Week Four: What is world music and why does it exist?

When I worked in HMV you put CDs into the ‘World Music’ section if you weren’t sure where they went. Here it defined world music as music of the world. Therefore anything could go into it as that definition describes all music.

World music in this country is generally perceived as non-English speaking or music from external culture.

As with all genres in the music industry this kind of music is put into a section, we get certain ideas of what it is and identify it with “the musics of the first and third worlds.” (J. Guilbault)

I think world music exists to make music of another culture outside our own accessible. As Guilbault observes, “World cultures must be conceived also as translational”*. Just because the music comes from another place, doesn’t mean it can’t translate to our own. There are still issues you can find in the music that are relevant to us.

*(Interpreting World Music: A Challenge in Theory and Practice, Jocelyne Guilbault, Popular Music,Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 31-44)

Week Three: Is popular music a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

Adorno defined popular music as ‘standardised’ and believed that it is a mass produced commodity like products made in a production line.

Some agree with this concept as a lot of artists are moulded by the music industry in order to make money. Television shows like ‘The X Factor’ produce pop stars and a lot of winners from the BRIT Awards this year came from the BRIT school.

Regarding whether popular music is an art form, you have to define art. Art is primarily original content created by an artist to convey a message. A lot of popular songs lack originality, as they tend to be covers or written by songwriters. The messages of songs don’t seem to be as important as the money generated from them.

Yet with an emergence of artists coming from the Internet with self made content, there is evident value in originality, which can be defined as genuine art.