Published Paper Details:

The history of music has been frequently presented through a Eurocentric framework in which the evolution of European art music is portrayed as the primary narrative of musical progress. Approaches like these have often separated non-European traditions into ethnomusicological categories rather than incorporating them into a unified historical understanding of global musical development. This study critically examines the evolution of music from prehistoric societies to the contemporary era by analysing the musical histories of Europe, India, China, Japan, America and Africa. Using a qualitative historical methodology supported by comparative, precolonial and postcolonial perspectives, this research also investigates the roles of migration, trade, religion, colonialism, technological innovation, and cultural exchange in shaping musical traditions from the beginning of human life. The findings demonstrate that musical evolution has never been a linear process centred on a single civilisation. Instead, music developed through parallel cultural trajectories and continuous intercultural interaction. While European musical systems significantly influenced global musical practices, non-European traditions equally contributed to modern musical structures, aesthetics, instruments, and performance practices.