Influence of American Music on Bangladehi Culture

ENG 105 Research Paper

Influence of American Music on Our Culture

Rifat Monzur

121 0913 042

North South University

Acknowledgement

I wish to thank Rajiv Ashrafi
for letting me doing this Research Paper

Contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction and Background ............................................................................................................... 5

Research Questions ............................................................................................................................... 7

Hypothesis ……………............................................................................................................................... 8

Research Methodology .........................................................................................................................  9

Data Presentation and Analysis...................................................................................................... 10

Summary of Research Findings ............................................................................................................ 19

Conclusion......................................................................................................................................20

Works Cited .......................................................................................................................................... 20

Abstract

        I am researching on Influence of American Music (IAM). American music is very popular in our country. I think people of our country like American Music. My hypothesis is IAM is improving our culture. I survey on eighteen people and I did my secondary research from online resources like blogs, articles, journals and other things. I also interviewed couple of my friends. The findings of the research are not what I have expected. Though it is not completely opposite but it is quite different from what I thought I would find. I thought Bengali people like American Music. My result of the research was fully satisfying the answer about their liking of American Music. But, they did not agree with me about my hypothesis. I thought that American music is improving our culture. But people in Bangladesh do not think that way. Most of the people thought that American music have a little to no influence on our culture. American music is good but they do not think there is no need to follow it. They think we have our own rich culture. We do not need any other culture to follow and improve our culture. As music they think it is okay to follow American music. But the musicians should not copy from American music. They should preserve their root. Lastly it can be said that Bangladeshis are very possessive about their culture and they do not want their cultural root to be changed by any culture and American music has a very little impact on our culture for this reason.

Introduction and Background

        Today the world is ever so small and it is becoming smaller. Due to print media and easy access to internet the whole world just comes within our hands. The world has become globalised and so the culture. For this the culture is now and then influenced by other cultures.

My topic is influence of American music (IAM) on our culture. The first thing we need to know what culture actually is. According to noted cultural personality Aly Zaker Culture is “the total of inherited ideas, belief, values and knowledge, which constitute the shared-bases of social action”(2013).
He also thinks culture is: “the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of that group” (Zaker, 2013). He also added that culture is: “the artistic and social pursuits, expressions and taste valued by a society or class as in arts, manners, dress, etc” (Zaker, 2013).

The American music is the music which is produced in America. The music industry in America is the second largest market after Japan. But, American music is considered to be the most globalised one because of its international appeal. It is famous around the whole world because it is in English which is the most popular and known language around the world. Since the second language of Bangladeshi people is English and so the American music is also popular in our country.

As people in our country like American music there is big possibility that American music kept an influence on our culture. There is a big chance that American music will inspire our musicians. As a result, our music might be influenced by American Music. According to the blogger R. Khaled, “western music also has a big influence in Bengali music, particularly music of the late 80s. Bengali Pop music started with the so-called Band music” (2011). From his post we can understand that Bengali music is greatly influenced by western music. The musicians are starting to follow the music of western. Many famous musicians consider American musicians as their idols. They are very much inspired by them. Arnob said that “I like pure musical bands like Shakti and Return to Forever. Lyrics wise I like Bob Dylan and David Gray. I also like Radiohead and U2 “(2011). Bob Dylan and David Gray are American musicians and so the Radiohead and U2 are American bands.

From the research of blogger N.Greg , we can find out that more than fifty percent preferred western music over Bengali music. Since it was few years back I am hoping that things have changed more in the favor of the western culture. People are starting to like western music more and more. As a result they are more and more influenced by western musicians. As American music is considered to be the best music in the world, I think it is doing good for our culture. It is improving our culture.