Even without the music added in, Little India is already a very lively neighborhood compared to its surroundings, but the music contributed a lot to the overall feel.
Music also tends to appear during moments that feel more like celebrations. At my university in Singapore, there are sometimes wellbeing days where the campus organizes events for students. At many of these, there is some form of live music playing while people walk around and talk. Even the dining hall sometimes brings in musicians or speakers for special nights. On normal days, it's just a place to eat dinner, but when there's music, the whole room suddenly feels more festive. I also saw a band playing outside one of the residence halls during a celebration near the end of Ramadan, which made the area feel like a gathering place instead of just somewhere people pass through. It's the prescence of music in these special moments that makes it so much more of an interesting phenomenon. When you do hear it, you know something special is going down.
I have also noticed how music travels across borders and presents itself differently depending where you are. On a flight with AirAsia, the airline was playing Drake songs and other popular music while everyone boarded the plane. In Taiwan, I noticed music spilling out of shops and busy streets in a way that reminded me of bigger cities back home. In Vietnam, during the Lunar New Year celebration called Tet, karaoke is everywhere. People sing loudly with friends and family, sometimes late into the night, turning whole neighborhoods into spontaneous concerts.
