World music

World music is the traditional music from developing and/or non-English-speaking countries. From a research perspective, world music is studied in the field of ethnomusicology, which is the study of music within its contemporary cultural context. In recent years, the study of world music and usage of the term have drawn criticism from some music experts for its ethnocentrism and Western bias, as critics argue that music from traditional cultures around the world should not be evaluated based only on the preconceptions of Western culture. As Terry E. Miller and Andrew Shahriari explain in World Music Concise Edition: A Global Journey, one of the goals of ethnomusicology and the scholarly study of world music is to become more aware of this bias and gain a deeper understanding of each style and genre of music within its own culture, history, context, and standards. World music, both as a genre and a field of study, continues to grow as society becomes increasingly global, travel and international tourism continue to increase, and technological advances allow media to be shared more readily than ever before.

Brief History

As editors Bruno Nettl and Timothy Rommen remind readers in Excursions in World Music, a little more than a century ago, it was very unlikely that any ordinary person would be able to listen to music from a different part of the world. According to Miller and Shahriari, the first known formal study of world music, or ethnomusicology, was in the late 1800s when the field was called comparative musicology. Researchers from the European empire traveled to the colonies under their rule in Africa and India to collect recordings and other materials for the purpose of creating ethnographic museums, which were archives of the cultures, customs, and people from these colonies. The researchers would then attempt to develop their own classification systems from what they collected—examining and naming unfamiliar musical instruments, transcribing and notating music, and attempting to place the music within existing genres. It was not until the 1960s, when anthropologist Alan Merriam published The Anthropology of Music, that the study of world music was placed within the context of its culture—ethnomusicology—and, most importantly, treated as an important aspect of human behavior and expression, rather than studied as simply sounds free of cultural context. The study of world music continued in two fields: anthropology (the study of human societies and cultures) and musicology (the scholarly study of music).

Technological advances in the mid-twentieth century—specifically, recording technologies such as long-playing records and magnetic tapes—significantly contributed to the ease of studying world music, both in completing fieldwork and then analyzing and sharing the collected music with other researchers in archives around the world. With these advancements, the first issue of the Ethnomusicology Newsletter was published in 1953; its members later formed the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1955.

Some experts elucidate a major issue among ethnomusicology studies. Particularly in attempts to compare and contrast music from different cultures and develop theories or historical narratives based on this method of study that may or may not be accurate, the studies may be significantly Western biased or may be rejected as false by the culture that is being studied and analyzed. The "otherness" that formed the basis of world music study—that this music is different from traditional Western music, coming from a culture and a people that is "other"—is also the most significant source of criticism of early ethnomusicological studies. This "otherness" was often regarded as implicitly inferior to Western culture. Ethnomusicologists must remain aware of this potential for bias in the study of world music and work to ensure that the music is analyzed within its own unique cultural identity rather than only as it compares to American or European culture and history.

Overview

According to Jennifer Post in Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, the term world music was first used as a marketing category in 1987. In 1990, the magazine Billboard added a world music chart to its rankings, and shortly thereafter, in 1991, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences created a Grammy Award for world music. In the United States, some of the earliest, most popular types of world music came from Africa—in particular, from King Sunny Adé, a Nigerian musician who sold more than one hundred thousand copies each of his first two albums released internationally. Also in the 1980s, a Senegalese group called Touré Kunda sold more than three hundred thousand albums. Critics largely agree that Western consumers were drawn to this new genre of world music for its authenticity, as an opposition to the increasingly synthetic sounds of music in the 1980s. The World of Music, Arts and Dance festival also began in 1982 and brought many new artists on stage, many of whom became quite popular in the world music genre.

Although the term world music has slowly begun to fall out of favor in academia, it is still used by national and international radio stations and the music industry itself to refer to music curated from musicians around the world. However, some still feel quite strongly that the usage of world music as a descriptor is offensive. Many argue that it implies cultural superiority, as evidenced by the fact that the world music category as a music industry genre is populated by musicians who do not speak English or are not American or European. Nonetheless, the term is still commonly used to refer to music that originates in non-Western cultures. The modern study of world music typically classifies the music into three broad categories: folk music (which is typically shared orally throughout generations), classical music, and popular music promoted through widely distributed recordings and radio.

In some cases, world music is studied to identify similarities in themes across music from different cultures. Political protest music, in particular, is common across many different countries and cultures. In his article "World Music and Activism since the End of History," Peter Manuel identifies a particularly turbulent period from the 1950s through the 1980s in which protest music arose from a number of different regions, including the United States, India, Spain, and Latin America. Manuel argues that much of this protest music arose out of certain ideals growing in popularity around the world at that time—specifically equal justice, civil rights, and human rights.

For ethnomusicologists studying world music, it is also necessary to place the different types of instruments used in this genre into broad categories to allow them to be identified and classified in different pieces of music. This is called the Sachs-Hornbostel system, and these categories of instrumentation include aerophones, chordophones, idiophones, membranophones, and electrophones. These classifications are based on the vibration of the instrument as it produces its unique sound. Aerophones produce sound through the vibration of air; instruments such as flutes, reeds, and trumpets fall into this category. Chordophones are stringed instruments, such as a lute or a zither, which produce sound directly through the strings. Idiophones produce sound through the instrument when it is plucked, struck, or shaken. Bells and rattles are examples of idiophones. Membranophones are percussion instruments, such as drums, that produce their sound through a vibrating membrane, whether made of animal skin or a synthetic fabric. Finally, electrophones produce sound by electrical means. While there is great variety among the specific instruments used in the creation and performance of world music, the instruments will typically always fall into one of these five distinct categories. This helps ethnomusicologists in their analysis of the composition of music and the various other components that form a particular piece, such as rhythm, pitch, and timbre.

World music comprises a vast category of art and cultural expression, and many ethnomusicologists choose to focus specifically on one region or type of world music for further study and investigation. A seminal reference work in this field is the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, which is made up of ten volumes, each focusing on a different region of the world, from South and Central America to Asia, the Middle East, and Australia and the Pacific Islands, among numerous other regions. In addition, with the increased dissemination of music and the migration of people around the world, some unique genres have begun to blend and incorporate elements of other genres from different regions of the world. The incredible diversity of the world is reflected in the diversity and unique identities of the many different varieties and styles of music from cultures around the globe, and ethnomusicologists are limited only by their specific interests in what they elect to study.

Teaching World Music

The globalization of our societies through advances in technology has changed the way students learn and has increased the availability they have to access various types of media through the Internet. Cultural diversity is becoming the norm in many communities in the United States and around the world, and travel to other countries and cultures is more common than ever. As a result, many schools have implemented changes to their curricula—in particular, in teaching world music as a key component in music classes for the express purpose of increasing students' exposure to and understanding of different cultures. Teaching world music to children, along with the information about the people, culture, and customs from which the music comes, has been shown to significantly improve children's understanding of human behavior and cultural differences.

In colleges, the study of world music is being applied to performance degrees. Experts suggest that social justice must be a key component of any type of world music study at colleges or universities. The curriculum should include the study of music with themes specifically related to the social concerns and experiences of other cultures and the awareness of any implicit bias in one's perception of music from other cultures or classes. Some argue that there are disadvantages to exploring broader styles of music; that instead, in-depth study of Western music provides a deeper understanding of music theory than studying a range of different styles of music. This is not a popular opinion, however, and others assert that Western music can and should become part of a dialogue with world music from other cultures; this will allow Western music to continue to evolve and change.

The Future of World Music

As Miller and Shahriari explain, the relatively common assertion that music is a universal language is a false one. Music does not share the standard patterns or rules that must be required for a language, nor is its meaning universally understood among disparate groups. However, music does open opportunities for communication among different races, classes, and cultures. World music, in particular, increases opportunities for a deeper level of knowledge and understanding as well as increased awareness and the mitigation of cultural biases that may be in place. World music continues to grow in popularity, especially as technology has made it easier to disseminate, and as it is increasingly incorporated both through mainstream media and curricula in education, it will likely continue to be a prominent area of study and of enjoyment for individuals around the world.

Bibliography

Abril, Carlos R., and Brent M. Gault, editors. Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Birrell, Ian. "The Term 'World Music' Is Outdated and Offensive." Guardian, 22 Mar. 2012, www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/mar/22/world-music-outdated-offensive. Accessed 1 Jan. 2024.

Bohlman, Philip V., editor. The Cambridge History of World Music. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Feld, Steven. "A Sweet Lullaby for World Music." Public Culture, vol. 12, no. 1, 2000, pp. 145–171.

Manuel, Peter. "World Music and Activism since the End of History." Music & Politics, vol. XI, no. 1, Winter 2017, dx.doi.org/10.3998/mp.9460447.0011.101. Accessed 1 Jan. 2025.

Miller, Terry E., and Andrew Shahriari. World Music Concise Edition: A Global Journey. Routledge, 2015.

Moore, Robin D., editor. College Music Curricula for a New Century. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Nettl, Bruno, and Timothy Rommen. Excursions in World Music. Routledge, 2017.

Olsen, Dale A., and Daniel E. Sheehy, editors. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Routledge, 2013.

Post, Jennifer C. Ethhnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader. Routledge, 2006.

“What Is 'World Music'?” Medium, 14 July 2020, medium.com/@thetill3/what-is-world-music-fd19e8b9ff37. Accessed 1 Jan. 2025.