Western culture impacts music

Music has been a necessity in the lives of people for many generations. Mongolian hunnu rock band The Hu is one of many bands who display their nationality through their music. For some who may not know, hunnu rock is inspired by a historical Mongolian empire known as The Huns and the empire inspired the band to create music filled with emotions from an ancient Mongolian war to poetry. Gala, Enkush, Jaya and Temka became a band in 2016 and it took them three years to create their debut album titled The Gerege. This album is worth listening to because listeners can learn a lot about the band’s culture and traditional styles by listening closely to the harmonic vocals and the unique sounds from the instruments.

The vocals on this track are unique because the voices from Gala, Enkush and Jaya are in harmony because on some tracks, their vocal styles are chanting out the lyrics of the song in a deep and low voice. The instruments being used on this record are wonderful because they reflect on the culture The Hu came from and each instrument fills the songs with the sounds of western rock which is known as hunnu rock. Gala and Enkush play the morin khuur which is a horsehead fiddle, Jaya plays a jaw harp which is a mouth harp, a tsuur which is a end-blown flute and a flute, and Temka plays the tovshurr which is a traditional Mongolian two or three-stringed lute. When all of these instruments are being played, the sound of authentic hunnu rock can be heard and all four band members do a great job performing on the record. Overall, The Gereg is a great album because it gives listeners the opportunity to explore cultural and traditional Mongolian music.

On the album there is a song titled “The Great Chinggis Khaan” and the song is worth listening to because of how the lyrics tell a fictional story of a Mongolian conqueror who united with Mongolian tribes and he created an empire which extended from China to Persia. The lyrics have cultural and traditional Mongolian meaning and hopefully listeners will take the time to learn about what The Hu is saying in this song, Also the vocals on this track are great because Gala, Enkush and Jaya’s vocals help illustrates the meaning of the song through softer and lower vocal ranges by all three musicians. When listening to the song, the band are storytellers because their voices are mixed within the low sounds coming from their instruments which helps the listeners know what the song is about.

The song “Shoog Shoog”  is different from the song  “The Great Chinggis Khaan” because the tempo of the song has a higher tempo which repeats throughout the song. The theme of this song is vibrant are for a reason because each letter in the word “Shoog” sands for something. Smile, honest, optimistic, outlook and glow is what the song is about and The Hu did a fantastic job performing this song because when the instruments are being played, the sounds light up the whole track. The vocals by Gala, Enkush and Jaya are boastful because of the way they are chanting the words “Shoog Shoog” and Gala’s vocals are raw and sexy on this track because of how he can lightly sing while the rest of the band performs high tempos. This song could very well have listeners dancing to the music and that is a good thing because of how positive the song is.

Also the song “Yuve Yuve Yu” may sound like a happy song but the meaning is the opposite of positive because the lyrics are about how some of the Mongolian tribes have taken some of the ancestors names in vain and the other tribes are not pleased with the actions they have seen and they want revenge because their ancestors names are apart of the culture and tradition in Mongolia. The sounds coming from the instruments match the theme because Mongolia’s main musical genre is western rock and this song is filled it. In some ways, the vocals and the instruments are storytellers because the vocals and the instruments teach listeners about Mongolian history and storytelling. If listeners want to hear what western rock is like, then they should listen to this song because it is filled with cultural and traditional western rock.

Overall, this album is great because the tracks provide a historical glimpse of a country some people may not know about. The Hu is on tour and hopefully, people will learn more about the band while listening to live cultural music.