[FA Worldmusic] music chains and knowledge transfer

[Gail Sidibe]

I have to chime in here!

Being involved in music retail all these years one of the "trends" I noticed
went like this...

New Age listeners of the '80's became World Music listeners in the '90's.
That's of course a generalization, but as New Age sales declined - World
music sales increased. Think Loreena McKennitt. All the world influences on
New Age music opened so many doors for many people. Deep Forest comes to
mind. Enigma. Not necessarily New Age. But this was "accessible" cross over
music to many.

I know my next statement may be controversial to some... But I also believe
Peter Gabriel and Realworld helped bridge the gap for many people many years
ago as well. In some ways this represents my personal path.


On 8/13/07, Dmitri Vietze <music at rockpaperscissors.biz> wrote:
>
>
>
> I grew up with my mother listening to Alan Stivell and Balkan folk dance
> music. When Graceland came out she bought that and started backtracking to
> artists like Miriam Makeba, who her parents had listened to out of their
> interest in the New York Jewish union-organizing folk days. And then Luaka
> Bop cracked things open with the Brazilian compilations and a Haitian one.
> Independent from that, I went from late 1980s socially conscious hip hop
> (KRS One, Stetsasonic, Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest) to listening to
> jazz (because of the jazz samples in hip hop) to taking a History of Jazz
> class in college, whose first class was about the African roots of blues
> (field hollers as African knowledge transfer to the Americas). And before
> that, influenced by the street performers of NYC, I started experimenting
> with bamboo flutes, panpipes, and Bolivian quenas. There was this guy
> named
> the Goat Man (white beard) who played a bamboo flute accompanying himself
> on
> a shruti box (free reed Indian drone bellows), which he played with his
> foot.
>
> I have heard that there has been some debate in the jazz realm about
> whether
> smooth jazz leads people "up the chain" to jazz. Some people thought it
> would and then later realized it didn't. I wonder what research has been
> done out there about the influence of samples in one genre of music
> leading
> to interest in another genre. Also about whether/how often customers who
> make impulse buys of compilations (such as those by Putumayo), "move up
> the
> chain," and research deeper into an artist catalog or into a particular
> genre or cultural repertoire.
>
> Much respect,
>
> ===> Dmitri!
> music at rockpaperscissors.biz
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Weisberg" <robwv at panix.com>
> To: "fa-world music list" <fa-worldmusic at folk.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] knowledge transfer...
>
>
> > 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
> > _______________________________________________
> > FA-Worldmusic mailing list
> > FA-Worldmusic at folk.org
> > http://www.folkserv.net/mailman/listinfo/fa-worldmusic
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