Musical Anthropology, or Musicology, is an academic discipline that traces the history of musical acts, periods, and styles. If you ever get to read the history of a musical piece, or the music of other cultures (both in location and in time), it's an absolute fascinating read.
As you might have noticed, I generally avoid putting up comedic videos/music on this site. This is because I want to use this site to promote the understanding and appreciation of music, and often comedic songs are making fun of styles, or are not meant to be taken seriously as a musical piece to begin with. But I've obviously made exceptions, when they illustrate some really neat feature of music in their comedic routine.
Why am I talking about this? Because this next video is a comedic video - a mocumentary set 1000 years from now, with musical anthropologists explaining the significance of the Beatles. It's pretty hilarious, because most of it is completely wrong.
But it makes you wonder: how much of what we assume about music and its origins are actually true? It's hard to say - Not that I'm claiming that the current musicologists are completely mistaken. Instead, I think this video really highlights the long history of music in the genealogy of human kind.
It may be true that we have digital and paper records these days.... but that doesn't mean the will always be around either. When you think about the fact that no political order has lasted 1000 years, it really makes you realize how much could change in the next 1000 years too. It's scary to think how impermanent everything is! This video could potentially become true in 1000 years!
....that being said, it also makes you realize the continued relevance of certain kinds of music, and how amazing that is. Gregorian chants can be around 1000 years old, and people still listen to them, as do many other musics from different parts of the globe.
Do you think the Beatles' music will be around in a 1000 years? It's quite a feat!
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