Report | Ariela：American Music History【English Salon(41)】

Writer: Ariela Editor:Bingmei Yan Photographer:Wang Jin

On May 22, 2019 at 6:30pm an English salon was
hosted on the fifth floor of the library on the North Campus at Inner Mongolia
University. The salon was hosted by Rosa, a deputy research librarian of the
Inner Mongolia University Library. Ariela, an American and a foreign English
teacher in the School of Foreign Languages at the University, was the invited
guest. The topic of this English Salon was about the history of American music
and related content.

Bingmei Yan, Associate Research Librarian of Inner Mongolia University Library

Ariela, Foreign Teacher of Foreign Language Department of Inner Mongolia University

To begin the session, Ariela introduced herself and invited the studentsto also introduce themselves by sharing their English/Chinese/Mongolian nameand answering the question, “What is your genre of music”. After introductions,the foreign teacher invited the participants to engage with the topic by askingthem the question “Why do you like music?”. Students came up with a variety ofreasons, giving answers such as that music is a universal language, that musiccan make people happy, and that music is powerful and can have an importantmessage. Students were then asked about popular music in their country, and popularmusic in the United States. They were invited to think about the importance of music around the world and what kind of impact it has on the individual as wellas the global scale.

Giving Self Introduction

Discussion

Malong Talking with Students

Teamwork

After this engagement phase, Ariela shared two
different videos that contained a medley, or a “mashup” of music over the last
120 years in America to display the wide variety of music that has been popular
throughout the decades and to demonstrate how music has evolved in a short
period of time. After viewing the video, Ariela gave a presentation about the
history of music in America, highlighting different important music genres such
as jazz, blues, soul, etc. She not only provided examples of what the music
sounded like, but also described the historical importance of the music in
America. Because American is such a multicultural nation, music is inextricably
linked to race and political shifts in America. Each musical genre lead to a
new decade during which Ariela and the students discussed the importance of
musical history on popular music around the world today.

Watching Video

Following the presentation, Ariela asked the students to discuss with each other the importance of music, American history, and popular culture. She asked the question, “Do you think music has the power to change the world?” and “What is the purpose of music? How does music affect society today?” Students passionately shared their responses and the salon was such a success that it ran over the allotted two hour time period. Because students were so engaged, Ariela concluded the salon with a video of viral American music videos from 2018 to show the state of music today in America. Students slowly trickled out of the building but continued to passionately talk about music.