World Music

Putumayo Representative, Milena Flament Reports on World Music:

It is ironic, and even hypocritical, for me to write a column about world music. Let me explain why. I despise the genre entitled "world music", yet if you look at my iTunes library, you'll find that a great portion of my tracks would fall under this category. But seriously, this classification is wrong. It is entirely US-entric by assuming that only American music (or in some instances, music that comes from English-speaking nations) is worthy of further codification. Anything outside of the United States, Canada, England, or Australia is automatically labeled as "world music". Thus, the genre "world music" makes the pretentious assumption that different parts of the globe produce homogenous music. Vibrant cultures and communities with a particular history are reduced to an all inclusive genre that entirely disregards their unique forms of music. How would Jimi Hendrix feel if his albums were placed next to Justin Timberlake's at the record store simply because they both have American passports?

The main purpose of classifying anything - be it types of species, governments, or, in this case, music - is to organize the chaos around us. But since Manau (a French Hip-Hop group from Bretagne) and Santana (Mexican guitar prodigy) both fit under the "world music" umbrella, it becomes clear that the category merely perpetuates disorder.

When I go to the CD store (they still exist, right?) and pick up an album under the "World Music" category, I still have no idea what it might sound like. But, on the other hand, if I happen to stumble upon the Classical section, then I can guess what instruments I will hear, and know to a certain extent what kind of feels and tones the music will adhere to .

"World music" as a category is extraneous to the music industry. In most cases, the usual genres would suffice. Hip-hop, rock, folk, jazz…you name it, they exist everywhere (Amen to globalization). Instead of clumping Chilean jazz with Greek gospel, why not file them under jazz and gospel, respectively? Of course there are certain types of music only found in the region from where they originate, like Brazilian (or rather, Bahian) Axé or the Portuguese Fado. However, I stress: even albums under these geographically specific categories would find better homes under the everyday classification than under the "world" umbrella. It is more accurate and less insulting. Practically speaking, it is natural to conclude that the genre serves no function because first, it specifies nothing except that the music does not come from the United States; second, because it fails to truly organize music from other countries; and third, because it can be easily replaced with the genres that we encounter daily.

Ideally, the best way to organize music from the globe is to specify geography as well as genre. And, of course, this is difficult. So as a first step we can replace "world music" for "world reggae", or "world rock". This would certainly be a step in the right direction.

Milena on Researching Brazilian Samba