World Music 1 1. July 1987 Meeting in a London pub of 11 independent record companies concerned with International Pop. This is where `World Music Began ’  2. Idea to create a section in record shops to sell their music - a `World Music ’ section.  3. Problem of definition of World Music ‘ any music that isn ’ t at present catered for by its own category ’. Assertion of Western difference – core Anglo American music.  4. These labels claimed a different kind of engagement with the music, sold as individual discoveries, the record company as musical explorer bringing back a gems to share with discriminating public

World Music 2 1. The 11 record companies had a past in rock, folk rock and folk.  2. Initially funded by GLC as part of multi-cultural policy and by WOMAD – outdoor musical celebrations modelled on rock events.  3. Familiar as roots rock. Music for grown-ups not adolescents, unashamedly functional.  4. World Music sounds inclusive but is systematically exclusive.  5. The difference less between Western and Non- Western than between real and artificial, between authentic and inauthentic.  6. BBC Series – rhythms of the World.

World Music 3 1. Dependent from the start on a displayed expertise. Sleeve notes explain roots in local traditions and practices – researched biographies. Ethnomusicological knowledge.  2. World Music drew on the collecting ideology of the original labels – and their market niche.  3. Obsession with fact, pursuit of original – collectors expertise with academicism.  4. Result scholar deejay, anthologist, journalist, etc. – e.g. Andy Kershaw.  5. International Association for the Study of Popular Music (Peter Gabriel at head at the beginning)- list of contributors to World Music: The Rough Guide.

World Music 4 1. Subsequent relationship of academic and commercial expertise has not been straight-forward.  2. Academics anxious about effects of world music as a sales category.  3. Authentic worked in retail terms as a re-description of exotic.- calls into question the meaning of authenticity (autonomous)  4. Familiar from long European Romantic tradition of celebration of native as more real than civilised Westerner.  5. Lurking problem of cultural imperialism.

World Music 5 1.Fear that Third World musicians are being treated as raw materials to be processed into commodities for the West, and to breath new life into First World musicians by working with such groups as Ladysmith Black Mambozo, Youssou N ’ Dour and Celia Cruz (e.g. Paul Simon Graceland).  2.World Music labels are informative about musical sources – but not about own activities – the process through which the music reaches the record store in the West.  3.Suggestion that the produced somehow interferes with flow from artist to audience.  4.Concept of hybridity.  5. Concepts of musical syncritism – way styles develop through a constant process of borrowing and quotation.

World Music 6 1. But musical traditions are only preserved by constant innovation.  2. Thus impact of international pop on local traditions may be as important for the preservation of music traditions as for their destruction.  3. Urbanisation, modern transportation and electronic media have seeded up the process of musical mixing.  4. Low cost of production enable small-scale producers to emerge around the world recording and marketing music at specialised audiences.  5. Postmodern condition is reflected both in the collapse of grand musical narratives and authorities and in the blurring of musical borders and histories.

World Music 7  1. Eastern European studies show that the musics address questions of identity and musical change in a situation in which identity is the central politicial issue.  2. Musicians using music to construct notions of ethnic and national identity.  3. Music can be understood as economic practice, as social behaviour, as a symbolic system with ability to make aesthetic sense while hiding meaning.