World Music - outdated, racist, colonial...

[Globaltruth]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/24/guardian-world-music-outdated-global

well quite, yes, remember the term coming into use. I blame Boyd and Kershaw those marketing demons. Well, one of them is.

The debate itself is in fact a bit outdated and has been regularly re-visited by various people here over the years, although not since this forum was set up.

If it's ok with both our regulars, we'll leave this sub-forum with the same name though, because we do need a title and we do need some points of stability in a world of change.

[Serial_Apologist]

To me the term "world music" as defined through global profit making disseminative channels, ie the western music business, evokes generic conflations or mash-ups of different ethnic and/or national musical traditions, or else the raiding or cherry-picking of same for "new ideas". This can result in dilution and reductionism as the market feeds back the resulting adulterations into the original pre-westernised matrixes at the expense of elements which, thereby decontextualised, are in turn degraded and would be of less "use" in terms of how each of the infiltrated musical traditions could be in a position to evaluate them.

[LezLee]

To me the term "world music" as defined through global profit making disseminative channels, ie the western music business, evokes generic conflations or mash-ups of different ethnic and/or national musical traditions, or else the raiding or cherry-picking of same for "new ideas". This can result in dilution and reductionism as the market feeds back the resulting adulterations into the original pre-westernised matrixes at the expense of elements which, thereby decontextualised, are in turn degraded and would be of less "use" in terms of how each of the infiltrated musical traditions could be in a position to evaluate them.

...and breeaatthe

[Serial_Apologist]

...and breeaatthe

That too!

[Richard Barrett]

To me the term "world music" as defined through global profit making disseminative channels, ie the western music business, evokes generic conflations or mash-ups of different ethnic and/or national musical traditions, or else the raiding or cherry-picking of same for "new ideas". This can result in dilution and reductionism as the market feeds back the resulting adulterations into the original pre-westernised matrixes at the expense of elements which, thereby decontextualised, are in turn degraded and would be of less "use" in terms of how each of the infiltrated musical traditions could be in a position to evaluate them.

Of course there has always been cross-fertilisation between musical cultures, so that in fact all music is trivially already world music... but, as you imply, when any phenomenon becomes a marketable commodity it becomes warped in the process - why should some musician somewhere in the third world cleave to his/her tradition, when producing the sanitised world-music version might provide a way out of poverty and marginalisation?

[Joseph K]

To me the term "world music" as defined through global profit making disseminative channels, ie the western music business, evokes generic conflations or mash-ups of different ethnic and/or national musical traditions, or else the raiding or cherry-picking of same for "new ideas". This can result in dilution and reductionism as the market feeds back the resulting adulterations into the original pre-westernised matrixes at the expense of elements which, thereby decontextualised, are in turn degraded and would be of less "use" in terms of how each of the infiltrated musical traditions could be in a position to evaluate them.

Ahem.

I love Shakti.

[Padraig]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...utdated-global


well quite, yes, remember the term coming into use. I blame Boyd and Kershaw those marketing demons. Well, one of them is.

The debate itself is in fact a bit outdated and has been regularly re-visited by various people here over the years, although not since this forum was set up.

If it's ok with both our regulars, we'll leave this sub-forum with the same name though, because we do need a title and we do need some points of stability in a world of change.

Being merely an irregular without a great amount of commitment to much of the span of 'World Music', I'm not acquainted with the history of the 'debate' as you describe it. However I do remember long threads on the question 'What is Classical Music?', to which I had an answer that satisfies me. I do feel though that some members of that time still probably look nervously over their shoulder before using that term. I'm all for your decision to leave well enough alone for the reasons you give.

[Globaltruth]

Being merely an irregular without a great amount of commitment to much of the span of 'World Music', I'm not acquainted with the history of the 'debate' as you describe it. However I do remember long threads on the question 'What is Classical Music?', to which I had an answer that satisfies me. I do feel though that some members of that time still probably look nervously over their shoulder before using that term. I'm all for your decision to leave well enough alone for the reasons you give.

thank you Padraig.