The Problem with "World Music"

There's an interesting point within this review of music from the Congo. It has become a big hit in Europe, outselling more "professional" recordings of traditional African music. Those other recordings, made by crossover musicians, are smooth to the point of inauthenticity. This particular recording is much more genuine, and that is what people are interested in.

I am certainly very familiar with this sentiment, having spent months travelling around China searching for an authentic recording of Buddhist music. I think it points to a bigger problem, though, with the whole idea of "world music." When this music was written in central Africa, they didn't think of themselves as "world musicians." The performers were doing exactly the same thing that Bach or Palestrina or those Buddhist monks or anyone was doing. Music was part of the ceremonies of their particular religion, and that's what they practiced.

If we segregate "world music" off to a special section, and run it through special cross-over arrangments to make it smoother and remove some of the rough edges, we're killing it. I shudder to think that someone might want to make Beethoven or Schoenberg smoother for a cross-over audience, or the medieval music I love so much. Why not give the same respect to the music written outside of Europe and North America?