World music - Topics

Irish traditional music sessions and how they are learned by ear Fado in Lisbon and the saudade it sings about The didgeridoo and its place in Aboriginal ceremony Latin American cumbia and its many regional versions Why are West African drum ensembles polyrhythmic? How reggae became Jamaica's global export Why does gamelan use two tuning systems at once? Regional instruments are being revived by pop producers K-pop's borrowing from African and Latin rhythms Is world music a useful label or just a marketing category? What makes the sitar sound so distinctive? Tuvan throat singing: how one person makes two notes at once Learning grammar from songs and films: does it work? Streaming killed the idea of a national pop chart Flamenco's Indian roots and the Roma journey to Spain How Korean pop music became a global export industry Did the world music label do more harm than good? Afrobeats went global but the money stayed elsewhere Vinyl collectors saved recordings the labels threw away Is K-pop an export product or a genuine cultural shift? Indian classical music is improvised inside a fixed frame Drums carry most of West African music for a reason A gamelan can be tuned two different ways in the same village Has the global playlist made every scene sound the same? What do bagpipes and sitars have in common? A drone Bollywood songs are not decoration they are the plot Kora players from Mali get sampled by producers who never credit them Reggae became a global language of protest Tuvan throat singing has no equivalent in Western notation Fado and flamenco share a sadness that is hard to translate Why do scales from different continents sound so different?