Post #1 - April 2, 2007

Hi everyone, my name is Maha Sami and I am a third year biochemistry major. When I was younger, I used to play the clarinet. Though I had a very traditional musical background for a few years (I gave up clarinet during middle school), I was also accustomed to the uptempo beats of Bollywood as well as the more subtle sounds of the sitar and tabla. Both of my parents are Pakistani and consequently, I was exposed to South Asian music from a very early age.

Though I haven't participated in any ensembles or culture shows, I am an avid consumer of music. Initially I went through a British rock phase but soon after coming to UCLA, I began to immerse myself in the more traditional South Asian music of my childhood. One of my favorite pieces of Indian music comes from the movies Umrao Jaan and Water respectively. The songs from Umrao Jaan are widely considered to be the epitome of Hindi film music because of their superb use of classical Indian instruments as well as poetic lyrics. Water is a more contemporary film that carries on the same musical tradition of Umrao Jaan.

Soon after immersing myself into Indian music, I also became interested in both Arab and Persian music; moreover, as I was taking Spanish classes I also began to listen to Juanes, Celia Cruz and Silvio Rodriguez. At this point my iPod contains a mixture of music from different regions of the world.

I am interested in taking this class so I can better understand the origins of the different types of music that I listen to on a daily basis. I'm also curious to learn about music other than the types that I have been exposed such as East Asian music.

In the past, I have visited England, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai and I have found that more people have become interested in the music of other countries in spite of not being able to fully understand the language. For example, on a recent vacation I recall seeing British tourists purchase tablas in Dubai and in Pakistan, I watched in amazement as my younger cousins began singing Juanes. With increasingly globalization, I am interested in seeing how music of one region can affect the music of another as well as how both can be combined to produce a completely different sound.