The Travels and Travails of Music by Ruth Finnegan is about history, music, and culture surrounding beautiful Fiji. Ruth has taken an academic, cultural and anthropological approach to writing in The Travels and Travails of Music. Ruth displays the flow and the evolution of music and radio, along with its infiltration into the Fijian race and culture. Ruth goes on to specify how British culture has influenced musical culture in Fiji. The journey in The Travels and Travails of Music dates back to 1937 where she discusses the media in Fiji, the change in traditions of Fijian music, and answers the question as to whether music travels.

“But then a colleague's chance remark woke me up; it was based on the assumption that culture and radio overseas were necessarily dependent on, even controlled from, London's BBC broadcasts. There was a need for a more balanced - indeed a contrary – understanding,” says Ruth. Music is a universal language and, despite its genre, can be enjoyed or influenced by all. In The Travels and Travails of Music, the Glossary of Fijian and Indian Musical Terms, as well as the Radio Services in Fiji from 1937 to 2009 were extremely useful and helped to create a full fact list of information relevant to music in Fijian culture. If you are interested in finding out how music has influenced Fijian culture to where it is now, reading The Travels and Travails of Music by Ruth Finnegan is a great choice.

In a piece of research at its absolute finest, The Travels and Travails of Music by author Ruth Finnegan, an obvious expert in the field of music and communication, will take readers on an ethnographic and sociological journey all the way to the small island of Fiji. Tracing the history of music, culture and radio on Fiji, the story follows historically important moments in 1937, 1978 and 2009 to show that it isn't music that travels, but instead the people who use it are able to develop amazing applications. Delving deeply into an area that is little studied, the importance of musical contributions from island cultures in the South Seas, this book is a a real gem and a worthy educational read.

I very much enjoyed The Travels and Travails of Music. Author Ruth Finnegan further develops her credibility as an author and researcher of note in the field of communication with this book, and it is simply a joy to read. Any reader who has an interest in music, communication, or the geographical area of the South Seas would gain a great deal of interesting and useful information from this book. I highly recommend The Travels and Travails of Music to any readers looking to both be educated and entertained from the book they are reading. I hope that author Ruth Finnegan will continue her line of study and authorship. I, for one, will be keeping an eye out for her next great work!