Music has a global culture in all of us.

What struck me most, in pages 125-165 of Anne Rasmussen's book, was the idea that "although Islam is the third largest religion in the United States after Christianity and Judaism... Muslim America is multicultural. There is no single or even predominant cultural model for religious rituals, clothing, food, or music for Muslims in the United States" (128).  This was a novel idea for me, because, as Rasmussen also states, there is a larger journalistic view that presents Islam as one united culture, which has permeated America's thoughts on Islam. This was interesting to me because, although it is clear to me that there are no unifying standards on Islamic music, music itself seems to be unifying, in a very global way. This does not just apply to Islam, although I believe that music does bring a lot of Muslims together, no matter what kind of "music" calls them ("music" can be anything,  recitation or not). Rasmussen says she was able to spend a lot of time with people in Indonesia because of a shared connection to music, even when she did not play the same instruments or understand the songs. In many ways, it was not about knowing the same music, but "was about sharing performance" (140). I think this holds true for any kind of musical gathering; to participate in the experience, even if one is lacking the common musical knowledge, one just has to have an appreciation for the sounds and the togetherness. This in turn brings about "collaborative knowledge" that Rasmussen mentions on page 141. While Rasmussen was talking about the importance of "becoming a 'bit player'" in order for the ethnomusicologist to gather information, I think the term collaborative knowledge is perfect to describe what happens when people get together to listen or play music. Rasmussen sums it up nicely, (although again talking about her own musical exchanges in order to conduct research into her book): "such exchanges always provided insight into the variety of ways in which people organize, experience, and appreciate music and the ways in which people interact with each other musically" (142). For instance, something I have noticed in my own musical experiences is that it is hard to just sit still and listen to music- there is always motion of the body, whether voluntary or not, which conveys enjoyment to others participating. It is not just about enjoyment, but also about a shared emotional link- because you have experienced, and perhaps even participated by dancing to music, you have created an emotional attachment to it, and therefore have shared in the global culture of music.