What is World music?

In my opinion World music is global music (The Beatles) as opposed to local music and can be anything that is sung in English. The term 'World music' conjures up images of unfamiliar cultures and instruments in my head. I agree with Deanna Robinson who points out that World music and the issue that it is often homogenous is because the ‘international and local sounds are being fused to create heterogeneous World Music’. To me, this suggests that World music has commercial and marketing implications as local sounds are being used to create a sellable product. Likewise, Frith notes that with global media large corporations can market any product anywhere.

The definition of World music is debatable, subjective and personal. Jan Fairley sums it up, ‘the relationship of the ‘local’ and the ‘global’ in popular music is one of the most complex, controversial and significant issues of the new millenium’.

Photo from:http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_357/1232912351p02ChG.jpg