{"id":68,"date":"2009-05-21T14:44:44","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T18:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/?p=68"},"modified":"2018-09-10T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:40:11","slug":"music-and-evolution-the-elitism-of-music-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-evolution-the-elitism-of-music-in-the-west\/68\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elitism of Music in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-68-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/23-steven-mithen.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/23-steven-mithen.mp4\">https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/23-steven-mithen.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><strong>Stephen Mithen<\/strong>: Our conception of music in the West can be rather narrow. I think in the West it got tied up with expertise, Who does music? It\u2019s somebody who stands on a stage and performs to others. It\u2019s something that is done on special occasions. If you look at traditional societies they remind us that music is something that just pervades everyday of every person\u2019s life. You know, kids just singing and dancing right from scratch. It\u2019s just what you do. It\u2019s not something you do on a special occasion, it\u2019s not even something that you have to be trained for. You do it when you work, you do it when you play. Now that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have expertise, they don\u2019t have special performers and people who got particular talents, but it\u2019s something that pervades everything they do. And that reminds us that music isn\u2019t a special elite form of activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/23-steven-mithen.mp4 Stephen Mithen: Our conception of music in the West can be rather narrow. I think in the West it got tied up with expertise, Who does music? It\u2019s somebody who stands on a stage and performs to others. It\u2019s something that is done on special occasions. If you look at traditional societies they remind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5038],"tags":[5033,510,5077,600,5078,5076],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-music-and-evolution","tag-concerts","tag-culture","tag-elitism","tag-music","tag-stephen-mithen","tag-the-west"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Music and Evolution ~ The Elitism of Music in the West | Music Instinct | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-evolution-the-elitism-of-music-in-the-west\/68\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Music and Evolution ~ The Elitism of Music in the West | Music Instinct | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/23-steven-mithen.mp4 Stephen Mithen: Our conception of music in the West can be rather narrow. I think in the West it got tied up with expertise, Who does music? It\u2019s somebody who stands on a stage and performs to others. It\u2019s something that is done on special occasions. If you look at traditional societies they remind [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-evolution-the-elitism-of-music-in-the-west\/68\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Music Instinct\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-21T18:44:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-10T19:40:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"colin fitzpatrick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"colin fitzpatrick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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