Relationship of Early Music Exposure to Shaping Cultural Identity in Racialized Youth.

Joan Minnery – MA Qualifying: Community Music

Final Capstone Paper

Relationship of Early Music Exposure to Shaping Cultural Identity in Racialized Youth

Wilfried Laurier University, Waterloo ON Canada

July 13th, 2022

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore in?what ways a racialized person’s early exposure to music helps to shape their identity. This paper investigates how a musician of mixed race, seeks out their identity in a specific genre of music. E.g., Rap, hip-hop, rock and metal. A great deal of this paper’s focus is centralized on how mixed raced children are influenced by their family’s musical choices.??The main points of this paper are:?

·??????How exposure to music in the home environment directly influences and impacts a mixed-raced individual’s musical choices?

·??????How racialized individuals evolve in making their own musical choices as they mature and begin to shape their own identity.

·??????The relationship between identity and music.??

Keywords:?relationship, early exposure, music, shaping cultural identity, racialized youth

focus group, narrative, qualitative, family musical influence, rap, hip-hop, metal, rock,?

This Capstone project,?“Relationship of Early Music Exposure to Shaping Cultural Identity in Racialized Youth”?was performed in line with the principles of the Research Ethics Review Board at Wilfrid Laurier University.??Clearance approval by the R.E.B. was granted on March 4th, 2022.?The Research Ethics Board of Wilfrid Laurier University reviewed the proposal for this Capstone project and determined that the proposal was ethically sound.??REB # 6996

Introduction

When a child is born, communication through song is their first language – as babies hum and coo and sing.??Our first language as humans is music.??Early childhood music education has a plethora of sources and well-documented theses and research on the benefits of leading young children towards music.??Sesame Street brought all this knowledge and necessity to the mainstream culture. We all understand and seem to internalize the importance of music in a child’s life.??Music has insurmountable advantages, especially in cognitive, self-expression, social and problem-solving. It also aids in fine motor and coordination, languages, focus and memory, math, teamwork, self-confidence, and self-esteem.??

In December 2018, Drew Weisholtz, a reporter for USA Today, wrote an article about how families directly influence a child’s musical choices. He refers to a 2018 poll of approximately 2000 parents about the phenomenon of children’s musical tastes.??A whopping 82% of them polled reacted that their children were influenced by their own musical tastes up until about the age of 10. After this age, the parents surveyed were in congruity that children began listening to their own types of music. There appears to be a musical window of opportunity to shape a child’s musical tastes that seemingly closes around age 10.??The parents surveyed wished for their children to have access to all different types of music, but they appeared to desire for their children to like the type of music that they like.?

“Parents appear to have an emotional investment in their children's musical taste. Three out of four parents say they try to get their kids to like their favourite songs.”???(Weisholtz, 2018, para. 4).?

Within the article, Dr. Hauke Egermann, a music researcher from England is quoted. “The benefits of having a wider taste in music the ability to use music to manage their emotions, socialize and bond with others more easily, as well to have a better understanding of other cultures.” (Egermann, 2018, para. 5).

Children (and adults) tend to gravitate toward the music they have become familiarized.???Humans like what we know.??The more a person is exposed to a certain song or genre -- it becomes embedded in their emotional framework and becomes like family.??Egermann supports this with further evidence of familiarity and repetition.?

“Familiarity and Repetition: Last but not least, there is also a lot of empirical evidence illustrating that we simply like the music we have been most exposed to. North and Hargreaves (1995) showed that people are more likely to enjoy music that is familiar to them. This finding is similar to?Zajonc’s (1968)?mere exposure effect. Zajonc demonstrated that participants had an increased appreciation for stimuli when they were repeatedly presented to them.” (Egermann, 2018).?

A similar study done by Tom?Ter Bogt delved into the concept of a parent’s taste in music having lasting impressions on their children.?

“The Intergenerational Continuity of Taste: Parental and Adolescent Music Preferences?correlational study did find significant results that suggested parental music preference did influence their children’s music preference, however, causation cannot be inferred from this study.” (Ter Bogt, 2011).?

The literature concurs that through familiarity and repetition, we simply like the music that has been exposed to us and that parents (and family) directly influence their children’s musical tastes through consistent exposure and experience.??The literature signifies that people have an increased appreciation for music that is repeatedly presented to them.??This draws a direct correlation between cultural identity and music and how early music influences shape a mixed-race individual’s identity and musical path.??

Families are a child’s first music disc jockeys.??I.e., a black child exposed only to pop music from white artists such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. The child would learn those songs through route memory and osmosis.??The familiarization of these songs would be stored in a child's memory bank. The analysis of this, however, is whether or not the exposure to traditionally white music plays a part in that black child’s cultural identity.??For our participants in this research study, the answer is complex.

Methodology

I approached 3 mixed-race Canadian musicians from Brantford Ontario, about the concept of my Capstone project.??I invited them to take part in my project, and they happily agreed to participate in a laid-back, focus group interview.??All participants are over 21, and the three musicians identify as "Mixed" -- this is their preferred choice of identification -- mixed Black and White Canadians.??They have given written and verbal consent to use their identities.

For this study, I conducted?Qualitative research using a focus group as my primary method while also employing the mixed methods of Narrative Inquiry and Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation through the art of communication and understanding. E.g., verbal and non-verbal communication. It is also a way of bringing to light a person’s experiences through their own lived experiences. The research was carried out through asking open-ended questions and seeking responses through thoughts and feelings with questions designed to shed some light on the research topic. As the data within this project is illustrative, identifying and descriptive -- it cannot be measured numerically. Instead, it will gather clues and material to shed more insight into the attitudes, perceptions, experiences, and beliefs concerning this particular study. Our focus group utilizes the sampling focus group method of convenience.

Convenience: “The common (and simplest) method for selecting participants for focus groups is called?"purposive" or "convenience" sampling. This means that you select those members of the community who you think will provide you with the best information. It need not be a random selection; indeed, a random sample may be foolish.”?(Vlassoff, n.d., para. 3).

?“The main purpose of focus group research is?to draw upon respondents' attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions in a way in which would not be feasible using other methods.” (Gibbs, 1997, para. 4).?

I engaged the three musicians in exploring their households in their early years. I compared the three musician's experiences who come from families where the father is black, and the mother is white.??While there is anecdotal evidence that family musical choices have an influence on mixed-race individuals' music paths and belonging, this study will probe in-depth how this happens.??They were interviewed about their musical influences and tastes in the context of when they were children, teens, and now as grown adults. We invited discussion regarding their family upbringing, elementary school, high school, and friends to determine what patterns formed and what may have or may not have affected their musical paths and exposure to their musical choices today.?Throughout the interview, the participants recalled the music of their past and discussed the influence it has had on shaping their identity as musicians and as mixed-race Canadians.???Naturally, there is the bonus that their music will be shared at the Capstone event and exposing them to a larger audience and perhaps engaging people in listening to Hip/Hop-Rock when they might not normally listen to that genre of music.??

Self-Locating: It is paramount to this paper that I self-locate myself in authenticity. I, Joan Minnery, the researcher -- am a mother, a musician, a community music graduate student, and a white female. I am the mother of Bill, one of the participants in the focus group. I have been very committed to him performing and encouraging music lessons. However, I let him choose his own path. From the onset, Bill chose rock music and heavy metal, that I welcomed. I would have happily accepted any form of music, I allowed him to have his own choice in the music he wanted to play. I am a well-known performer in my hometown of Brantford having spent decades as a professional entertainer, touring with various Elvis tribute groups and producing Elvis and Oldies festivals and productions. My son has been enmeshed in this world since he was 3 years old. Our house is a shrine to Elvis, and our lives together have taken us across Canada and the United States touring and singing. When Bill began performing at 12, it was a natural rite of passage. It was not unusual for him to be saluting Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix during our Elvis shows -- it was appreciated by our audiences. That was HIS identity and Elvis was mine. It’s the life he knew and a life I encouraged but did not force upon him. I let him choose that, but I am certain that my life in the performing arts greatly impacted his choice to become a performer.?

I have a relationship with the participants in the focus group. I am the mother of Bill Minnery, and my other two participants are long-time friends of Bill and have a close relationship with me.??As we are all entertainers, we have also performed together in many music showcases.??I am implicated in the research questions as I am both a mother and show producer and thus have a complex relationship with the participants.??

It was important to me to conduct this project as I have been grappling with the fact that my son and I did not embrace his Dominican culture, language, or music.??With the onset of the Black Lives Matter protests and marches, there was a significant change in Bill and it seemed that his friend demographics have changed dramatically in the last few years, and he’s begun his first ever venture into rap and hip-hop.??As the mother of a biracial son -- this entire project has been life-enhancing.

Backstory/Rationale

Every person we meet has a story. Every musician has a history of how they became an artist and a story to tell of their journey. How many times have we looked at an artist based upon the colour of their skin and assumed something society tells us about them without getting to know them? E.g., asinine assumptions are concocted that rock stars are drunks and drug addicts, rappers are gangsters, and country artists are white supremacists.??

In the summer of 2020, Ontario hip/hop rap artist Kidd Dreadd teamed up with Ontario rock artist Bill Minnery to collaborate on Kidd Dreadd’s song Heartbreaker. Bill added rock guitar and soulful vocals on the chorus while Kidd Dreadd rapped the verses. Drums and licks were created. The song became a summer smash hit and was featured all over the world on Indie Radio. It has been entered into several online contests and received mainstream radio chatter. In 2022 it was picked up as part of the Trail Mix musical app, which can be downloaded along 17km of trails in Brantford and Brant County. The song is part of the Tourism Brantford welcoming video for new people coming to the area.?https://youtu.be/BgnMjnkqc9s

Kidd Dreadd (whose real name is Justin Benin) performed at a showcase of Rock and Rap in Brantford in October 2020. He enlisted the help of his sister Tanisha to join him and Bill. The trio did an all-acoustic version of the song -- with Bill on nylon string guitar and chorus vocals with Tanisha on harmony and Justin rapping the verses. Playing to a packed house, the trio brought the house down.??

As Bill’s mother and as an author -- I was mesmerized by this collaboration. I wanted to know more, and I wanted to delve into the relationships of the trio and the duo and get to know the history behind the voices and find out their stories. How did 3 mixed kids come here together? What led each of them here??

To find the answer to any story -- one must start at the beginning.??

Focus Group Interview/Discussion

Justin Benin and Tanisha Benin are siblings.??Justin is 27 years old and works in a factory in Brantford Ontario. He is well-known local hip-hop and rap artist who performs exclusively under the Mawlife label, his family’s music business. Tanisha is 23 years old and works as the manager of a store in Brantford Ontario.??Tanisha sings primarily country and pop, and while she has dabbled in the family’s hip-hop music, she prefers to sing karaoke.??She periodically joins her brothers on backup vocals in their performances in many of their rap videos.??Tanisha and Justin have 4 other siblings – all of whom are rap artists.??Their mother is a white Canadian, and their father is a black African. Their father was with them in their home until Justin was 12 and Tanisha was 8, and after that, they didn’t see their father regularly.??Their mom married another black man from Jamaica, and he’s been in their home as their father figure since they both were in elementary school. While their household has been enriched by the black culture -- both their school surroundings and circles of friends have been overall, white.??

Bill Minnery is an only child.??Bill is 30 years old and works in security in Brantford Ontario.??He is a well-known local rock artist. Bill performs in several bands in Brantford and Hamilton, including an oldies band that he performs in with his mother, his uncle and another friend.??Bill’s mother is a white Canadian, and his father is a black Latino from the Dominican Republic.??Bill’s father was not in the home after Bill was 6 months old. He’s had little contact with his son throughout his childhood and minimal presence throughout his life.??There has been no other black/Hispanic family connection in his life until Bill met his half-brother on his father’s side when Bill was 16 and his half-brother Dominic was 18. While close in age, they aren’t close in demographics and in-person relations have been few and far between.??Bill was raised in a predominantly white household with principally white friends and classrooms.??Bill and his mother live together in their family home, where they have resided for their entire lives with Bill’s grandparents and godfather. Bill’s godfather, Joe, died in 2000.??His grandfather Bill died in 2015, and his grandmother Elsie passed away in 2016.??Bill was overwhelmingly close with all three of them, and all three shared equal roles in raising him with Bill’s mom.??His grandparents and godfather were immigrants from Liverpool, England and also very musical.??There was a lot of music in the home, mainly British pop bands and country stars.?

Tanisha, Bill and Justin were exposed to music from birth.??All 3 of them come from very musical families who perform regularly. Bill grew up in a home of Rock and Roll and Oldies from the British and Canadian influences, and Tanisha and Justin in a home of Hip Hop from both the African and Caribbean influences.??They were thrust into the world of performing at very early stages.

On April 8th, 2022, the three of them and I engaged in a focus group interview for the Capstone.??During the interview, the three participants were asked the same 15 questions.??(See appendix for all questions).

I asked our 3 participants about music being a part of their lives and sharing any specific memories about family and friends in relation to listening to or performing music.??All three happily responded that music had been a part of their daily lives as far back as they can remember.????They cite Michael Jackson as their first musical hero - and for Bill, it was his only black musical hero until his pre-teens. All of their families are musical and in the entertainment business. Bill’s mom (me) has been in the entertainment business since he was a toddler.??He remembered accompanying his mom to parades and shows and laughing about having 75 Elvii in the backyard at a barbeque. “It was normal to me to see men walking around my house in Elvis jumpsuits.” (B. Minnery, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

Tanisha and Justin remember their brother being up until 3-4 am rapping. They had giant speakers in the living room, and every Sunday it was a loud music jam fest.?“When we visit Uncle David – it’s bumping reggae, soca shaking the house, cooking fresh food. It’s just family, you know.”?(T. Benin, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

When I asked them to think back to their childhood and teenage years -- I specifically probed how they felt that they may have been influenced by their family's musical choices.??????All three concurred that their family influenced them to choose careers in music. It was an inevitable rite of passage. Tanisha and Justin heard a lot of Johnny Cash in their house --as well as many types of music from Africa and the Islands.

Bill cited Elvis and the Beatles and that his obsession with the guitar came from the Beatles, which eventually led to Angus Young and ultimately to Eddie Van Halen.?

?“Just the fact that I am a mixed person who is completely obsessed with Eddie Van Halen. There are not a lot of mixed guys out there that are obsessed with the guitar players and guitar gods and all that, so that was probably a sign right there of my upbringing because I was raised with white music, right? I was raised with Elvis, which is actually black music. But then he's a white person.”?(B. Minnery, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

One of the most interesting aspects of my research happened when I asked them about their early exposure to music and how they felt it shaped their cultural identity. Both Justin and Tanisha felt that the groups of people they were associating with influenced their choices just to fit in.?“It depends on whether I am in a setting where I was skateboarding with my friends or listening to Kendrick Lamar while chilling with my homies.” (J. Benin, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

Justin and Tanisha listened to their black music with their family, but with their social groups, it was other music. They felt they switched identities.?Tanisha never knew Rock music until she moved in with a friend and all they listened to was Rock and Metal.?

Bill agreed but expressed that his getting into Rap led to him identifying as half black.??While he didn’t seek out people of colour, it was when he began his friendships with Justin and others that he finally could connect and felt more at home than with his white friends.?

(On a personal note, this was my first time hearing him say that.??It was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me as a mother and researcher.??If there was any authenticity in question about me doing this project, it was erased within that unexpected revelation).?

Dr. Lee Willingham, one of my university professors, asked me in my Capstone presentation on July 13th, 2022, whether I thought I would have had the same results with people I did not know. While this is purely speculation, I point to the above and take a piece from the “peace” of the focus group.?

Bill revealed things about himself and his experiences with self-identity that he’s never before expressed. He openly admitted he was able to say this because he felt safe, and felt a brotherhood with both Justin and Tanisha and in his comfort, he felt empowered to speak.

He hadn’t felt that way before out of fear he would upset me or didn’t want to discuss it in front of white people. However, with him having a commonality and haven, he felt comfortable speaking with them and to them with me in the room. Now, whether that would present in a panel with people I do not know -- remains a mystery and only speculation.?

Having said that, if my son felt he had a place of security to speak openly and candidly, as did Tanisha and Justin, I’d hope others would feel that trust. At this point, let this be an education for me as the mother of an interracial child that is a revelation that has changed the narrative and total trajectory of this paper.

I asked our panel about race and identity and if they feel that race plays a role in the genres of metal, rock, rap and hip-hop.???This was a unanimous “Yes,” but they feel it’s changing and that now anyone of any colour can do Rap, Metal, Rock, or Hip-Hop. They realize there will be haters and disgruntled people of the races but that it’s changing, and they welcome that. Yet, they all agreed that while race plays a role in those stereotyped genres, they want it to change and welcome anybody into those genres. Bill gave quite the music history lesson on the Blues and guitar and how they all derived from the same place (Black Music).??It is their wish to see that place welcome everyone.?

The conversation then travelled to how they grew up being the only black kids or mixed raced people in their classrooms and within their groups of friends. When they got older and started connecting with their present group, it changed them for the better. They love that they have found their identity within a group of many other ethnicities who were also looking for a group of friends to identify with and chill with – they call themselves the "Hall of Fam."?

They are quick to remind themselves and each other that they are white too – and that is important to them, as they identify as both yet on the first visual, they have darker skin.?

When asked about what role they believed that societal expectations placed upon them as a mixed-race person and how it played into their development as musicians and as a person -- this one was the hardest for them to answer, and they weren’t all on the same page but circled back together. This one caused a bit of uneasiness, particularly with Justin who has had some very unsettling racial issues with the police (and more).?

They agreed that they felt that society expected them to be good at sports, in particular Bill who saw his role as the only mixed person in his class to excel in sports and be the best. Bill was always the biggest kid in the class, and he got poked at a lot, so he felt they were challenging him. All three addressed this more to society’s expectations of them as people rather than their musical life.?

Tanisha painfully said, “You just have to fit whatever mould they put you in because it’s easier than fighting the majority.”?(T. Benin, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

I asked our 3 musicians if the colour of their skin affected their choice of music or music genres. This spawned our first debate and good discussion based on households. They felt that this wasn’t always the case. Bill initially felt an instant “No” while Tanisha and Justin agreed with automatic yesses and caused a discussion with all three. Bill theorized it was because he grew up in an all-white family with nobody else in the home or anywhere in the family looking like he did and the demographics of the neighbourhood and Catholic schools he attended. Tanisha even commented that it was because he was in the North End of Brantford, where very few non-white people are visible. (That is changing). Tanisha and Justin had a lot of traditional black music in the home. E.g., African, and Caribbean music. Their Dad was in their home until Justin was about 12 years old, plus their uncles and other step-dad figures are black. Bill felt that regardless of whether he was black or white, he still would have gravitated towards rock music. However, Bill acknowledged it was influenced by the family.?

This then led to a discussion on what music means to them as mixed-race Canadians, and happy discussions ensued with all 3 supporting the Canadian artists.??They are excited to see those artists on the charts who are out there now. As Justin said, “They’re killing it!”

The three of them are very supportive and vocal about their Canadianism and cite many of their biggest influences as being Canadian. All gave a lot of credit to RUSH, Drake, Justin Bieber, Billy Talent and Nickelback.?

?“It's really amazing to see so many Canadian artists rising, and it gives you encouragement being Canadian, to rise with them.”?(T. Benin, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

Justin, Bill and Tanisha talked about how music can bridge the cultural gap between the races -- with each of them agreeing anybody can do any genre and do it justice. They see a lot of cultural blends now in Country and Pop Music and cited Beyonce doing Country and Bieber with the Spanish tune “Despacito.” They loved Despacito with Justin on vocals and the rap artists that united 3 different cultures and genres. They all recognize that it makes people more creative to see what goes together, and they encourage creativity in mixing the genres and cultures to see how different it sounds.?

Bill cited Elvis’ music as the most iconic mix of genres coming from Gospel, Blues, Rockabilly, Rock and Roll and Country, and him being white performing black music.??

They are of the same mind that music should not be defined as black and white and that it is not helpful to define it on racial terms whatsoever.???They feel that it is embedded in people’s brains and something instilled in people from growing up with those definitions.??

“T.V. has saturated people’s negative images and conditioned people’s minds that it’s all about Hoops or Loops or Drugs.??We only see limited images on the screen -- but it's a negative image of reality.??We must raise Black Awareness.??We need to lose our comparisons to each other and become our own song -- thereby aligning ourselves towards positive energy.” (J. Corbin, personal communication, May 25, 2022).?

Our three acknowledge that it’s changing and becoming more about a person’s talent and who they are and less about the colour of their skin.??The three of them hope they can continue that thought pattern with their own children.

“Talent should be colourless.”?(B. Minnery, personal communication, April 8, 2022).

I finally asked them about their song Heartbreaker, which spawned my inquiry and desire to do this project from the onset.??They were asked about the purpose of recording a rap-rock song/video and if there was an underlying message.????All three are enthusiastic about their collaboration but agree initially, that it was just for fun and didn’t anticipate the fanfare or fallout. There wasn’t an intended hidden agenda in combining 2 genres. Justin simply followed his idol Little Wayne putting a guitar track on one of his recordings.??He thought it would be cool as he and Bill are such close friends.??Tanisha was added during a live show. They assuredly will be collaborating in the future.??(They performed a bit of their new track during the Capstone).

Conclusion

The relationship of early music exposure in the family setting is key in shaping cultural identity in racialized youth.??With biracial youth, they affiliate and identify with more than one culture and depending on other ethnicities in the home, they may gravitate towards both or more of one than the other.??Their identity can be complex and assuredly varied.??There would be a perceived argument that a person of mixed race would be more well-rounded as they have a plethora of facets to pull from while still being complex.??There’s a phenomenon of multiple personalities that a racialized and mixed-race youth must hold in the world, and this is how they naturally manage social situations.?

In this 2017 paper, Rolf Lidskog talked about how identities and cultures are solidified and woven together through music.??He studies papers in the last several decades delving into the role that music is paramount in paving the foundation for identity in ethnic communities.??

“The theme of the relationship between music and identity is growing in importance in music studies, not least within the subfield of ethnomusicology. (Rice, 2007). Music is a constitutive part of culture and hence is important for individual and social identity formation. It can serve as a space and practice that binds group members together, so that they understand themselves as belonging to each other and maybe even having a specific task or mission to accomplish.”???He goes on to write in the same paragraph. “An important part of all identity formation is the making of boundaries; music can be used to draw boundaries between groups, thereby shaping and strengthening social identities (Rice,?2013, p.72). Music can be used as a symbolic identifier of a social group, both by the group’s members but also by the surroundings (its non- members).” (Lidskog, 2017, para. 10).

During this research study, I sought to explore in what ways a racialized person’s early exposure to music helps to shape their identity.??I wanted to explore how a musician of mixed race seeks out their identity in a specific genre of music. E.g., Rap, hip-hop, rock and metal.??A great deal of my focus was centralized on how mixed raced children are influenced by their family’s musical choices.???Within our focus group, all individuals endorse the truth that they were directly influenced and impacted by their home environment in their musical choices and exposure.???However, all of them, once they reached their teens -- began making their own musical choices, which reflects the research done by other scholars.???Tanisha, Bill, and Justin fully concur in giving a green light that their identity is linked directly to the music.

Their music assuredly does have meaning, and I wanted to draw upon that premise throughout the Capstone and how much music matters to them.??We were able to tweak out a bit of research on how music has bridged the two cultures together from Rock to Rap and united friends of mixed races through the very essence of music.???It is apparent that Bill, Justin and Tanisha have found their identity through music and changed the very narrative of their affirmations of how society has framed them.

During the interview, Bill summarized eloquently, which was absolutely supported by both Tanisha and Justin -- that their mutual identity is equally as important because of their white mothers and white grandparents. They can locate themselves through a sense of purpose and community. They feel as if they can feel part of a community which doesn’t necessarily look like them.?

Bill explained during the capstone that he never even knew there was anything different about him until he started growing his hair and people started calling him racial names. He had seen his father, yet to him, he was just Dad and never connected the dots that his Dad had darker skin and was anything else other than his father. When he came home asking me what the “n-word” is — it was the first time he had heard that term, and I had to explain it to him. I also noticed that this was the first time I had witnessed him looking intensely into a mirror. His identity with the colour of their skin did not occur until someone else brought it to their attention.??Before this, he saw himself through the innocence of their eyes as a son, nephew, grandchild and friend.??

Justin and Tanisha had different stories as their families were so enmeshed in their Caribbean and African culture -- that they heralded their blackness and learned to live with it and love it from a very early age.??Their blackness was spoken about -- it was part of the family teachings.???That total feeling of connection and safety in numbers was established within the family.

In answer to the original question:??In what ways does a racialized person’s early exposure to music shape their cultural identity???If I had to come up with a list of keywords to answer this question they would be:??Authenticity, Self-Love, Value, Feeling Value, Validation, Feeling Worthy, Worthiness, Belonging, Place of Belonging, Security, Feeling Secure, Feeling Safe, Sanctuary.

During the Capstone presentation on Wednesday, July 13th, 2022, Bill and Justin revealed that they feel safest on stage. They feel they are respected on the stage -- that is where they feel empowerment and total acceptance. It’s not about the colour of their skin -- it’s about their music and their talent.??They're not being judged for anything more than their music.??There is a Connection to their culture in both black and white.?

I want to focus on the statement that the lads made about safety on stage -- which has become an unexpected nucleus of my paper.???Safety means freedom, security, refuge, sanctuary, stability, shelter, and dependability. The words that jump out are dependability and that all-consuming definition of stability.??Justin and Bill both said that the stage and their music are where they found their dependability. Music became their safe haven.??

Perhaps music is the one thing that truly understands them and speaks a language everyone can understand.??Their music connects their whiteness and their blackness like nothing else on earth.??It's finally about them as musicians uniting both of their identities of black and white.??More than anything else, the music itself is the deepest connection to their cultural and colour identifications.?

“When words fail music speaks your heart, it tells a tale when the words won’t start. Notes create life’s harmony, setting generations free. Music may be the one thing that truly understands you, it speaks a language we all can comprehend. With the power to heal and the emotion to feel, music is the core and so much more, music is your best friend.”?(Minnery, J. 2022).

For Justin, Tanisha, and Bill -- there is a deep connection to family through musical memories that establishes their roots. This then turns into the food of nourishment for their souls. It is all-encompassing -- it Is their identity.??The camaraderie of identity, and authenticity of self in their story, never stops.??To Be Continued …

Acknowledgements

Participants:??Tanisha Benin, Justin Benin, Bill Minnery.??

Professors:??Dr. Lee Willingham, Dr. Gerard Yun, Dr. Deanna Yerichuk,?Dr. Laura Benjamins, Dr. Kirsten Yri, Dr. Amy Clements-Cortes, John Beresford,?Matias Recharte.

Master Classmates:??Amanda Bunk, Megan Brenneman, Gunho Kwak, Shane Guse,?James Eriksen, Darryl Britto, Wafa Al Zaghal, Ynes Cortez, Chris Mallon, Bailey Dugas,?Anna Paul Batista, Debbie Shelley, Jon Corbin.

References

Donahue, Grace. (October 5, 2018).?How do our parents influence our taste in music??Scholar Blogs.?https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/theadolescentbrain/2018/10/05/how-do-our-parents-influence-our-taste-in-music/

Engermann, Hauke. (November 28, 2018).?Can parents influence children’s music preferences and positively shape their development???https://www.egermann.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Review_Egermann_Parents_Influence.pdf

Gibbs, Anita. (n.d., 2017).?Social Research Updates?-?Focus groups. Sociology at Surrey, University of Surrey.??https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU19.html

Lidskog, Rolf. (April 7, 2017). The role of music in ethnic identity formation in diaspora: a research review.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/issj.12091

Minnery, J. 2022.?I am the music.?Wilfrid Laurier University.

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APPENDIX

Focus Group - Interview Questions

1. How far back can you remember music being a part of your life? Please share any specific memories about your family and friends in relation to listening to or performing music.??

2. Thinking back to your childhood and teenage years, how do you feel you may have been influenced by your family's musical choices?

3. Did your early exposure to music shape your cultural identity, and how??

4. Right now, 2022, how important is music to your identity??

5. Did you seek out your identity in specific genres of music? E.g., rap, rock, hip hop, rap, blues, country, etc., and if you did, how??

6. Thinking about race and identity -- do you feel that race plays a role in these genres -- Metal, rock, rap and hip hop?

7. Thinking about the racialized people in your community of Brantford -- How do you relate to them right now? Thinking about people of colour and people of mixed races, i.e., black, Asian, Indigenous or other -- how do you relate to them??

8. What role do you believe societal expectations of you as a mixed-race person played in your development as a musician and a person?

9. Do you think the colour of your skin affected your choice in music, particular music genres, and if so, was that always the case??

10. What does music mean to you as a mixed-race Canadian??

11. Do you believe music can bridge the cultural gap between the races, or is it causing a greater divide??

12. Do you think it is helpful to define music in racial terms? Why or why not? Is it helpful to define that rap and hip hop is traditionally black and that rock and metal are traditionally white??

13. Relating specifically to your collaboration on the recording and video for your song heartbreaker -- what was your purpose in recording a rap-rock song and filming the video? What was it for fun when you started, or was there an underlying message in combining 2 genres??

·??????Extra Questions derived from the focus group discussion

14. Do you feel that more of your culture is coming into your writing and playing or is it the same? Is your cultural identity coming more into play?

15. If there was a message from all three of you individually, what would be the message that you would like to convey about you as a mixed raced Canadian musician???

16. Have you experienced any racism while on stage or when walking into a bar to perform?

17. Where is your ultimate place to play if you could have any dream made real? Who would you like to be the opening act for, and who is your opening act???