COOL STUFF 4

COOL STUFF 4

  THING 1: My uncle met his wife, my aunt when he was deployed in Japan so I wanted to look into Japan's music culture. Traditional music in Japan is varied and rich. Furthermore, a lot of their music and culture came from China. A cool instrument that came to Japan from China is the koto. The koto is a large wooden instrument with 13 strings. The body is curved and the pitch is adjusted by moveable bridges underneath the strings. It is played similarly to playing a guitar by using a pick and fingers. FUN FACT...the koto is the national instrument of Japan. 

  THING 2: Southeast Asia is known for its music festivals. As I have said in a previous blog I really enjoy going to music festivals and love what they intel. There are at least 20 large music festivals happening in 2020 in Southeast Asia. These festivals form communication that helps with cultural and language barriers. EPIZODE is one of the biggest techno music festivals internationally, which is held in Vietnam. Good Vibes Festival is held in Malaysia which is a large outdoor festival that has attendees such as SZA and Lorde. Lastly, there is the Neon Lights Festival that is considered to be their Coachella in Singapore. It has artists from all over such as Mumford and Sons and Halsey. Here are some snippets from each music festival that I have mentioned...  

THING 3: A popular singer from Maylasia named Yuna just had her break in the US in 2016 with the song "Crush" that featured Usher. She originally became popular when she posted her music on MySpace when that was a thing and took off from there. She is seen as a pop star by many people but rather having a normal upbeat pop voice her voice is soft and puts people at ease. Yuna is a hidden gem but has a large following from Maylasia.