World

World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. More specifically, the term is currently used to classify the many

World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. More specifically, the term is currently used to classify the many genres of non-western music which were previously described as "folk music" or "ethnic music". Succinctly, it can be described as "local music from out there", or "someone else's local music". Academic study of the term world music, as well as the musical genres and individual artists with which it has been associated, can be found in such disciplines as anthropology, Folkloristics, Performance Studies and ethnomusicology.

In essence, the term "world music" refers to any form of music that is not part of modern mainstream Western commercial popular music or classical music traditions, and which typically originates from outside the cultural sphere of Western Europe and the English-speaking nations. The term became current in the 1980s as a marketing/classificatory device in the media and the music industry, and it is generally used to classify any kind of "foreign" (i.e. non-Western) music.