There is endless fascination to be had in the discovery of what veteran world music producer Joe Boyd defines as "non-WPSE music" (WPSE being, of course, White People Speaking English). Some would maintain that an aesthetic migration from rock music to... [more]

There is endless fascination to be had in the discovery of what veteran world music producer Joe Boyd defines as "non-WPSE music" (WPSE being, of course, White People Speaking English). Some would maintain that an aesthetic migration from rock music to the pop and traditional music of Third World countries began with Jamaican reggae in the '70s. Others would cite the Beatles' affinity for Hindustani music during the '60s; in actuality, the lure of exotic sounds dates back to the dawn of phonography, when enterprising recordists combed the globe in search of new melodies and novel sounds to master onto 78rpm discs. The International bins at the record store have waxed and waned in the ensuing years, but newly codified as "world music," the genre would appear to have finally gained its footing with listeners from industrialized countries. World music has allowed the prodigious talents of other cultures to overcome the boundaries put up by politics and language. The late Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, long worshipped throughout the world of Islam, appeared on Hollywood film soundtracks and collaborated with rock musicians. Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club attracted worldwide fanfare when Ry Cooder produced their recording and Wim Wenders filmed them. Recordings of great dance bands like Zaire's Orchestra OK Jazz or Senegal's Orchestra Baobab or Nigeria's King Sunny Ad' became available at the mall; suddenly -- or as suddenly as two decades' transit can seem -- vocals sung in a foreign tongue seemed less intimidating in the face of an unstoppable beat. It's impossible to overstate the Parisian influence which channelled the brightest talents in world music toward Western ears. As Nashville is to country musicians, so does Paris exert a magnetic pull on musicians emigrating from what were once French colonies in Africa and the Far East. The street music of other lands, including rai from Algeria, soukous from the Congo, and juju from Nigeria, came to a greater audience after being embraced by French tastemakers. World music offers both sophistication in the rhythmic components of its urban, pop forms and honesty in the folk and roots music, often hundreds of years old, which inform a given country's contemporary sounds. In this way, world music offers more than merely the shock of the new; both traditional and modern sounds have contributed equally to the biggest growth area in '90s-era record stores. [show less]