Worldbeat
Encyclopedia
Worldbeat is a music genre
that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music
with traditional
/folk
or world music
influences (examples in Section 2 of this article). The term is similar by definition to other category labels that refer to a cross pollination of contemporary
and roots
genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.
. In general, the expanding family of ethnic music sub-genres under the world music umbrella represents an intrinsically nebulous terminology, which depending on how one interprets a particular hybrid of world music, can be interchangeable to a significant degree. Worldbeat defines a hybrid of what can be listed under the generalized World music term, even though it features a prominent interbreeding with elements of Western, pop music.
As an ethnically coloured genre, worldbeat is a part of the world music movement that is steadily influencing popular music in every corner of the globe. This is partially due to the advance of digital music production and the availability of high quality ethnic music samples to artists and producers in the recording arts. The globalization of texture and style between indigenous and modern music genres has rapidly expanded the scope of 21st century, popular music, and continues to reshape how the world defines the increasing number of genres conceived with world music elements.
genre term by default, since they are rarely represented in today's predominantly web-based music category lists and catalogs for artist promotion and listener music streaming. Their most prominent feature is an obvious meld between pop and indigenous culture, which often causes them to be indistinguishable from one another. Contemporary genre hybrids with world music elements naturally proliferate in proportion to the globalization of music culture on the whole. As the offspring of world and pop music, these categories are discrete from what is classically defined as world music, though most often, such hybrid genres are only given the choice of world with which to catalog themselves. Thus, the global perception of what can define world music has evolved to include a contemporary feature, and is only contradicting in proportion to one's adherence to world music in its classic context. Some world music artists and musicologists view any suggestion that pop-laden sub-genres, containing the term "world" fall under the world music genre, imposing. Other contemporary ethnomusicologists tend to agree that pop / traditional music hybrids exhibiting prominent ethno-influences, such as worldbeat, belong under the world music umbrella.
, Peter Gabriel
and Paul Simon
, Enigma
, Afro Celt Sound System
, Värttinä
, Dead Can Dance
, Aomusic
, Deep Forest
, Zap Mama
, Oumou Sangare
, Karunesh
, Han Hong,
, Kirsty MacColl
, Gang Gang Dance
, NewVillager, Vampire Weekend
and Yeasayer
, Ireland
, Asia
, the Middle East
and Latin America
, though now encompass an ever-widening range of ethnic diversity. It has remained a thriving sub-genre of popular and world music, while continuing to influence new artists, especially those appearing on today's growing roster of indie record labels
(artist examples cited in section 2 of this article). Some of Worldbeat's most successfully integrated folk elements include Celtic, Afrobeat
, Mbaqanga
, qawwali
, highlife
, rai
, raga
, samba, flamenco
and tango
.
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
with traditional
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
/folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
or world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
influences (examples in Section 2 of this article). The term is similar by definition to other category labels that refer to a cross pollination of contemporary
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and roots
Roots music
Roots music can refer to several styles or trends in music:* Americana * Folk music* Roots of hip hop, the conditions which led to creation of the hip hop genre* Roots reggae...
genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.
Terminology
Worldbeat is akin to World fusion and Global fusion, each of which primarily manifest as a blend of ethnic music tradition and Western, popular music. These particular music genres can also reflect in a cross-blend of more than one traditional flavor, producing innovative, hybrid expressions of world music. As with most "world" laden genre categories, worldbeat is not clearly defined as are the many classic world music sub-genres, such as Irish folk, Gamelon, or CalypsoCalypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
. In general, the expanding family of ethnic music sub-genres under the world music umbrella represents an intrinsically nebulous terminology, which depending on how one interprets a particular hybrid of world music, can be interchangeable to a significant degree. Worldbeat defines a hybrid of what can be listed under the generalized World music term, even though it features a prominent interbreeding with elements of Western, pop music.
As an ethnically coloured genre, worldbeat is a part of the world music movement that is steadily influencing popular music in every corner of the globe. This is partially due to the advance of digital music production and the availability of high quality ethnic music samples to artists and producers in the recording arts. The globalization of texture and style between indigenous and modern music genres has rapidly expanded the scope of 21st century, popular music, and continues to reshape how the world defines the increasing number of genres conceived with world music elements.
Distinction relative to World music
Worldbeat, World fusion and Global fusion are the most common and contemporary hybrid-genres that have naturally evolved under the broad World musicWorld music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
genre term by default, since they are rarely represented in today's predominantly web-based music category lists and catalogs for artist promotion and listener music streaming. Their most prominent feature is an obvious meld between pop and indigenous culture, which often causes them to be indistinguishable from one another. Contemporary genre hybrids with world music elements naturally proliferate in proportion to the globalization of music culture on the whole. As the offspring of world and pop music, these categories are discrete from what is classically defined as world music, though most often, such hybrid genres are only given the choice of world with which to catalog themselves. Thus, the global perception of what can define world music has evolved to include a contemporary feature, and is only contradicting in proportion to one's adherence to world music in its classic context. Some world music artists and musicologists view any suggestion that pop-laden sub-genres, containing the term "world" fall under the world music genre, imposing. Other contemporary ethnomusicologists tend to agree that pop / traditional music hybrids exhibiting prominent ethno-influences, such as worldbeat, belong under the world music umbrella.
Similar terminology
Music genre terms that contain "world" are commonly subject to a very ambiguous consumer definition, due to the confusing similarity and overlapping interpretation of these categories. The world music category is inherently diverse, and offers limitless possibility for application in hybrid form, especially in mainstream, market-driven music. Worldbeat as a small sub-genre of popular music has a mounting consumer-perception as a hybrid sub-genre of world music, to the chagrin of world music purists. In its context as a liberally termed sub-genre under the world music umbrella, worldbeat is very similar to world fusion and Global fusion. The distinctions that delineate these hybrid, world terms are slight, and in many ways they are still being defined.Mainstream popular artists
David ByrneDavid Byrne (musician)
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
and Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
World music / Ethnic fusion artists
ClannadClannad
Clannad are an Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age, often incorporating elements of an even broader spectrum of smooth jazz and Gregorian chant...
, Enigma
Enigma
An enigma is a type of riddle generally expressed in radical or allegorical language that requires ingenuity and careful thought for its solution.Enigma, aenigma, or enigmatic may also refer to:-Music:...
, Afro Celt Sound System
Afro Celt Sound System
The Afro Celt Sound System is a musical group which fuses modern electronic dance rhythms with traditional Irish and West African music...
, Värttinä
Värttinä
Värttinä is a Finnish folk music band which was started as a project by Sari and Mari Kaasinen back in 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the southeastern region of Finland. Many transformations have taken place in the band since then...
, Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance are an ethereal neoclassical duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart...
, Aomusic
Aomusic
AOMUSIC, is a pan-cultural world/new age musical group, known for an exotic blend of ethnic texture, rhythmic energy and ambient harmony. Their compositions employ melodic refrains, sung by Miriam Stockley , and children’s choral ensembles from around the globe...
, Deep Forest
Deep Forest
Deep Forest is a musical group consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats...
, Zap Mama
Zap Mama
Zap Mama is a Belgian musical group founded and led by Marie Daulne. Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music...
, Oumou Sangare
Oumou Sangaré
Oumou Sangare is a Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou." Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, and the music there is descended from traditional hunting songs, and is accompanied by a calabash...
, Karunesh
Karunesh
Karunesh is a German-born New Age and ambient musician. His music has strong Asian and Indian influences prevalent throughout, with liberal use of Indian instruments, such as the sitar. Having sold 450,000 albums, Karunesh is one of the best-known New Age artists.Karunesh was born in Cologne,...
, Han Hong,
Indie artists
Vladiswar Nadishana, Ashwin BatishAshwin Batish
Ashwin Kumar Batish Hindi: अशविन कुमार बातिश is a sitar and tabla player best known for rekindling interest in the sitar among young Indians...
, Kirsty MacColl
Kirsty MacColl
Kirsty Anna MacColl was an English singer-songwriter.MacColl scored several pop hits from the early 1980s to the early 1990s...
, Gang Gang Dance
Gang Gang Dance
Gang Gang Dance is an American experimental music band based in Manhattan, New York City. The band is known for its distinctive sound which features synthesized electronics and percussion, plus the varied vocal styles of singer Lizzi Bougatsos...
, NewVillager, Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City that formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings. The Band has four members: Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson, and Chris Baio. The band released its first album Vampire Weekend in 2008, which produced the singles "Mansard...
and Yeasayer
Yeasayer
-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...
History
Worldbeat as a coined genre emerged in the mid-1980s when popular, mainstream artists began incorporating world music influences into their sound. Initially, the most prominent influences came from AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, though now encompass an ever-widening range of ethnic diversity. It has remained a thriving sub-genre of popular and world music, while continuing to influence new artists, especially those appearing on today's growing roster of indie record labels
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
(artist examples cited in section 2 of this article). Some of Worldbeat's most successfully integrated folk elements include Celtic, Afrobeat
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...
, Mbaqanga
Mbaqanga
Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s.-History:...
, qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
, highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
, rai
Raï
Raï is a form of folk music that originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s....
, raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
, samba, flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
and tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
.