How are
you?
This week's
lecture is “World Music”, the 10th topic of “New Age Music”, which is a summary
of the contents of “83. New Age Music: 10. World Music” introduced on April 15th,
2017.
World music
is a music category that includes many different styles of music from around
the world, including music that more than one cultural tradition intermingles.
Unlike pop and folk music of North America or Britain, this music was
designated by the European and North American music industries under the
generic term "world music", which was popularized in the 1980s as a
marketing category for non-Western traditional music.
The term
"world music" was coined in the early 1960s by Robert E. Brown, an
ethnomusicologist who was a professor at Wesleyan University in the United
States.
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| Robert E. Brown |
Since the
birth of the term world music, its market has grown significantly, and
sub-genres in the form of fusion such as ethnic fusion and worldbeat also have been
created. Good examples of such fusion are the Irish-West African music fusion
of Afro Celt Sound System and the Jazz/Finnish folk fusion of Finnish folk
music band of Värttinä.
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| Source, Afro Celt Sound System (2016) |
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| 6.12, Värttinä (2001) |
Good
examples of fusion music in which elements of Western pop are more increased in
certain indigenous music are Paul Simon's album "Graceland", where South
African mbaqanga music can be heard, a collaboration of Peter Gabriel and
Pakistani singers Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and a mix of West African vocal forms
and Western contemporary rhythms and harmony by Deep Forest.
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| Graceland, Paul Simon (1986) |
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| Deep Africa, Deep Forest (2013) |
Ethnic
fusion is generally rooted in the sounds and philosophies of new-age music,
seeking to incorporate traditional ethnic folk music, which is included in
world music, into contemporary electronic music. This music is often aimed at
finding ways to create unity and harmony between Western technology and more
indigenous and nature-oriented cultures.
Good examples of ethnic fusion are "Face-to-Face" from Nicholas Gunn's album "Beyond Grand Canyon," featuring authentic Native American flute music combined with synthesizers, and "Four Worlds" from his album “The Music of the Grand Canyon”, featuring spoken word from Razor Saltboy of the Navajo Indian Nation.
 |
| The Music of the Grand Canyon, Nicholas Gunn (1995) |
Thank you.
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