Worldbeat
Worldbeat is a music genre that blends pop music or rock music with world music or traditional music.[1] Worldbeat is similar to other cross-pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.[2]
Worldbeat
Mid-1980s, United Kingdom and United States
History[edit]
In the mid-1980s, eclectic musician Dan Del Santo hosted a "World Beat" show for the Austin, Texas radio station KUT that popularized the term.[4]: 13 [5] Mainstream artists were incorporating world music influences into their sound and popularizing the "world" term at the time, notably David Byrne, Peter Gabriel (who launched in 1982 the renowned and still running WOMAD Festival (World Of Music Art and Dance) and Paul Simon.[1][2] Initially, the most prominent influences came from Africa,[6][7] Asia,[8] South America (especially Brazil),[9] the Middle East and Central America,[10] though now encompass an ever-widening range of ethnic diversity. It has remained a thriving subgenre of popular and world music, while continuing to influence new artists, especially those appearing on today's growing roster of indie record labels (artist examples cited in section 2 of this article). Some of worldbeat's most successfully integrated folk elements include bossa nova, reggae, Afrobeat, mbaqanga, qawwali, highlife, rai, raga, samba, flamenco and tango.[2]