A Sweet Lullaby For World Music Analysis

Music is often thought of as a universal language, an artform that transcends borders and is easily appreciated by any who listen. Music is constantly being expressed in different ways, whether that might be a live performance or a new hit album. In 1986, Paul Simon, an American guitarist and singer-songwriter, traveled to South Africa and recorded the album “Graceland”, which featured the South African vocal group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Though previously unknown in the United States, Ladysmith Black Mambazo was viewed as the “most successful singing group” in South Africa (Mambazo par. 4). Soon after its release, “Graceland” became a major entertainment sensation, a “landmark recording that was considered seminal in introducing world music

Through globalization, music is more easily shared to a global audience.
Globalization allows music to be spread to every corner of the world. Stated in his essay, “A Sweet Lullaby for World Music”, Steven Feld, Professor of Anthropology and Music, discusses how the innovation of “sound recording technologies [...] overwhelms prior and contiguous histories”. Essentially, he is stating that via modern globalization, techniques of music production and distribution have progressed an incredulous amount, surpassing any level of music exchange that was previously attainable; he believes that through globalization, music has become a much more accessible entity. Professor of History Mike Weis has a similar view of globalization’s effect on music, discussing how the appearance of The Beatles on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 was “an event that unified an entire culture” by presenting their music to the world.

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, a freelance writer of contemporary music, discusses the purpose of the Silk Road Project, an international group dedicated to promoting “innovation and learning through the arts”. Rutherford-Johnson explains the group’s “commitment to a globalized, multicultural vision” and how the “global music angle that Silk Road [Project] promotes opens doors [to] channels of new music”. This idea is comparable to Mike Weis’ view of the Beatles’ and how their music promoted a “global culture” that was able to “transcend boundaries and borders”. Rutherford-Johnson elaborates on the idea of ‘transcending borders’ as he describes how due to globalization, the Silk Road Project was able to bring together musicians and composers from “more than 20 countries”; he discusses how not only did the Silk Road Project lead to the creation of a new type of global music, but it allowed musicians from all around the world to collaborate and perform with one another. This kind of international collaboration is also discussed by the Brazilian composer Alexandre Lunsqui, who comments on the fact that “the exchange among composers coming from different regions on the planet has never been so strong”; he depicts how globalization has fostered a newfound collaboration between musicians of different backgrounds, similar to the collaborations between Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo