I'm really not into World Music or whatever you want to call it, and I think Peter Gabriel has a lot to answer for, but when I heard this on the radio the other day I was sort of intrigued:
I agree that Gabriel has a lot to answer for. The cheeky English monkey has over the years introduced to European and American audiences a huge amount of music that we might otherwise never have heard. Some of it may be crap, and the "world music" brand has on occasion grated through market over-exposure, but overall I'm thankful to Gabriel and WoMAD.
Also, it was through world music that many Europeans learned to rediscover their own musical traditions. The current popularity of new English folk, for example, owes a lot to the world music brand.
"... it was through world music that many Europeans learned to rediscover their own musical traditions."
Fair enough, yes - but this is exactly not the kind of world music (or world music aficionado) that I hinted at in the tamely formulated opening of my post (I mean: I didn't exactly say that people who listen to world music ought to be hung, drawn and quartered, their heads displayed in public places by way of intimidation and warning, and their families and pet rabbits interned for seven years in a labour camp near Stornoway, did I?).
What irritates me are the kind of salsa-Buena Vista-spiritual wind chime people whose enthusiasm with "the Other" (and the Other's music) is but a thinly veiled exotism. Those who are seriously interested in music might not consider those tastes "world music" at all, but they are often marketed as such.
There's nowt wrong with Buena Vista when taken in moderation. Spiritual wind chimes and Peruvian nose flutes, on the other hand, should be deposited where the sun never shines.
4 comments:
I agree that Gabriel has a lot to answer for. The cheeky English monkey has over the years introduced to European and American audiences a huge amount of music that we might otherwise never have heard. Some of it may be crap, and the "world music" brand has on occasion grated through market over-exposure, but overall I'm thankful to Gabriel and WoMAD.
Also, it was through world music that many Europeans learned to rediscover their own musical traditions. The current popularity of new English folk, for example, owes a lot to the world music brand.
"... it was through world music that many Europeans learned to rediscover their own musical traditions."
Fair enough, yes - but this is exactly not the kind of world music (or world music aficionado) that I hinted at in the tamely formulated opening of my post (I mean: I didn't exactly say that people who listen to world music ought to be hung, drawn and quartered, their heads displayed in public places by way of intimidation and warning, and their families and pet rabbits interned for seven years in a labour camp near Stornoway, did I?).
What irritates me are the kind of salsa-Buena Vista-spiritual wind chime people whose enthusiasm with "the Other" (and the Other's music) is but a thinly veiled exotism. Those who are seriously interested in music might not consider those tastes "world music" at all, but they are often marketed as such.
Good moaning, meine deutsche grumpypussin.
There's nowt wrong with Buena Vista when taken in moderation. Spiritual wind chimes and Peruvian nose flutes, on the other hand, should be deposited where the sun never shines.
Three cheers to Peter Gabriel!
No ditching of Peruvian nose flutes, please - I really like those. Especially when accompanied by a couple of well-tuned ocarinas!
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