Misguided Enthusiasm

 How James Cameron's Avatar does a disservice 

The 2009 film may be the highest-grossing film's of all time, but the music in it is a big slap in the face to Xenomusicologists and in a roundabout way, music lovers all around.

I recently wrote an essay analyzing the music of the Na'vi and I will spare you the gory details:
1. They had a huge budget and incredible world-building
2. The world-building even included creating new music that fits the canon
3. James Cameron didn't like any of it
4. ????
5. Non-western music is treated with less respect than western neo-romantic music which sets a dangerous precedent for all non-western styles of music in our white-centric culture.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Violinists Return

 For two months I have not had the ability to play my violin. Sure I had been doing bowing exercises but was very limited in scope of my practice because I couldn't use my left hand. That was probably the most challenging time for me. I have built a large part of my identity around playing the violin. Everyone in my music classes knows I'm a violinist. Even people who don't have music classes know that I play the violin. It's as much a part of who I am as any of the sports I've played and institutions I've been a part of. So being unable to play and having to miss a concert I was looking forward to was a real bummer. Not only did I have to miss an orchestra concert, but also the only chamber concert that I was going to have this semester.  However, I had one last opportunity to play my instrument this academic year. I had surgery to put screws and plates on my two broken metacarpals. However, it wasn't as easy as I was hoping it would be. The surgery went gr...
Read more

Plot Points: Broken Finger

 During the fall of 2022 our protagonist was playing rugby of all sports, and broke his finger the day before his orchestra concert. How unfortunate.  Having experienced a hand injury in the spring of 2022, the protagonist let his life slide away from him. He was eventually put on academic probation for his lack of effort on anything school related. One obvious result of the academic probation was the ineligibility of our protagonist on the rugby pitch. However, he would find away around this and still get the opportunity to play rugby in a less formal competitive scene. This would ultimately lead to his downfall as his soft bones where at the mercy of anyone else on the pitch. Culminating in the Fall 2022 left ring finger injury and being forced to really reflect on what lead his so far astray from playing the violin as his #1 passion and commitment. For a whole bunch of misc. plot that I don't bother to write down as of now, the protagonist has dropped out of college and is ...
Read more

What's happening?

Everything that I've seen this week has felt off. I'm not really sure where I am to be honest. I don't know what time it is exactly but I know it's between 5pm and 7am because it is dark. The cold has been messing with my head and I lost track of what has either been seconds or hours. The stillness haunts my ears. I can feel the cold piercing through my coat as I sit in an unheated basement. Was I still at home? I don't remember leaving, or do I not remember coming home? Is this my home? Is this my grandmas basement? Is this pats basement? Something about what I'm wearing doesn't make sense. I'm wearing a button up under my coat. I have two pairs of sweat pants on that I'm assuming is helping keep me warm slightly? I don't know if I'm that cold anymore. Everything has been oddly bright. I don't see an overhead lights, just a lamp in the corner. The light from the lamp is radiating across the room as if it was on top of my head. The shadow...
Read more