What is world music? And why does it exist?

World music is a type of music with no clear definition. It is put into a category of its own. For example if you went into a HMV music store you would find ‘world music’ in its own section. In order to assess what world music is you have to also think about the differences between what is considered local or global music. Guilbait says ‘world music is usually described as the blending of modern and traditional music’. World music is created by a specific country, often using traditional and modern instruments to create a trademark sound which is easy for individuals to associate with that country. The USA and the UK are the main producers of music and they have increasingly begun to acknowledge world music. Through their interest in this music, an advance in technologies have began to reach around the world allowing world music to be recorded and promoted much more widely, which means it gradually has begun to reach the USA and the UK, where it becomes increasingly more popular, and can often lead to major record deals.