World Music Glossaries: General

Ethnomusicology - A social science that combines musicology (the formal study of music) and anthropology (the study of cultures). Ethnomusicology, then, is the study of cultures through music.

Field recordings - Recordings created during live visits to a musical culture, usually done on a simple tape recorder, for academic study.

Lomax, Alan - One of the first ethnomusicologists who created field recordings.

World Beat - Music which could be defined as pop, but also encompasses elements of other cultures, particularly Latin and African sounds.

World Fusion - Very similar to World Beat, but could involve the merging of many different cultures, and is not always "pop" oriented. It could lean more towards classical or jazz, with World elements.

World Music - Music from any culture or region of the World, which differs from your own perspective in terms of geography, culture or language; non-Western and/or non-English language music; ethnic music indigenous to a particular culture. See What is World Music?.

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