MUSIC: A VERITABLE TOOL FOR CULTURAL REPRESENTATION AND PRESERVATION

Abstract

Culture can be said to be a given people’s way of life. It is a term that cuts across every area of existence of a people inhabiting a particular geographical location. These cultural practices include their language, the type of food they eat, the kind of clothes they wear, their means of livelihood, etc. People are many times differentiated from others by their culture. This culture which is different from place to place, has experienced some kind of preservation, which is why cultures that have existed for lots of centuries still exist today, although many have been greatly influenced by the unending sweep of acculturation. There is therefore the need to explore more media through which culture can be represented and preserved. Using document study and interview, this paper explores the role music can play in helping to preserve cultural materials, and also how music can be used to represent culture. Findings from this study show that among other things, music is an effective tool for cultural representation and preservation, through costumes, language use, telling stories of myths, etc.