Re: new jewish music

[Yakov <kchodosh...>]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2001 00:38:37 -0400, you wrote:

>I've listened to a lot of folk music and to what has come to be known today as 
>"world music" but I have never heard  "generic world folk music."  Maybe 
>that's folk music for the likes of those who were called cosmopolitans."  :-)

Well, "world music" is essentially folk music from someplace besides "here". 
That's the standard definition, I believe. David Byrne wrote a pretty 
uninteresting essay called "I Hate World Music" that said he couldn't stand 
that lumping together of non-American cultures. I find the term to be pretty 
useful, as long as everyone knows its limitations.

Another proposed definition: "Generic world music" is basically something with 
a foreign-sounding beat, heard by an uninformed listener.

It's kind of like "generic jazz" piped over Muzak systems. Recently, I've heard 
a lot of great playing on shopping mall background music. Most people would 
call it generic, but I (with an ear for jazz) would call it anything but. 
(Especially when they play "Pick Up the Pieces"!) I believe it's a similar 
situation with world music (especially of the afro-cuban variety).

-yakov.

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