FIFTH WORLD MUSIC: A Perspective on So Called Ethnic Music In Between Pop Culture and Cultural Change

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the history and progresses of what has been called word music. It would be fair to say that most of the people know the term “world music”. Synonyms of other popular definitions, such as ethnic music or world beat, this label has defined since its first appearance both in the academic world and in the music industry, for all kinds of music that could sound exotic or non-western. Altough world music is a problematic concept, since its creation it has developed and has been critically scanned to question whether the label can be used as a valid definition and instrument or has to be seen as one of the most underhanded creations of modern colonialism. In the pages that follow I'll try, with the help of scholars like Victor Segalen, Henry Spiller, Veit Erlman and Alan Lomax (to name some), is to draw a historical line starting from the concept of primitive music as present in the works of musicians of the classic tradition, continuing with the terms of world music, fourth world music, neo geo, and to finish, to examine the latest definitions of fifth world and outernational music and post-geographical sounds. The present paper does not come from an anthropologist, a critic of culture, a musicologist or any similar figure but from an enthusiast of those subjects, so it should be taken as a possible pespective to be analyzed critically, and eventually developed in much more serious terms in the future. At the end of this paper you will find a list of artists, records and labels that, in my opinion, may help understanding the themes that are analyzed here.
Keywords: world music, music industry, artist, records, labels