The story behind the creation and marketing of the 'world music' genre in London in 1987, written by Grant Goddard in August 1998 for Toronto World Arts Scene magazine.

1. THE ORIGINS OF THE 'WORLD
MUSIC' GENRE
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
August 1998

2. WORLD MUSIC? The phrase is used with such regularity by the media in
recent times that you might think the term had existed forever. But 'world
music' was in fact a name artificially created by a small group of music industry
people who met monthly during 1987 in a public house in London, England
(somewhat appropriately named The Empress Of Russia). 'World music' was
devised as an appropriate answer to a simple problem.
Since the early 1980s, a handful of small, independent record labels had
sprung up in Britain that were releasing music recorded in Africa, East Europe,
Asia and Latin America. These record companies were not interested in the
traditional music or quaint 'ethnic' recordings from these continents that
western record companies had dabbled in since the earliest days of the
phonograph. Instead, upstart labels such as Earthworks, Globestyle and
Sterns were interested in bringing the vibrant, contemporary, popular music
from other continents to the attention of music fans in Europe and North
America. The problem was that record stores throughout the western world
had no obvious place to display or file such recordings in their inventory. A
record-buyer looking for an album by, for example, the Super Rail Band in
music stores had no obvious place to find it. It could be in the 'folk' section,
though it was not folk music. It might be in the soul section ("well, the
musicians are black, aren't they?") but the music certainly was not soul. So the
Super Rail Band were most likely to end up in the 'S' division of the huge
'rock/pop' alphabet, lost in a sea of pouting, preening third-rate mediocrity.
The independent record companies were frustrated by this situation and
hurting financially. The potential buyers of their releases were failing to find
these albums in record stores. And the record stores were caught in the middle
of the situation. If they ordered this type of music product, where should they
file it to maximise sales? It was a real problem for all parties. By 1987, a label
such as Globestyle had developed an extensive catalogue of 25 album titles,
and there needed to be an obvious single point in every record store where
potential buyers could find its releases.
The result was a series of regular meetings in The Empress of Russia
attended by the managers of twelve pioneering British record labels, as well as
DJs of the few radio shows that played this music, and representatives of
record distributors that specialised in this music. By the third meeting, the ad
hoc group had agreed upon the name 'world music' as descriptive of all their
releases, and each record company contributed £50 per album title towards a
jointly funded generic marketing campaign.
Twelve-inch plastic divider cards with the words 'WORLD MUSIC' emblazoned
across the top were distributed to every record store across Britain, enabling
each to establish a brand new section in its display of album sleeves (this was
the pre-CD era). 25,000 copies were distributed of a single-sheet,
monochrome leaflet that listed 73 albums available from the twelve record
companies. Press releases explaining and describing this new genre called
'world music' were sent to everyone on a media list created by pooling the
contacts of the individual record companies.
The Origins Of The 'World Music' Genre page 2
©1998 Grant Goddard

3. The Origins Of The 'World Music' Genre page 3
©1998 Grant Goddard
The interest from all sections of the British media was overwhelming. Many
magazines and newspapers ran feature articles about the campaign, as well
as spotlights on individual artists whose recordings were being promoted. In
October 1987, the popular weekly music newspaper NME produced a special
'NME World Music Cassette' which acted as a sampler for all the record labels'
individual releases. By the end of the year, the term 'world music' had been
adopted as a new genre of music, not only in Britain, but across Europe.
And what exactly did the phrase 'world music' mean? One of the press
releases produced in the marketing campaign explained: "Trying to reach a
definition of 'world music' provoked much lengthy discussion [within the
committee], and finally it was agreed that it means practically any music that
isn't, at present, catered for by its own category e.g.: reggae, jazz, blues, folk.
Perhaps the common factor unifying all these world music [record] labels is the
passionate commitment of all the individuals to the music itself."
Eleven years later, the debate about the meaning of 'world music' continues to
ignite much passion, but the original campaign succeeded beyond its
participants' wildest dreams. A section of 'world music' – whatever it is – can
now be found in music stores across the western world.
[First published in 'Toronto World Arts Scene' magazine, August 1998(??)]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk