World Music: The Rough Guide, First Edition

Divided by region and subregion, this volume examines the indigenous music of different countries, its current status, major performers, and special instruments

Popular music is drawing inspiration from literally the four corners of the earth, in turn creating a pool of listeners for the artists of those countries. The Virgin Directory of World Music [RBB Ja 1 93] began introducing listeners to them, and now authors of the Rough Guide travel series have expanded on the theme. Divided into regional chapters and then subregions, the text explores the history of indigenous or traditional music and its current status and permutations. Individual bands and performers are described within the text, and such performers as Mari Boine, a Sami performer, and King Sunny Ade{‚} of Nigeria are highlighted in sidebars. Other sidebars cover special instruments such as the Uillean pipes, genres such as Taarab, glossaries of important terms, or lists of festivals. Annotated discographies end each subsection. Some countries not included in the narrative are given space in the discographies (e.g., Denmark). The text has a breezy conversational flow. Topics covered range from India's movie-music industry to Hungarian and Gypsy music to Klezmer's comeback. Black-and-white photographs, both historic and contemporary, dot the book. The guide's closing information includes a list of the credentials of contributors and an index. There isn't a bibliography, because much of the information was gathered while the contributors traveled, which also accounts for the personal flavor of the entries.

World Music works well to update the smaller Virgin Directory, the author of which is also a contributor to the new work. This highly readable book will prove popular in high-school, public, and undergraduate libraries.

Hats off to anyone with the guts to publish a guide purporting to deal with all the music in the world-and hats off twice to the editors of this book, who have succeeded not only in providing such a guide but in doing so with wit, succintness, and mind-boggling thoroughness. And talk about user-friendly-the table of contents consists of a big world map with boxes pointing to various regions and directing the reader to the appropriate chapter. Each musical style is given a brief but thorough overview, while sidebars provide information about especially significant artists. Every section ends with a selective discography. It doesn't seem that any musical tradition of any importance has been left out: you'll find essays here on everything from Colombian vailenata music to Moroccan chaaoi. What could have been unwieldy sprawl is made easily manageable by an exhaustive index. Given the price, this guide is budget-friendly, too, and should be considered an essential resource for even the most limited music collection.
Rick Anderson, Contoocook, N.H.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.