Get the point? Or plain confused? Earlier, people picked up albums from the Real World Records label that offered easy access to music. So for them, barring the music from the country of their residence, anything other than American, British, European and Indian music comes under this broad umbrella. Indians staying in Africa or mainland Europe would not include music from those regions in the World Music bracket, but treat them as local music. In some cases, they make an exception by specifically displaying their fondness for Arabic or Chinese music. For those staying in the country, or even in the US, Canada or UK, it means any music that’s not American, British or European classical, and that doesn’t belong to the Sub-continent. Indians have another approach, but that again depends on where they are settled. For them, Indian music comes under the World Music umbrella. For someone staying in Brazil or China, it would mean anything other than the folk and popular music of their own regions, and other than well-known forms of Western music. For many them, even artistes like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan come under this genre.
![andre rieu bagpipe player andre rieu bagpipe player](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e0/fb/b3/e0fbb3ef69db6f4295e15519ae9f2ccf.jpg)
For Americans and Britishers, it would mean any non-English music that doesn’t fall under clearly-defined categories like pop, rock, classical, jazz, blues, reggae, country, dance or hip-hop. The definition of World Music, for instance, changes according to where the listener hails from. From the early 1990s, it was used as a marketing term for any kind of ambient, lounge or peace-inspiring music, whether used spiritually, or in clubs or concerts. The first recording in this genre is considered to be Tony Scott’s ‘Music For Zen Meditation’, released in 1964. New Age, on the other hand, was initially used as a form used for meditation, relaxation and even yoga. Brown, who first used it in the 1960s, it was popularised two decades later as a marketing device for non-Western traditional music. While the former’s origin is actually credited to ethnomusicologist Robert E.
![andre rieu bagpipe player andre rieu bagpipe player](http://www.andrerieumovies.com/misc/templates_htm_files/107383.jpg)
The terms ‘World Music’ and ‘New Age’ have been commonly used, sometimes interchangeably, since the late 1980s. This week, we look at two international music categories that suffer from the same problem, even though the quality of sounds produced in both is outstanding.
![andre rieu bagpipe player andre rieu bagpipe player](https://www.whatsonskye.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/whats-on-skye-fred-morrison-300x225.jpg)
In the music column dated March 31, 2017, we talked of the Indian indie music scene, specially emphasising on the fact that there was no clear way of defining the genre.