[FA Worldmusic] music chains and knowledge transfer

[Mark Gorney]

My not terribly profound .02:

It's almost as if you took the words right out of my mouth, Rob.. the exact
same thing happened to me. I was also getting very into roots reggae in high
school - Toots and the Maytals for example, because they were active and
touring and signed to a label (Island), which had good distribution and got
their releases into stores. And the late Joseph Hill of Culture, whose "Lion
Rock" album was distributed by Rough Trade (talk about cross-segment
marketing!)

Trojan and Island taught me a lot about Jamaican music - the Trojan Story
vinyl box set, while perhaps technically a bootleg, was like a $15 class in
Jamaican music history. It showed how Jamaican popular music progressed in
the 1960s from ska to rocksteady to the different phases of early reggae,
with years listed. It showed me the history of the music, laying the
groundwork for later collecting, knowledge, journalism and even a
documentary film. I would like to think that an informed consumer is an avid
consumer?

Equally as significant was Island's foray into African music. My brother,
working at Leopold's records in Berkeley, found a copy of one of Chief
Commander Ebenezer Obey's albums, but Island helped bring King Sunny Ade
(and me) to the Greek Theater in 1982, which is beyond what would have
happened otherwise, and of course I had his Mango albums. And I think that
made me buy a vinyl copy of what was probably the Rail Band's first
international release (1970) on the Bdrenreiter label. If memory serves I
wasn't exposed to Fela by any marketing efforts - I believe I simply
stumbled on one of his records in a record store circa 1984. I looked at the
cover and thought, this has to be good. And of course..

My points are simply that if labels are willing to invest some time and
money in informing people about music and getting it to them, this can
definitely lead to further exploration. How many people are turned on to
other music by say Putumayo and Rough Guides I can't say, but what I can say
generically is hats off to any labels as well as other entities such as the
Chicago World Music Festival that make bold decisions about bringing
international music to a wider audience, whether it is a single artist or
group or a novel compilation that documents a scene happening anywhere. And
yes even Starbucks, because despite their corporate nature they are floating
global sounds out there and helping them to become part of the overall
fabric.


Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: fa-worldmusic-bounces+mark=worldisc.net at folk.org
[mailto:fa-worldmusic-bounces+mark=worldisc.net at folk.org] On Behalf Of
fa-worldmusic-request at folk.org
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 8:00 AM
To: fa-worldmusic at folk.org
Subject: FA-Worldmusic Digest, Vol 18, Issue 11

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: knowledge transfer... (Robert Weisberg)
   2. music chains and knowledge transfer (Dmitri Vietze)
   3. Hippies (lee)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:28:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Weisberg <robwv at panix.com>
Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] knowledge transfer...
To: fa-world music list <fa-worldmusic at folk.org>

Testimonial:

My personal case history (age 44):  I heard the Specials, Selecter and 
Beat in high school, I followed the trail to the Intensified compilations 
of 60s Jamaican ska and rock steady - and the rest is history!

An old but fun radio dj trick (and educational, kiddies!) is to do sets 
based around this kind of musical chain)...

Rob W / WFMU / http://www.wfmu.org/tsp