World Music: The Rough Guide
Rough Guides/Penguin Books, 1994
720pp., $29.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
This moderately priced brick of a book is a godsend for anybody interested in beginning the addictive journey of exploration through the musics of the world. It is ideal for those just dipping their big toe into the vast, fascinating ocean of styles, rhythms, cultural specificities and evolutions and mutations that make up non-Western and non-commercial musics. It is equally an essential tool for those old world music seadogs who think they have seen and heard it all.
Compiled over fours years by five editors utilising the expert contributions of dozens of music specialists, this weighty volume is without doubt the most comprehensive book on world music available. It is set to become the bible of world music enthusiasts: not only a fabulous resource work but also a bloody good read. Open it at any page, and you find yourself unable to put it down because of its accessibility and lack of pretence.
The book is divided into 13 chapters that deal with world's music geographically. Each chapter contains cultural, social and political histories of the region as they have influenced the music. It examines the region's musical instruments, genres and styles, its dances and the current state of the music. Included are glossaries, special profiles of the leading exponents of the music, fabulous photographs and — most useful for the would-be world musikateer — a discography of the best and most representative CDs and tapes available.
While the best-known sources of world music are well covered — Africa has three chapters, the Caribbean one, Latin America one and the Celtic world one — the book gives plenty of space to those regions that get less attention. There are chapters on the Mediterranean and the Maghreb, the Baltic to the Balkans, the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, the Nile and the Gulf, and Australia and the Pacific.
The writers avoid the trap of ethnopurism, and describe the music as it is. They report faithfully the debates taking place in many regions over authenticity, tradition and the inroads of Western music values. A very attractive feature of the book is that it does not ignore the evolution of musical styles after it has left a particular region. For example, there are 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ on bhangra — the blend of traditional Indian music, ragga and reggae, with techno dance beats in urban Britain, and on reggae and ska in Britain and reggae in Africa.
Of course, such a book can only begin to summarise the massive subject of the music and culture of four-fifths of the world. Nitpickers no doubt will find mistakes and shortcomings in the chapters dealing with the musics they know best (a case in point is the very thin chapter on the Pacific and Australia). Since the popular music of the world continues to evolve and its popularity — and commercialisation — continue apace, this tome will also date quite rapidly. I look forward to the revised editions that will correct any errors or omissions and add valuable extra knowledge.
As somebody called Hijaz Mustapha says at the start of the book: "Four fifths of the world cannot be wrong". This book is the perfect way to find out for yourself.