Worldbeat
| Worldbeat | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 20th century |
| Other topics | |
Worldbeat is a music genre that blends Western pop music or rock music with world music or folk music influences. Worldbeat is similar to other cross pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.
Worldbeat is akin to world fusion and global fusion, each of which primarily manifest as a blend of ethnic music tradition and Western, popular music. These particular music genres can also reflect in a cross-blend of more than one "traditional" flavor, producing innovative, expressions of world music. As with most "world" laden genre categories, worldbeat is not clearly defined as are the many classic world music subgenres, such as Irish folk, gamelan, or calypso. In general, the expanding family of ethnic music subgenres under the world music umbrella represents an intrinsically nebulous terminology, which depending on how one interprets a particular hybrid of world music, can be interchangeable to a significant degree. Worldbeat defines a hybrid of what can be listed under the generalized world music term, even though it features a prominent interbreeding with elements of Western, pop music.
As an ethnically coloured genre, worldbeat is a part of the world music movement that is steadily influencing popular music in every corner of the globe. This is partially due to the advance of digital music production and the availability of high quality ethnic music samples to artists and producers in the recording arts. The globalization of texture and style between indigenous and modern music genres has rapidly expanded the scope of 21st century, popular music, and continues to reshape how the world defines the increasing number of genres conceived with world music elements.
Worldbeat, world fusion and global fusion are hybrid-genres that have evolved under the world music genre. Their most prominent feature is an obvious meld between pop and indigenous culture, which often causes them to be indistinguishable from one another.
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