World Music: The Rough Guide, First Edition (Rough Guides) [Paperback]

Simon Broughton (Editor), Mark Ellingham (Editor), Dave Muddyman (Editor), Richard Trillo (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Rough Guides | Publication Date: November 1, 1994

Narrative driven, providing background and context on the music of 70 countries and regions, ranging from salsa to soukous, cajun to calypso, rai to qawwali. Set up in regional chapters. Each explanatory chapter is followed by a discography, with very short reviews of what the editors consider the very best music in the category. Various musicians are spotlighted in sidebars.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Once you start flipping through World Music, there's no stopping. Unlike other genres, world music spans so huge a territory (the world) that there are surprises and new pleasures for everyone. The table of contents sets the tone. Laid out as a map of the world, the chapters are located directly on the map. This is followed, however, by a traditional table of contents, laid out in linear 1 to 13 format for those who don't go for the visual approach. However you chose your dive-in point, you won't be disappointed. A tremendous amount of work has gone into this guide, covering a remarkable number of subgenres and groups. Search for a group you've heard of, read up on a specific genre like klezmer or flamenco, get CD recommendations, or troll for new finds like Altan, the Irish band of the '90s, and Ibrahim Tatlises, the premier Kurdish performer. There's a wealth of sounds out there that Rough Guide makes accessible. --Stephanie Gold

From Library Journal

Hats off to anyone with the guts to publish a guide purporting to deal with all the music in the world-and hats off twice to the editors of this book, who have succeeded not only in providing such a guide but in doing so with wit, succintness, and mind-boggling thoroughness. And talk about user-friendly-the table of contents consists of a big world map with boxes pointing to various regions and directing the reader to the appropriate chapter. Each musical style is given a brief but thorough overview, while sidebars provide information about especially significant artists. Every section ends with a selective discography. It doesn't seem that any musical tradition of any importance has been left out: you'll find essays here on everything from Colombian vailenata music to Moroccan chaaoi. What could have been unwieldy sprawl is made easily manageable by an exhaustive index. Given the price, this guide is budget-friendly, too, and should be considered an essential resource for even the most limited music collection.
Rick Anderson, Contoocook, N.H.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 1 edition (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858280176
• ISBN-13: 978-1858280172
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,204,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I first went to Africa in 1977, with a vague idea that I could hitchhike all the way to Timbuktu from my family home in the New Forest in the south of England. I left with a friend, with $100 each in $10 notes and a copy of the Michelin map. No guidebooks, no mobile phones, not much sense. We got to the fabled city, and home again, largely by good luck and the kindness of others, having learned what a visa is (a hard lesson when you're already half way across the Sahara and the Malian embassy is in Algiers) and what malaria feels like. Back in the UK I went to university, got a degree in sociology, and later went to London University's School of Oriental & African Studies to do a Master's Degree in East African Ethnography and Linguistics.

I'm the author of The Rough Guide to Kenya and The Rough Guide to West Africa and co-author with Emma Gregg of The Rough Guide to The Gambia and The Rough Guide to First-Time Africa. I was formerly director of communications at Rough Guides and I now work as a freelance author, editor, writer and PR consultant.

You can read my First-Time Africa blog at http://firsttimeafrica.wordpress.com, my Kenya blog at http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com and my West Africa blog at http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com. Follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/RichardTrillo (@RichardTrillo), email me at richardtrillo [at] blueyonder.co.uk and read more about me at the RoughGuides.com website or at my own website, richardtrillo.com.

Current titles:

The Rough Guide to West Africa 5th edition (2008)
The Rough Guide to Kenya 9th edition (2010)
The Rough Guide to First-Time Africa 2nd edtion (2011)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Gold Standard for the Curious, January 14, 2009

By 

James Scharnott "Unca Jim" (Noo Yawk, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World Music: The Rough Guide, First Edition (Rough Guides) (Paperback)

Growing up, I would check out nearly any unusual recording from the public library, just out of curiosity. Learning about far-off lands and cultures via record labels like Folkways and Lyrichord, I was into "world music" ages before that phrase was used to pigeonhole any sort of ethnic folk or pop.

This book, initially checked out from the library with an equal degree of curiosity, opened my eyes and whetted my ears' appetite for armchair world travel. Reviews of regional music and culture (from dancing to politics), photos of artists and obscure album covers, and discographies of mostly vinyl and audiocassettes, all combined to create an intoxicating, seductive overview of much of the world's musical contributions.

So fifteen years have passed, and newer, expanded editions of this guide have hit the bookshelves. But I still appreciate having all of this information in one volume, and will refer to it first, even before doing online research. The essays and photos still enchant, and the discographies now contain geuinely rare recordings for which I will eternally quest.

If you are curious about world music, and don't wish to invest in heavier (both in weight and content) volumes, this book is an ideal place for bith study and browsing. The writing is informative while remaining funny, and the whole package will answer many questions before sending you into the world for any further information.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never got it, December 25, 2011

By 

Susan Rozanc (Taylor, TX, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: World Music: The Rough Guide, First Edition (Rough Guides) (Paperback)

Although I would love to review this product, I NEVER RECEIVED IT! NEVER GOT IT, NEVER GOT IT, NEVER GOT IT.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good Introduction to World Music, March 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: World Music: The Rough Guide, First Edition (Rough Guides) (Paperback)

This is a good introduction to the major figures of world music and is a handy companion for anyone exploring the music. My other favorite world music book is "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press, 1998), which I also purchased through amazon.com.