Guide To World Music
Guide To World Music
Using informative text, combined with play lists and video content, we aim to guide you through the wonderful world of music from around the world. With text excerpts courtesy of the Rough Guide books, this section is a great resource and introduction into world music.
Each month we will be adding new articles in our effort to cover music from all over the globe. Sign up to the mailing list or check back regularly to stay informed.
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Palestinian Music – Sounds For A New State
Nov 9th, 2011Despite the precariousness of the peace that exists in the region, the last fifteen years have seen music in Palestine rise from being the sound of struggle to a celebration of emerging statehood.
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Indonesia – Gamelan: From Palace To Paddy Field
Nov 2nd, 2011The shimmering sounds of the gamelan have fascinated and delighted Western visitors to Indonesia for half a millennium.
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Australia - Aboriginal Music: Following the Songlines
Oct 31st, 2011From the traditional sounds of voice, bilma (clapsticks) and yidaki (didgeridoo) through to contemporary singer-songwriters and rock bands, Australia’s indigenous music continues to evolve in fascinating ways.
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Turkey: Sounds of Anatolia
Oct 5th, 2011Outside the country, Turkish music used to be mostly associated with belly-dancing while recently the Mevlevi (“whirling”) dervishes have gained wide popularity on the World Music circuit. Yet it has much more to give.
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South African Popular Music: Nation Of The Voice
Sep 5th, 2011South Africa has an unparalleled diversity of popular music styles which have multiplied bountifully since the end of apartheid.
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Zimbabwe: Mbira, Sungura and Chimurenga: Play It Loud!
Aug 30th, 2011Zimbabweans play the good-time music of suffering. A plummeting economy has brought Harare’s nightlife to its knees, and many musicians have succumbed to AIDS, but for those who remain, music is more important than ever.
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Guide To World Music - Japan: In The Mix
Aug 8th, 2011Japanese musicians have a new confidence in their own identity, leading not just Asia but increasingly the world in using their own and other cultures to create exciting new directions in popular, jazz, avant-garde and roots-based styles.
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The Music of Malta
Aug 3rd, 2011Cast adrift between the North African coast and Sicily, Malta has attracted a string of invading forces over the centuries. With a Siculo-Arabic culture and a Semitic yet Europeanized language, the islanders have inherited the art of oral folk poetry as well as a tradition of brass bands and street busking.
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Israel: narrow bridge/global village
Aug 1st, 2011In the small state of Israel you can find Jewish immigrants from 127 countries all round the world. They started to return in 1882 after two thousand years of exile in the diaspora, and they brought with them their traditions, languages and, of course, their very different traditions of music.
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Macedonia: Beats Over Borders
Jul 27th, 2011Formerly a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia is a small but musically rich country with unstoppable sounds and rhythms flowing from a prodigious mix of nationalities.
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The Music of the Netherlands
Jul 25th, 2011The Dutch have a tendency to embrace every other kind of music but their own. However, there is now a lively world music scene in all of the Netherlands’ main cities, ranging from afro and flamenco to tango and rai.
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Pakistan/North India - Sufi Music: Songs of Praise
Jul 20th, 2011As a form of Islamic music espousing peace and tolerance, Sufi music has a cultural importance in the 21st century, countering the forces of extremism.
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The Music of Iceland
May 27th, 2011Iceland has a strong sense of national and cultural identity, a rich musical tradition and a vibrant contemporary music scene, with a distinctive character.
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The Music of Morocco
May 27th, 2011From the ancient folk pieces of the Berber mountain communities, to the Arab-Andalusian music of the cities, to the roots-fusion that you'll hear blaring from taxi radios and café ghetto blasters, music is the ultimate expression of Morocco's culture.
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France Chanson: A World In Three Couplets
May 26th, 2011In addition to its folk, France possesses a rich heritage of popular music, centred loosely around the art of chanson.
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The Music of Argentina: Tango
May 23rd, 2011Forget the ballroom image, tango is a real roots music: always sensuous, rhythmic and passionate, the vertical expression of a horizontal desire.
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Ghana: From Highlife to Hiplife
May 23rd, 2011Highlife – Ghana’s urban dance music – has had enormous influence throughout West Africa.
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The Music of Puerto Rico
May 23rd, 2011If Cuba is the key creative source of Latin Caribbean music, Puerto Rico is its equal as a supplier of performers.
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The Music of the Baltic States
May 16th, 2011There are considerable national and regional differences between – and within – the three countries; but they share a continuity of culture.
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USA - Gospel Music
May 16th, 2011The style of music most people know as gospel was born around seventy years ago in Chicago when it was in the clutches of depression.
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