Born and raised in internet chatrooms and DIY studios, world music 2.0 has colonised international playlists, writes Jace Clayton.
In June 1987, a group of music marketers met to discuss how they might best sell non-western music to audiences in Europe and America. What to call all this stuff? "Hot" and "tropical" were among the candidates, but "world music" won out. From the start, it wasn't a genre description like "rock", but a promotional catchphrase. All music is music of the world, but "world music" made a new section for record-store bins, and that's where its stunning usefulness remains.
Recent years have seen the emergence of what is sometimes called "world music 2.0", an organism native to the era of widespread internet access. Whereas world music tends to remain top-down - managers groom bands, publicists chaperone album reception, booking agents handle live appearances - world music 2.0 is a bottom-feeder, obsessed with microcultures breeding on YouTube, invite-only chat rooms and other obscure corners of the internet where the line between producer and consumer blurs, and most songs end up being given away for free.
The rise of cheap computers and music software piracy has led to an ever-increasing swarm of subgenres, from Berber R&B to West African hiplife. The songs make their way online to kids around the world for whom similarities in methodology - MP3 players on "shuffle", shared software techniques, MySpace-optimised networking and self-presentation skills - trump genre as an organising principle. On their DJ mixes, in their remixes, and at their parties, Argentine electro rubs up against South African house music by way of Belgians evoking Detroit techno, plus or minus a Lady Gaga remix. It's not intentionally "eclectic", at least not for folks used to topic-hopping across the web. It's just excited, in a way made possible by the internet's sometimes anarchic approaches to context and intellectual property.
The past year saw the feedback loop between technology and emerging music hit a fever pitch. World music 2.0 in 2009 was, among other things, Mexican producers living on America's East Coast remixing electronic cumbia tunes from their home country with trappings of Arab imaginary. Jersey City's DJ Tenebroso and other Mexican Orientalists sample Bollywood soundtracks more frequently than anything Middle Eastern, but their songs nonetheless sport titles like "Arab Lament" or "Taliban Guitar", and their YouTube mash-ups gravitate towards bellydance videos. The omnivorous logic of sampling doesn't heed original context; the key question isn't "where did this come from?" but "can it work for me?" Tenebroso also reminds us that world music 2.0's waves of influence don't move from the centre to peripheries. Instead, edges look to edges - and so we've got Ivorian singers referencing underground UK rap and Peruvian experimentalists crossbreeding Andean music with industrial noise.
The year's best globalista beats album came from Schlachthofbronx, a Bavarian trio whose bootleg remixes gained infamy on the international blog scene. This Munich crew makes club hits with basslines fattened up from UK dubstep, brisk drum programming that nods to the Caribbean rave music of soca, and guest vocalists from Johannesburg, Brazil and beyond. Not to mention lots of traditional Bavarian brass-band samples. Most world music 2.0 seems to envision itself sweating in unspecified sultry climes - the word "tropical" bloomed across countless flyers this year, clueing clubbers in to a fashion aesthetic of bright colours and a non-genre-specific approach to music. Schlachthofbronx whitens up the tropical, grafting Bavarian pride onto black bass influences. Their embrace of the Euro-exotic is at once perversely funny and functional: anyone who so wishes can now spice up an Africa-themed dance party with conservative Munich volksmusik - and the crowd won't miss a beat.
Without a doubt, the worst thing to happen to world music 2.0 this year was the death of the online music-sharing service Imeem. Remember making mixtapes for your friends? By providing simple tools for creating online playlists that you could easily share like old cassette mixes (but faster), Imeem became host to an incredible range of musical subcultures. Young, America-based, and non-white, it was arguably the web's best place to listen to highly local dance genres such as Chicagoan juke (loose beats cranked up in service of a hyper-speed teen dance style known as footworking) and crunk cumbia (a Texas-based mix of cumbia samples with hip-hop from the American south).
On December 8, 2009 Rupert Murdoch's MySpace purchased Imeem, just so it could pull the plug on it. The fact that world music 2.0 is an upgrade doesn't mean it's without bugs. It's certainly exciting to share what you've got with the great speed and reach enabled by "cloud" computing. But clouds are only great until business deals delete them. This means that hydra-headed world music 2.0 does a much better job with momentum than with documentation or self-preservation; under-the-radar mutations tend to leave light footprints. But watching it happen is fascinating: listeners journeying further afield than ever before, eager to fold what they hear back into whatever they've got cooking up at home.
Jace Clayton, regular contributor to The Review, is a writer and musician in Brooklyn, New York.
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Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
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Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
MATCH INFO
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Everton: Walcott (15'), Richarlison (31' )
Southampton: Ings (54')
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Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
Afghanistan fixtures
- v Australia, today
- v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
- v New Zealand, Saturday,
- v South Africa, June 15
- v England, June 18
- v India, June 22
- v Bangladesh, June 24
- v Pakistan, June 29
- v West Indies, July 4
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Traits of Chinese zodiac animals
Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
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Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
