Week 4 - What is World Music and Why does it exist?

The term 'World Music' was first coined in the 1980's as a marketing term and was used to broadly classify the many genres of non-Western music, including folk, indigenous and also non-Western pop and classical music. However what we in Western Europe think of as World music, is 'local' music in it's country of origin. As Jan Farley states " The Relationship of the 'local' and the 'global' in popular music is one of the most complex, controversial and significant issues of the new millenium." World music can thus also be defined as "Local Music" which could include hearing a student band in the SU, a band performing local, indigenous music or the product of multinationals investing in "Local" talent. World music exists globally today due to the fact that major labels have begun signing talent who perform indigenous "Local music" such as the Lobi Traore Group, and marketing it around the world. The internet has also helped to spread and popularise "world music" However some musicians are highly critical of the term "world music" and see it as a "parochial, catchall marketing term for non-western music of all genres."