Hybridization is defined as the process of the creation of new cultural forms as a result of mixing different cultural forms. Meaning music from one place can be combined with music from another place to create a different sound and style of music resulting in a hybridization between the two genres. Hybridization is very common in various music domains. Some well-known examples are jazz, reggae, salsa, and Afro-Celtic music. I think migration plays a huge key role in hybridization of music because migration is defined as someone from another nation moving to a new one. By people moving from one place to another, it brings in different cultures. When someone from one region uses music differently than another place, it allows for things to mesh together. So not only does migration help bring in new culture but it also allows for different styles of music to merge creating a hybridization.
In the early 1800’s so many other nationalities came over to the United States looking for work and a better way of life. The United States was thought to have offered so much and people would become rich and live the “American Dream”. The travel to get to the United States was not easy and was expensive. However, people still embarked on this journey. While migrating over on ships people used music to help kill time and make the travel entertaining. Music was also played because the people were excited to embark on the journey that laid ahead of them. So many other styles of music meshed with ours and that has helped create the styles and sound of music we listen to today. If you think back to the start of the blues movement in the 1940’s to 50’s from the South to the Northern part of the United States, artists like Muddy Waters and Elmore James initiated the movement from the Mississippi Delta region to Chicago at the time. The movement of Mexican Americans from the southwest, which was sparked by the blues movement, helped establish a number of important Mexican American styles, including conjunto, mariachi, and tejano, in the northern and eastern parts of the United States. BY having cultures mesh together and forming a hybridization, it has created some of the nation’s most popular artists like Pitbull and many different styles of music. A modern example of hybridization can be the song Despacito. The original version is in Spanish but when Justin Bieber joined the song it was hybridized because it combined English elements rather than just Spanish. For some people, hybridization has even changed their lives and created this mutual feeling that they belong to something so much greater.
MUSIC AND MIGRATION 