Black and White

I've been sitting trying to come up with a phd proposal, so that I can email a supervisor and (hopefully) have funding in place to make the next three years a bit easier. I've narrowed a research idea down to how music is viewed and celebrated across cultures. I noticed in an interview with a death metal musician (Matti Karki of Dismember) that both Opeth and Inflames (metal bands) have won the Swedish version of a Grammy. This sort of metal recognition is unlikely to happen in the UK, I can't see Opeth sweeping up the Brit Awards, for example... I want to look in to why, even in the broader Western culture, music is separated so strongly between countries as to what is deserving of our ears, our money and our time. The idea hasn't fully formed yet, but I'm going to power on with it tonight and hopefully email a prospective supervisor in Glasgow either tonight or tomorrow.

Class today was on gender and how big a factor it can play in musical/ological analysis and the formation of our ideas and understanding/enjoyment of music.

Looking forward to the weekend, all this thinking makes me sleepy :)