Article Review

I am going to comment on the article "The untold stories of so-called world music" by Nick Storring in the spring 2008 issue of Musicworks.

The biggest thing that I took away from this article was that in general the western worlds idea of world music is clouded due to a number of reasons. One reason is because over here in the western world when we want to go buy a world music cd from Ghana or Thailand (for example) the record store generally just carries compilation cds. Storring says that because of compilation cds the listener spends more time listening to ethnicity and cultural differences when really the listener should spend more time listening to the aesthetic content. I partially agree with this comment but I also disagree with this comment. I am interested in world music and have spent a small amount of time listening to music from different cultures. For me and my ears right now I think it makes more sense to listen to a compilation cd. When first listening to music from different cultures I think it is important to grasp the structural characteristics and foundations of that style of music. When first listening to music from Zimbabwe I want to introduce myself to it, I don't think it would be fair to me or the music to try to concentrate on the beautiful, complex patterns of the mbira, I need to absorb everything and then eventually wrap my brain around the complex stuff.
I do agree with Storring on one level though, once a person has become familiar with the music of there choice there really isn't many solo records to buy, most of them are compilations. Hearing the compilations are great but it is also important to hear a solo cd to hear one artist and there arrangement of their cultural style.
If I could suggest one thing for record stores (and their world music sections) it would be to carry more solo records but also have the option of buying compilations records, for those of us who are still new at listening to world music.