On World Music and the Sense of Belonging

“World music: Contemporary folk and popular music of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, as distinguished from that of the U.S., the U.K., and, sometimes, W Europe (Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 2010)’

Term ”world music” is widely used both in everyday speech and music industry, but defining it is not unambiguous. Usually it is used in reference to non-Western music traditions or music influenced by these traditions. It is obvious that as a category ”world music” is not very describing as it can be expanded to everything from acoustic guitar music to punk rock as long as it comes from outside the golden sphere of Western civilisation. Interestingly, in some cases the world music is limited to non-Western folk and pop music which suggests that other music genres, such as rock music, transcend this dichotomy by being somehow more international. Or is it that when it comes to rock music, the contrast between western and non-western, industrial and the third world, is eclipsed by the contrast between the city and the countryside?

But on the other hand, it appears too conceptual and somewhat artificial to deal with music on the international level when for many people music constitutes their local identity and sense of place. In her article ’The Liverpool sound”, Sarah Cohen (1994) argues  that although rock music is generally depicted as a symbol of modernity in media, ’situated at the forefront of a process of a cultural globalisation (p.130), people actually put a great emphasis on local images and traditions. She uses the example of ”Liverpool sound”, characterization of a local music style in comparison to other British cities, especially Manchester. From her interviews with local musicians the entangled relationship between place, music and identity becomes more concrete:  their comments suggest that in a way the place -  the city with its own rhythm, sound and landscape -  leaves its own imprint into the music. Cohen concludes that both musicians and laymen alike use music to construct particular places through reflecting variations of backgrounds and musical influences. Of my personal experience I must agree: music, or more specifically the ”soundscape” of a place together with the sense of smell, brings the visual landscape into life, connects it with emotion and, fundamentally, establishes the sense of belonging.

The great personal meaning that music can have for people is beautifully illustrated by Bruno Nettl’s (1983) work on the study of ethnomusicology. When we think of music from the perspective of studying different traditions, we are faced by the question of who has the access to esoteric musical knowledge, dividing people into insiders and outsiders. It is worth noticing that this division hardly never conforms to national boundaries, which in some cases were set by Western colonizers, as it is the case with many African countries. Moreover, apart from national boundaries also social status or language connect and divide people and often to a much greater extent than national identity.

This is why  I suggest that ”world music” should be addressed in terms of locality and private identity rather than sticking with concepts of transnationalism or national identity because national thinking tends to lead into an understanding of diversity ‘in terms of disorder and loss of identity’ (Robins, 2001:78). However, when one approaches music from different points of view, it leaves one with an impression that people’s relation to music does not conform to the conventional categorization: music may take influences from other times and places but at the same time remain highly personal and local, and instead of acting as an agent of disunity it enriches one’s personal experience of the world.

Anneli Nurminen

Links:

Liverpool Sound

An Interview with Angelique Kidjo

Sources

http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-definitions/

Cohen, S.: ’Identity, place and the Liverpool Sound’ in Stokes, M (ed.). :’Ethnicity, Identity and Music: the musical construction of place’. 1994. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

Nettl, B. :’The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-one issues and concepts’. 1983. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Robins, K.: ’Becoming Anybody: Thinking against the nation and through the city’. City vol. 5. no. 1/ 2001.