we typically use appropriation and misappropriation in the same manner. Oooh. 162 sources referenced on this page. I have lots to do.

This is not going to be a quick series of posts. This topic is not an easy one. There are many different perspectives and considerations that we must take when tackling a complex topic such as cultural appropriation and culture. Just so you know, the song on the iPod that started me in this direction is from the Sea Tranquility Academy, is classified as "New Age," came from an album entitled "111 Ambient Nature Sounds: Best Relaxing Music...," and is called "Zen Buddha Indian Meditation Music for Awakening."

Just the title of the song alone has lots of cultural implications. 

What path have you led me into, iPod??? 

I will spend some time reading about cultural appropriation and will hunt up my book on Feminist Perspectives in Music Therapy, edited by Susan Hadley, for some more reading - found it, just where I thought it might be - score one for my organization process! I may also move this away from Sundays since it is taking over my thought process and I still want to do some conversions of songs from songs into therapeutic music experiences - oh dear, more appropriations! I will also spend some time in the Board Certification Domains, the Scope of Practice, the AMTA Code of Ethics, and the two competency documents from AMTA to see what types of guidelines and expectations we already have established as music therapists. This is going to be a long journey, but I think it will be an enriching one for me. We will see.

If you are still here, thank you for sticking with me. If you have any recommendations for my research list, please share them! I'll be doing some literature reviews in the next couple of weeks, and I'll be citing my resources when I'm writing, so please share!!



 I LOVE this disclaimer on the Wikipedia citation page:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information—citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research.
As with any community-built reference, there is a possibility for error in Wikipedia's content—please check your facts against multiple sources and read our disclaimers for more information.

There you go.
 
Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 22). Cultural appropriation. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:53, February 24, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_appropriation&oldid=884618903