From the jazz and funk inspired Afrobeats of Nigeria to the roots of classical music that are engraved in Germany, Music Matters aims to dissect the rich musical history of countries all over the world. Music Matters was discontinued in the last two years, but was brought back this year. 

“The goal of Music Matters is to educate and entertain our club members [about] the history and effects of music in different cultures,” club president and senior Ryan Payne said. 

In addition, freshman and vice president Anusri Arun Prasath wants the club to focus on the relationship between people and music. 

“Another priority of Music Matters is to analyze how music affects people and how people affect music,” Arun Prasath said.

However, Payne and Arun Prasath are not only reinstating Music Matters, but also expanding on the activities of the club in the past. The meetings of the old club were mostly member-run presentations, which are commonplace in many Jefferson clubs. To bring a unique approach, Payne and Arun Prasath have found a new interactive way to educate their members about world music.

“We were thinking about ways to make our meetings more interactive and self directed and we stumbled upon Google Earth’s interactive map feature. Using this feature, we can pinpoint different countries around the world and have students click around to actually experience the music rather than just having us present about it, which we hope will be more interesting,” Arun Prasath said. 

Junior Ryan Lien attended the interest meeting for Music Matters last Friday, Jan 15th. It seems like Arun Prasath’s hope has come true, as Ryan enjoyed the new interactive approach. 

“During the interest meeting, we had an interactive map based off of Google Earth where we looked at a bunch of different regions across the world and took a look at the musical styles and the cultural significance of their music. Overall, I really liked this new approach because it was something unique that I haven’t seen before,” junior Ryan Lien said.  

As for the future, Payne and Arun Prasath have many more interesting initiatives in the works to make Music Matters a success.  

“Another potential thing we are looking into for future events is to collaborate with the variety of culture clubs found at [Jefferson],” Arun Prasath said. 

Lastly, Payne encourages anyone who is curious about the history of music to join Music Matters. 

“Music Matters is the club for you if you want to learn more about the history and cultural significance behind some of your favorite tunes,” Payne said.

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