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WedMusic and dance are a fundamental part of human activity, emerging alongside shelter and fire as a communal technology that enabled people to build cultures that held knowledge and relationships together, and that built what we know today as humanity. We have evidence of musical culture from as long as 40,000 years ago. What was the music of the past like and how does it relate to music today?
This presentation explores why people across the world and across the millennia have sought entrancement from music by entraining their bodies to external musical rhythms. Rupert Till will discuss how and why we explore altered states of consciousness through music, travelling to other places within ourselves. HE will examine the similarities between the ritualistic cultures of the ancient past and the electronic cultures of today, and hope to learn something as result of what it means to be human.
Dr. Rupert Till is Reader in Music at the University of Huddersfield. He has taught popular music and music technology in universities for over 20 years, and is Chair of the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. His research has explored electronic dance music, club cultures, trance and spirituality.