Influence of asian music

In the major religions of Asia, music is an especially vital part of theology and worship. India and China, the most prominent religions are Hinduism, Daoism and Buddhism. Hindu religious chant and music are firmly rooted in theological principles of sacred sound. Taoist music is commonly used in the form of simple melodies and peaceful songs to aid in recitations and rituals.

In these primary considerations a view of some general aesthetic traditions common to much of East Asian music is also requisite. The tonal vocabulary of 12 tones generated in a cycle of fifths is the first common factor. From this tonal vocabulary various scales of five to seven notes are chosen. As in the West, the total number of notes in an East Asian scale is often seven, but each scale tends to have what could be called a five-tone pentatonic core. Indeed, there are a great variety of East Asian musics.

Follow Billboard. All rights reserved. May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the United States, so we're celebrating 10 DJs and producers who represent for their roots in their music, art and everyday lives.

Africa might seem too large, imposing and omnipresent a continent to be subject to something so ephemeral as a pop and jazz ''revival. Everywhere Western musicians are turning to Africa, either for reaffirmation of a lost or dimly remembered ethnic heritage or for a more abstract kind of inspiration. To speak of Africa as if it offered a single, consistent musical style is, of course, a ludicrous oversimplification. As John Storm Roberts points out in his informative book, ''Black Music of Two Worlds,'' Africa offers an area four times the size of the United States, with some 2, tribes speaking between and 2, tongues, depending on whether some are counted as dialects or languages.