World music: deterritorializing place and identity

Abstract

Music has been neglected in geography, yet the rise of ‘world music’ exemplifies the multiple ways in which places are constructed, commodified and contested. Music from distant and ‘exotic’ places has long entered the western canon, yet the pace of diffusion to the west accelerated with the rise of reggae and the marketing of Paul Simon's Graceland (1986), which pointed to the modification and transformation of distant, ‘other’ musics for western tastes and markets. Fusion and hybridity in musical styles emphasized both the impossibility of tracing authenticity in musical styles and the simultaneous exoticism and accessibility of distant musics. ‘Strategic inauthenticity’, romanticization and the fetishization of marginality were central to the search for and marketing of purity and novelty: simplistic celebrations of geographical diversity and remoteness. The formal arrival of world music in 1987 was as a marketing category with commerce and culture entangled and inseparable, in a form of appropriation for western, cosmopolitan audiences. Yet, for musicians, world music was an expressive project, which created identities that fused the local and global, traditional and modern. For some, international success required artistic compromise, essentialized identities and the resources of transnational companies. Others simply resisted categorization. The expansion of world music exemplifies the deterritorialization of cultures and emphasizes how the rise of a particular cultural commodity (world music) is primarily a commercial phenomenon, but could not have occurred without the construction and contestation of discourses of place and otherness.

All the way from … authenticity and distance in world music production

“…First, there is an implied reliance on 'distance' in order to remain relevant in this industry although this presented clear challenges for the performers. The increasing deterritorialization of world music (Connell and Gibson, 2004) and the recontextualization of knowledge about this commodity disaggregate former ideas regarding what authenticity in world music actually means. Second, world music is a changing commodity that has enabled a hybridity, which can in turn lends itself to multiple interpretations of both Western and non-Western identities.…”

‘We try to have the best’

“…The 'renewal' of codes (as opposed to helping the music 'evolve') is generally suggested when these Western artists specialize in more 'popular' or 'traditional' genres (flamenco, rebetiko etc.). Indeed, this categorization functions much in the same way as the artists' classification under the 'world music' label, which 'depend[s] 'on the social, political and demographic position of certain minority groups in a particular country' (Connell and Gibson 2004).…”

Space and place in world music production

“…Music offers associations of place that serve to cross boundaries and create multiple and overlapping spaces; which are brought to life through performances (Butler, 1999;Thrift, 2006). With similar cover charges, all venues attempt to showcase some form of deterritorialised music (Connell and Gibson, 2004); however, the key distinction between world music and 'African' music venues appears to be what Troy (1996) calls 'locational disadvantage'; meaning that outlying venues have difficulty in accessing the benefits of a central London location. Mainstream media outlets rarely advertise African clubs, which in itself revalorizes discourses of class, race and identity.…”

“…However, the implied meaning of this term is that this music has been 'deterritorialised' (Connell and Gibson, 2004) from its original locations and purposes, usually outside of the West (i.e. Europe and North America), and reconstructed with new meanings for new audiences, usually within the West.…”