There are a lot of threads on this forum for sharing music, but we don't really seem to have one dedicated to discussing it per se. I thought maybe I'd open up a thread where we could talk about it instead of just listening to it.
I think it's fair to say the kind of music I listen to is completely different from the kinds of music most people listen to, including most nerds (including most UniLangers!). This has come up a few times, and it makes me wonder, why is that exactly? I'm sure that part of the reason is familiarity. Folk music from all kinds of countries is by far the kind of music I've heard most often. Probably another part of the reason is what my parents like. But could there be more to it than just that? Is it possible that pieces of music have specific properties that we notice and use to decide whether we like them or not? I've also been getting the impression that Indians seem to put a lot more emphasis on preserving musical traditions whereas Americans seem to put more emphasis on innovation. What makes either option more appealing than the other?
I love Middle Eastern classical music, and I was pretty fascinated to learn that when Arab scholars were translating scientific works from Ancient Greek, they also paid a lot of attention to Ancient Greek writings on music and music theory, which apparently also influenced their own music. Middle Eastern music in turn heavily influenced music in nearby regions, such as Turkey and India. Maybe that's part of the reason why Greek music often sounds so similar to music in these areas and it's not just that Turkish music influenced modern Greek music a lot. To what extent is it possible to find similarities with Middle Eastern music elsewhere? To what extent is it common for music to be strongly based on some theory, or an arbitrary set of sounds, or based on the imitation of animal sounds (this is apparently common in Papua New Guinea, for instance), or something else?