Actually, I'd say I like "ethnic music" just as much as "homogenized non-ethnic-specific musics," if there is in fact such a thing. (somehow, I envision someone with a mullet)
As a musician I think I've been more influenced (not to mention intoxicated) by ethnic musics, even though I may not be as hip to its scope, than by all the British and American pap I usually listen to.
Some stars:
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and party
Rabih Abou-Khalil
Hamza El Din
Cheb Mami
Ofra Haza
The Bulgarian Women's Choir
Ravi Shankar
Anoushka Shankar (Ravi's daughter)
Gopal Shankar Misra
Dr. L. Subramaniam
Youssou N'Dour
Nana Vasconcelos
Markahuasi (Andean)
Huun-Huur-Tuu (Tuvan throat singers)
The Gyuto Monks (Tibetan tantric choir)
Yothu Yindi (Aboriginal Australian)
...to mention but a scant few--as well as a lot of "fusion" or world styles touched on by such artists as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Jon Hassell etc and the even wilder experimental fusions by groups such as Muslim Gauze, Popul Vuh, Afro Celt Sound System, Peter Gabriel etc. Other movements I find really fascinating are 'musical archaeologists' Such As Mouth Music, Master Musicians of Jajouka (as well as Markahuasi and even groups such as the Kronos Quartet) that are researching, reviving and mutating ancient forms of music.
It's more than slightly amazing to me that we are moving into an age where music may be the sole refuge of entire cultural paradigms.
|