“World” Music? What Is That? (Time To Retire The Label)

Founders of the term provided vague justifications for lumping togetheranything that wasn’t deemed to be from a European or American tradition –“looking at what artists do rather than what they sound like”, aseditor of fRoots magazine Ian Anderson said. The World of Music, Artsand Dance Festival, AKA Womad,which was founded seven years before the term gained prominence,similarly used it as a catch-all for its roster of internationalartists.– The Guardian