World music
World music is a broad category of music that draws on or adapts musical traditions from around the world, especially outside the Western mainstream.
Alan Lomax: Alan Lomax was an American folklorist who recorded and promoted traditional music across the world. His comparative recordings helped frame diverse traditions as a shared field of study.
Traditional music: Traditional music is music transmitted across generations within a community, often through oral practice. Many styles grouped as world music draw on inherited repertories and performance practices.
Afropop: Afropop is a broad label for popular music from Africa and its diasporas, shaped by local and international influences. It shows how regional popular music can circulate within world-music markets.
Cultural appropriation: Cultural appropriation is the adoption of cultural elements by people outside the culture, especially amid unequal power relations. Cross-cultural borrowing in world music can raise questions of ownership, credit, and benefit.
Music festival: A music festival is an organized event featuring live performances, often across several artists or styles. World-music programming has helped festivals build international audiences and touring networks.
Ethnomusicology: Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its cultural and social contexts. Its scholarship offered ways to discuss traditions beyond Western concert music.
Folk music: Folk music is music associated with community traditions, commonly learned and shared outside formal institutions. Its overlapping repertories show why world music cannot be defined by geography alone.
Bhangra: Bhangra is a Punjabi music and dance tradition that also developed into a global popular genre. Its transformations illustrate how migration and electronic production reshape tradition.
Cultural imperialism: Cultural imperialism is the dominance of one culture over others through institutions, media, or economic power. The label can obscure unequal systems that shape which music gains international visibility.
Music industry: The music industry comprises businesses and institutions involved in creating, recording, distributing, and promoting music. Industry categories influence how diverse traditions are packaged and sold.