Still, in intercultural comparison made by interviews of Malaysian and Californian students, different attitudes of hearing and listening can be determined. Bird songs are understood as a kind of language in which the birds praise Allah. New compositions evolve out of the syncretism of kugak and yangak, compositions which raise for once new questions of perception to its listeners. Thought songs are made, among other reasons, to be heard by the deceased, just as funeral music is intended for the ears of the dead and the spirit world. The postmodern, multicultural society confronts contemporary youth with a diversity of hearing situations.
Music is heard individually and in groups.
An increasingly individual selection of that which is heard marks the personal and also differentiated musical behavior of youths, also in reference to their groupings according to age, interests and ethnic self-understanding. In the intercultural process between understanding and misunderstanding, both musical behavior and the repertoire of the Roma as well as the listening behavior of the non-Roma modify themselves in creative ways. Western listeners must involve themselves intensively with the musical parameters of Arabic musical concepts such as melodic form, tonal norms and rhythmic structures in order to free themselves from Eurocentric listening and to acquire a culturally adequate, comprehending level of hearing.