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THE SULTRY ROMANCE BETWEEN Buenos Aires and the bandoneon is right out of a tango: a down-and-out immigrant from Saxony, a failure in his native land, washes up in a […]

A collaborative learning project devised by celloist Yo Yo Ma and others teaches students the history of the silk trade routes between Central Asia and the Far East. Over these routes, elements of Chinese and Japanese culture traveled to the Middle East and eventually to Europe.

Several aspects characterize the emergence of World Music during the late 1980s. One is exploitation, where materials from other culture are adapted, and domestication, which is responsible for streamlining border effects between non-Western countries. Another is dilution where certain features are adapted in various musical samples and validation, wherein adaptation becomes advantageous to the musical form in the country where it originated. Other aspects include exoticism and transculturation.

The issue of meanings in 'world music' is examined by analyzing how some musical cultures take on meanings and what meanings are constructed by such cultures. 'World music' is a marketing term that refers to the products of musical cross-fertilization between the US and western Europe, and Africa and the Caribbean. This definition suggests that 'world music' is both transnational and translational. The many allegiances that musicians of various world musics have shown through their music practices and the positionings they have adopted in international markets show that cultures or people's identities actually emerge from points of articulation.

Country music has not caught on in the Netherlands because of numerous barriers which include country's increasingly Christian emphasis and political lobbying by some artists. Promoters of country in the Netherlands are also disinclined to promote artists with a very pronounced cowboy image which is the reason behind Garth Brooks' minimal appeal for the Dutch. Lastly, Dutch adherents of country music would also like to keep appreciation of country music at a small, cozy scale.

SOMETIME BETWEEN THE INVOLUNTARY HIP spasms brought on by Congolese singer Ricardo Lemvo's soukous band as I nibbled on fried bananas and the melancholy induced by Irish folk-rocker Paul Brady's […]

The world does not exist. At least not the world that radio and record stores would have you believe exists, where American music resides in one aisle and the music […]

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS the latest music from around the world Hip-swinging harmonies Known as rumba in Congo, its place of origin, soukous is the most dominant type of African [...]

Sounds of the World Introduce your students to the music of other cultures with this audiocassette series. Recorded in the United States by immigrants dedicated to keeping alive their homeland […]

Panama's most popular musician is a husky, gregarious fellow with a quick smile and hands that look more suited to doing masonry work than making music. But Osvaldo Ayala's thick [...]

The Universal Language Crosses And Even Blurs Borders Of Genre Or Geography Once found in miniscule bins marked 'Ethnic' or 'International' at the back of the record store, the music […]

With 'The Lion King' and its African-tinged soundtrack reigning in movie theaters and music stores, and African chants as the primary music in a new Reebok television ad, 'world music,' […]

Years ago, it would have been nearly impossible for one to find the great music from Zimbabwe, the Middle East or India. But now, help of such pop artists as […]

The Chinese preoccupation with English has led them to purchase tapes of American or English music with lyric sheets. Since some of the tapes released do not have these lyric sheets, Chinese subsidiaries hire native English speakers to transcribe the lyrics. Some words often get lost in the process.

FUSION CONFUSION Cross-fertilization of musical styles is reaching a feverish pitch. Traditional ethnic and folk forms mutate into local pop, local pop assimilates Western/Northern pop trends, hip-hop and dance music [...]

The Importance Of Planet Beat Myriad Influences Make World Of Difference LOS ANGELES--The way the term 'world music' is bandied about today, one would think it was an actual style […]

One of the nicest side effects of the fracturing of the postwar world during the past few years has been that cultures previously relegated to the margins have become suddenly, [...]

IT was one of the headline events of the Year of Japan-Korea National Exchange: Japanese and Korean traditional court musicians performing together before the public for the first time (joint […]

On March 14, the broadcast date for this year's World's Largest Concert (WLC), approximately eight million people worldwide will join their voices in song. The WLC is produced by MENC [...]

The Womad Foundation brings arts from around the world to children. The main focus of the Womad Foundation, which was launched in 1983 with the support of musician Peter Gabriel, is the weekend festival of world music. However, Womad also produces packs for GCSE music studies and takes artists from around the world into classrooms. An example of Womad's activities is the tour of UK and US schools by Ndebele women from South Africa. The women demonstrate the traditional geometric patterns they use to decorate their homes and Womad supplies educational resources to accompany the tour.

When journalist Gwynne Dyer sat down to talk about his new six-part radio series, it took his most resonant broadcast voice just to make himself heard over a Toronto coffeeshop's [...]

American music has been influenced by music from all parts of the world. Jazz is thought to be an original American musical form, but it is descended from both African rhythms and European melodies. Other musical influences are discussed.