Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to World Music : Volume 1 (Rough Guide Reference)

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The first two editions of the Rough Guide to World Music have long been essential reference books for music lovers, and it still holds true with the third edition. Expanded and revised, this is the first volume in a three-volume set, this time around focusing on the music of Africa and the Middle East. Drawing upon a whole host of authors, this work broadens the horizons by looking at every major style of musc in the region, from classical and tribal music, to modern Afro-pop, al-Jeel and Rai sensations. New and popular generes, such as African rap, Arabesque and Toureg music, are also examined in depth, making this volume much more thorough than it's predecessors. The book makes a monumental effort to catalouge the best of newer CD releases, including mention of prominent CD labels, as well as classic hits. Also, in addition to the standard articles, interviews and CD recommendations, most chapters also include a suggested playlist of iPods or MP3 players, giving an overview of the country's musical styles.

The first section focuses on the vast and culturally diverse continent of Africa, and takes up roughly 3/4s of the book. Almost every major country and style is covered - Congolese soukous, Algerian rai, Ethio-jazz, Nigerian Afro-beat, high life from Ghana, East African taraab, chimurenga and mbira from Zimbabwe, and many more. Indeed, South Africa has three seperate articles focusing on pop, jazz and gospel, respectively. Other articles focus on specific cultures, such as the Kabylie Berbers of Central African Pygmies. New and expanded material includes a look at Toureg music, Libyan music, the San and !Kung bushmen of Namibia, Botswana and post-war Liberia. This makes it an essential buy for those interested in these little known countries. In addition, there are countless profiles, biographies and even interviews with many prominent musicians such as Rachid Taha, Angelique Kidjo, Malouma mint Meidah, Cesaria Evora, Yossou N'Dour, Oliver Mtukudzi and the Drummers of Burundi. Other short side bars and notes highlight topics as diverse as Malagasy reburial rites, Nigerian pop stars abroad, the tribal musics of Kenya, the Chaoui Berbers of the Aures Mountains, and Moroccan music festivals. Theres even an article on pioneering ethno-musicologist Hugh Tracey, who's recordings highlight now lost musical traditions from across sub-Saharan Africa. All in all, a great and wonderfully enlightening look at African music.

Although smaller than the section on Africa, the Middle Eastern section of the book is just as interesting and informative, even if the region is covers is somewhat smaller. The greats of Arabic classical music, such as Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid al-Atrache, Fairouz and, of course, Oum Kalthoum, are all covered. There is also a quite up-to-date (for the moment anyway) chapter covering Egyptian pop music, and seperate chapters for the regional musics of other Arab countries. Whereas they were lumped together in the previous edition, articles on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have been updated and expanded enough to merit their own chapters, each showing their countries unique styles of music. The many, diverse traditions of Iran, Turkey and Israel are each covered, ranging from the whirling dervishes to bellydance to Persian classical music. There are also seperate articles covering ethnic groups such as the Kurds, Sephardic Jews and the Bedouin. The Caucasian republics - Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan - get pushed into this book too, due to shared cultural heritage with the Middle East. And, to top it off, theres a great new chapter about the rise of Arabesque, eletronic music that draws on Arab and Turkish influences (think Natacha Atlas, or Rachid Taha's remix of "Ya Rayah"). Very cool...

So, is it worth the buy? I'd certainly say so. If your a world music fan, especially one interested in African or Middle Eastern music, this book will become an essential reference for you. Especially if you want to learn more but have no idea where to begin. Even if you consider yourself pretty familiar with the musical styles here, you'll still find plenty of gems you may have missed out on, or never heard of before. Trust me on this one. It's already expanded my CD collection, and I've only had the new edition for a couple of days. The focus has greatly expanded from the previous editions too, which were a little heavily focused on pop music. This edition is more broad, showing a vast array of regional and cultural styles from across Africa and the Near East. It's a must buy, and I strongly recommend it.

World Music appeared in 1994 and became a fine resource: here is the first volume of a 2-volume edition; this first volume covering Africa, Europe and the Middle East with expanded musical references, over 80 articles from experts, extensive discographies organized by country and photos and directors of world music labels and specialty stores. An outstanding reference and a 'must' for avid world music listeners. Don't miss the Rough Guide Music Sampler CD, which provides a satisfyingly diverse sampler of some of the most famous names in world music from Carlos Gardel's tangos to Inti-Illimani's Andean sounds and the Soul Brothers' special South African beats.

This book's scope is its strength. Not only do you get chapters on Scotland, Ivory Coast, and Egypt, but also Greenland, Alpine Music, islands in the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf states. Geared more toward the musician or the academic, beginners also can find this valuable. Its weaknesses include the uneveness of the contributions. Some include detailed histories of cultures, others focus on the local scene. Also, some music is determined to be world music in some chapters; in others is not. For example, Greenlandic rap is world music in Greenland, but only French regional music is included here. Also, I noted that music that supported oppressive governments in the Soviet Union and Serbia received only passing mentions. On the whole, I would recommend this book to academics, musicians looking for new sounds, or people trying to learn more about other cultures. (P.S. Please include the publication date in your discographies!)

The Rough Guides--the CDs and the books--offer spectacular resources for anyone interested in international music. This is the first volume in a projected 3-volume set that will replace the current two-volume edition. The material on Africa and the Middle East present about 50% more material than before, and include suggested "playlists" in addition to the biographical and discographical information included in the previous edition. As a radio programmer I find the Rough Guides quite useful.

I am biased: I love the Rough Guide series of CDs. They have opened my ears and mind to worlds I not only never knew existed but also couldn't have imagined. This revision and expansion of the original Rough Guide to World Music is dazzling in its diversity. I agree with the first reviewer about its strengths and weaknesses. However, if you love the exploration of music and are willing to acknowledge that no encyclopedic work can but scratch surfaces, you'll love this book.

Walk inside the universe of World Music is not easy. You have the feeling to moove in a jungle of names, titles and unknown instruments. A Guide is necessary to understand and help you for orientation. This book is good for primers and experts, speaking about generes, origins, musicians and their best records. From the 1994's first edition the new release is more rich and reflects the high number of World Music records released in the last five years. I think you are in presence of the best guide you can buy today on the matter.

I love this book - it would be utterly useful to everyone except the MOST savvy World Music person with a big ol' advanced degree.

I do a radio show of Arab music (WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago!) and consider myself an educated aficionado, and I refer to it CONSTANTLY. This is truly the current ultimate guide to World music - just great. They are righ when they say "your CD collection will GROW" It will!

Even after all these years, this book is an essential for world music lovers, from novices interested in learning more about something they just heard off the radio to seasoned music lovers interested in rounding out their collections. This encylopedic work (the first volume in the series) gives a brief survey of the different music traditions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, divided by country, region, style or ethnicity. Each article was written by different authors, so obviously there is some variation, but they include very thorough details on the history, culture, background and style of the music, along with a sample discography at the end. Most articles include one or two profiles of famous artists from that country.

The first section, Europe, covers almost every country in Europe, as well as giving articles on the Saami people of Scandinavia, Gypsy music, regional cultures from Spain (like the Basques and Galacians), and Bhangra, the festive dance music of Britain's Punjabi diaspora! Everything you would expect is here, like Spanish flamenco, Portuguese fado, Greek rembetika, Norwegian fiddles, Scottish bagpipes, Celtic music from Ireland, Swiss alp horns, the haunting vocal music of Bulgaria and so forth. There are also quite a few surprises hidden in here too. Much of this section tends towards the folk, for obvious reasons.

The Middle Eastern chapter covers the music of Turkey, Iran, Israel, Armenia, Georgia and the Arab states (except for parts of North Africa), as well as Kurdistan and the Sephardic Jews. Theres alot of variety here, from the classical Arabic pop music of Oum Kalthoum, Fairouz and Abdel Halim Hafez, to modern Egyptian pop like Amr Diab, Natacha Atlas, and Hakim. Along the way, theres also the haunting sound of the Armenian duduk, Nubian music, Persian and Turkish classical traditions, Lebanese dabke, dervish rituals, Georgian polyphonic singing, Sephardic romances, Iranian-American pop music and Palestinean folk songs (which is great to see them acknowledge that Palestine DOES have a unique culture). This section is very good, with a very rich mix of traditions and cultures.

The biggest part of the book deals with Africa, with a very strong emphasis on regional pop music. Some countries (like Libya, Somalia and Namibia) are sadly overlooked, but all the powerhouses of African music are hero... Ethio-jazz, Algerian rai, high life from Ghana, Congolese soukous, Malagasy pop from Madagascar, Kenyan benga, South African gospel, Nigerian afrobeat, Senegalese mbalax, Moroccan gnawa, mbira music from Zimbabwe, Kabylie Berber music, east African taraab, recordings of the Pygmy people of Central Africa, Mande music of Mali... so much gets covered here, including numerous lesser known traditions (like the music of Zambia, Sierra Leone, or the Indian Ocean). Its by far the most exhaustive part of the book, full of great information, important artists and numerous CD recommendations.

Over all, its a wonderful introduction to the vast (and sometimes confusing) world music scene. The book was written in the late '90s, so some of the information is a little dated and a few REALLY great new artists or CDs aren't mentioned, but thats a minor detail. In fact, many of the CDs mentioned in the suggested listening section remain best sellers today! Theres also the occaisonal trend of focusing in on pop music or CDs more readily available in the west, but again, theres nothing wrong with this. Think of this book more as an introduction or a guide book and you'll be fine. Once you get into world music, or even just a particular culture or region, you'll be good. So check this book out and see what you like (or don't like).

I love having both volume one and two. They have much useful information. But speaking about the Netherlands where I lived for 35 years as a professional Surinam musician: I didn't like the part about Surinam music because it was very uncomplete. The writers didn't mention the two best known Surinam bands Fra Fra sound and the Ronald Snijders band. They only mentioned traditional style groups like Carlo Jones band pretending that the others are jazz, which is ridiculous.
Every other country mentions it's musicians and bands who fusion their worldmusic with jazz, like Cuba's Irakere, Brazil's Milton Nascimento, Argentina's Piazola, South Africa's Dollard Brand and so on. But in case of Suriname they simple cut that important part away. This also happened in part two. Sad and incomplete, because the mayor part of the innovation, promotion, touring and study comes from these new style bands.

Ronald Snijders (flutist-composer, writer, drs ethnomusicolgy)

Although I wish that there was even more room to fit in all that's needed. I do notice that, for instance, there has since this volume a separate pocket-size one for Irish music, and no doubt others. I studied the areas I was most familiar with to see if any surprises emerged. A couple each time; unfortunately, these were impossible to find on cd (cassette even out-of-print in more than one instance) if you lived more than a few miles from the musician, I reckon!

This inevitable let down between supply and demand for those outside of the countries who want to hear the music does frustrate armchair listeners like me. Go to the Egyptian chapter, for example, and you'll find that most of the genre's picks are bootlegged as tapes in the market stands. Since 1999, I gather that this tendency keeps growing given filesharing and cd-burners, so I'm not quite sure how one would find much of the music on smaller regional labels today even from reputable importers.

This evolution aside and perhaps beyond RG's survey, this does whet your appetite for music. But be forewarned that much of it comes at quite a price from the net or a music store, if you're lucky enough to find what you want. The illustrations in the text, the sidebar profiles, the list of merchants appended: all these represent a labor of love and a fine reference source.

I do wish, finally, that RG had kept their guides on the Net (as it had at least with the Rock Guide in the later 1990s) so they could be updated as CDs go in and out of print.