World music cultures: an introduction -- Pitch and melody -- Rhythm and loudness -- Texture -- Timbre and musical instruments -- Sub-Saharan Africa -- The Middle East and North Africa -- Central Asia -- India -- China -- Japan -- Indonesia -- Eastern Europe -- Western Europe -- Latin America -- North America.

'World music' emerged as an invention of the West from encounters with other cultures. This book draws readers into a remarkable range of these historical encounters, in which music had the power to evoke the exotic and to give voice to the voiceless. In the course of the volume's eight chapters the reader witnesses music's involvement in the modern world, but also the individual moments and particular histories that are crucial to an understanding of music's diversity. World Music is wide-ranging in its geographical scope, yet individual chapters provide in-depth treatments of selected music cultures and regional music histories. The book frequently zooms in on repertoires and musicians - such as Bob Marley, Bartok, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - and attempts to account for world music's growing presence and popularity at the beginning of the twenty-first century. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In this volume, sixty-eight of the world's leading authorities explore and describe the wide range of musics of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Nepal and Afghanistan. Important information about history, religion, dance, theater, the visual arts and philosophy as well as their relationship to music is highlighted in seventy-six in-depth articles.

Emphasizing stylistic analysis and historical development, this unique book is the first to examine all major non-Western music styles, from reggae and salsa to the popular musics of non-Western Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Explore the relationship between music and society around the world This comprehensive introductory text creates a panoramic experience for beginner students by exposing them to the many musical cultures around the globe. Each chapter opens with a musical encounter in which the author introduces a key musical culture. Through these experiences, students are introduced to key musical styles, musical instruments, and performance practices. Students are taught how to actively listen to key musical examples through detailed listening guides. The role of music in society is emphasized through chapters that focus on key world cultural groups.

An authoritative introduction to musical periods and styles from ancient times to the present day.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the Nor-tec phenomenon emerged from the border city of Tijuana and through the Internet, quickly conquered a global audience. Marketed as a kind of "ethnic" electronic dance music, Nor-tec samples sounds of traditional music from the north of Mexico, and transforms them through computer technology used in European and American techno music and electronica. Tijuana has media links to both Mexico and the United States, with peoples, currencies, and cultural goods--perhaps especially music--from both sides circulating intensely within the city. Older residents and their more mobile, cosmopolitan-minded children thus engage in a constant struggle with identity and nationality, appropriation and authenticity. Nor-tec music in its very composition encapsulates this city's struggle, resonating with issues felt on the global level, while holding vastly different meanings to the variety of communities that embrace it. With an impressive hybrid of musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural and performance studies, urbanism, and border studies, Nor-tec Rifa! offers compelling insights into the cultural production of Nor-tec as it stems from norteña, banda, and grupera traditions. The book is also among the first to offer detailed accounts of Nor-tec music's composition process.

Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation. With its innovative multimodal approach, Music on the Move invites readers to listen and engage with many different types of music as they read. The text introduces a variety of concepts related to music’s travels—with or without its makers—including colonialism, migration, diaspora, mediation, propaganda, copyright, and hybridity. The case studies represent a variety of musical genres and styles, Western and non-Western, concert music, traditional music, and popular music. Highly accessible, jargon-free, and media-rich, Music on the Move is suitable for students as well as general-interest readers.

It is common to hear talk of how music can inspire crowds, move individuals and mobilise movements. We know too of how governments can live in fear of its effects, censor its sounds and imprison its creators. At the same time, there are other governments that use music for propaganda or for torture. All of these examples speak to the idea of music's political importance. But while we may share these assumptions about music's power, we rarely stop to analyse what it is about organised sound - about notes and rhythms - that has the effects attributed to it. This is the first book to examine systematically music's political power. It shows how music has been at the heart of accounts of political order, at how musicians from Bono to Lily Allen have claimed to speak for peoples and political causes. It looks too at the emergence of music as an object of public policy, whether in the classroom or in the copyright courts, whether as focus of national pride or employment opportunities. The book brings together a vast array of ideas about music's political significance (from Aristotle to Rousseau, from Adorno to Deleuze) and new empirical data to tell a story of the extraordinary potency of music across time and space. At the heart of the book lies the argument that music and politics are inseparably linked, and that each animates the other.

Music is a powerful art. We sing it, we dance to it, and we listen to it because it moves us as little else can. Classical music in particular has fascinated people for hundreds of years. The works of such composers as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven have proven so appealing that generations of listeners have returned to them again and again. Young People's Guide to Classical Music invites you to join these listeners.