Global Music (Preliminary Edition)

Book excerpt: The anthology Global Popular Music features readings that examine the commonalities and differences among different popular music traditions in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The text explores the ways in which each tradition developed, evolved, eventually disseminated, and how they gained global reach. The book begins with an introduction to global and popular music and answers the all-important question: what is pop? The readings that follow include both material evidence and historical narrative to provide students with greater awareness of how popular music has evolved throughout different cultures. The selections explore various musical traditions, including the blues, samba-reggae, mariachi, afro-pop, bhangra, K-pop, and rap, among other styles of music, all written by renowned and revered musicologists in the field. Compelling and complex in nature, Global Popular Music is an excellent supplementary resource for courses in world music, as well as any course that examines popular music in a global context.