Wong

Deborah Wong discusses Asian American musical tastes in relation to the plethora of American music genres. She centers the article around an interview she conducted with colleague Rodney Ogawa. Rodney discusses how his musical tastes evolved with age and how that music correlated to his Japanese American background. Wong churns the interview to make a bigger point about how Asian Americans' cultural tastes fit into American racialized culture. Here she focuses on the racialization of music. Wong feels as though Black and White are the only to cultures represented on the American music scale, and that other cultures like Asian Americans have musical tastes that lie somewhere in between. The title "Finding an Asian American Audience" is suggesting that music in America is never directly "marketed" towards Asian Americans (which further proves her point). This issue of Asian American musical tastes could have been better explored if more than one interview was sighted or if Wong had spoken more from personal experience, but overall the material was extremely stimulating.

In the article, Wong makes a statement that essentially says that the music itself is never what draws in the listener, but it's the cultural connection (if there is one). I would have to heartily disagree that this is the case ALL the time. Obviously culture has a direct connection to taste, but how domineering is this connection overall to musical tastes?