Local choral experience

A friend of mine recently was invited to the choral performance of one of her local friends. I went along with her and it was quite an interesting experience. I don't think I ever before thought of just how different music from different regions and countries would be.

The ladies all had their hair done and were all dressed up in the same fancy dress while the guys wore their slick suits.
I wasn't quite sure WHAT kind of music I was expecting other than that it would have lyrics in the local language.

I think the thing that really surprised me was that to my ears all the songs sounded the same. There would be a series of 3-4 songs that (in my opinion) all had the same tune, rhythm just different words and then another series that sounded similar to the last but different enough that I noticed. I'd hear 3 songs and then another that the audience would get all excited about and maybe sing along to but I'd be thinking, "I don't get it. This sounds just like the last 2/3". Or I'd hear 3/4 songs that to me sounded exactly alike and then I'd hear a song that sounded ever-so-slightly different and I'd perk up (basically every 3rd/4th song). I guess the good thing was it kept my attention b/c the room was hot and stuffy and I was being put to sleep.

All in all, it was a good experience. I've been thinking a bit more about music lately. In the US country music has a certain "style" but the beats, rhythm etc. of the music doesn't all sound the same in every song although, in my opinion it's gotten better, but everyone doesn't have the same degree of "twang" in their voices. And I've heard the argument that they sing the same bleeding-heart, everything is wrong in my life lyrics (maybe that was before my time). In any event, I can appreciate some songs within the genre and don't think they sound the very same. Perhaps I like them BECAUSE of how different the beat, voice, lyrics etc are.

While in my country, we're quite familiar with the pop, hip-hop, R&B, rap, classical and country from other parts of the West and we also have our own Caribbean-sounding soca, calypso and reggae but even though the sound of soca, calypso and reggae is the similar within the genre the songs all sound different to me. I wonder what a non-English speaker (or even non-Caribbean person) would think about our music......maybe it'd sound the same to THEM.

Anyway, I found this cute clip of that Darren Criss guy singing a mashup of Cee-Lo, La-Roux and 4 Non Blondes to demonstrate his belief that pop songs all use the same basic chords. You can decide for yourself but I won't hate. I LOVE the fact that I can play most songs I want on the guitar because I only really know about 6 chords!