ABSTRACT
Living within the context of a highly diverse, pluralistic society in which a variety of social and musical interactions are always possible has enabled people in the United States and Canada to develop musical cultures that are, at times, identified by strong cultural boundaries, and at other times, highly integrative products of creative social and musical mergers. Many of the genres of music we experience today, such as country and western, rock, and certain concert musics, are the result of musical and social mixtures that created new forms and meanings for music, as well as for other expressions of social and cultural identity. This section discusses the processes of musical acculturation and synthesis (the borrowing, adaptation and/or merging of different musical elements) as they have occurred in various contexts within the United States and Canada as disparate peoples have moved and settled close to each other and have shared their lives and musics.
