Essay on the Role of Musicians in Modern Society

In an open society where freedom of expression is one of the key principles, and where nobody possesses the monopoly of truth, music is expected to be diverse. The artists will assume the role of enlightening the public regarding their social values. In a society which is under duress, art will be the stabilizing force. Art is a method in which a society can have the ability of preparedness and adaptation to change. It gives the expression of how the society perceives, questions, understands, and values the world. The main correlation between art and culture is that, art define the culture of a society. Therefore, it can also influence the interpretation of a certain culture either positively or negatively. Hence, a society can be impacted by the type of art being produced by artists thus a society under duress can be prepared psychologically to adapt to the coming change through art.

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Musicians, artists, athletes, and scholars are part of the society and have the ability to influence the type of art being produced within a community. However, focusing on the personal level, it depends on the individuals personality and feature. Their individual personality might affect how each one of them view the human world and how they express it through their different forms of art. For example, when Chinese opera was introduced in the United States, Mei Lan-Fang championed for the Chinese opera more than other artists in United States (Rao, 2013). His individual feature of being enthusiastic and talented helped him advocate for the Chinese opera. The impact created by individual artists may be different but the overall influence impacted by all of them is based on the collective cultural practices of the community.

Ellington (1930) states that they utilized music to express what they could not say openly. He goes ahead to claim that, music helps us to express our personality and that our souls respond to the eternal rhythm. These statements further confirm the understanding of music in this paper. During the medieval ages, art was used to communicate to the masses in codified messages. It was up to the public to interpret the different arts produced by the artists. Art acted as a symbol during the age of enlightenment (medieval ages). Artists may enlighten or doom the society. The collective characteristic of a culture is reflected in the type of arts being produced by the community. Therefore, cultural practices and arts are integrated to form the fabric of the society that reflects their values, beliefs, and perceptions.

References

Rao, N. (2000). Racial essences and historical invisibility: Chinese Opera in New York, 1930. Cambridge Opera Journal. 12(2), 135-162

Ellington, D. (1931). The Duke steps out. Rhythm. 20-22