National Geographic World Music

Good day! I'm working feverishly to get some things out of the way before I leave for Austin this afternoon. I'm going to see the family tonight and then it's off to San Antonio in the morning for a South Central Arc User Group board meeting. We have a full agenda so it will be a long day, especially since I'm driving back to Longview tomorrow night. I'm not sure if I will have internet access so you may not see a post tomorrow. Have a good day and a good weekend!

"World music is Israeli reggae and Japanese klezmer. It's rock and roll from the Sahara and flamenco with a hip-hop breakbeat; it's digital bossa nova and Irish sean nos with an African pulse. It's downhome country music from someone else's country and smooth, urban R&B from the mega-cities of the Southern Hemisphere. It's cowboy music from Venezuela and Persian classical music from L.A. It's music that transcends borders. In our interconnected world a great song can come out of anywhere: crossing oceans and continents, and leveling barriers of race, religion, nationality, class and even language. Worldwide hits can emerge as easily from Lagos or New Delhi as London or New York. This is the essence of what's become known as world music: it's the soundtrack of globalization, and the sound of the world we live in today. Music transcends categories, too, and there's no fixed definition for world music. It's a slippery term - as changeable and varied as the music it attempts to describe. To some, world music is field recordings and ethnographic music, for others it's simply pop music from somewhere else. Many consider world music a marketing concept and a catchall for the various international sounds that aren't easily categorized; while many more consider it an alternative to the mainstream. All of these definitions are correct: World music contains multitudes. World music is the sound of human genius and creativity, constantly renewing and reinventing itself as old sounds mutate into new and young talent preserves and reinvigorates tradition. World music is the sound of humanity singing to itself. It's the natural sound our planet makes when you tune in to the right frequency. And it's quite possibly the sound of your next favorite song." Check it out at http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/
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