Criticisms
The generally accepted geographic standard for what designates world music is withstanding criticism for its universal asymmetry, where nearly every classifiable region under the term is defined, relative to Western music culture; this is primarily due to the fact that dominant corporate structures for music distribution and promotion originate in Western Europe and North America, as do the forums for establishing industry genre categories. Therefore, in market context, "ethnic" music is synthetically defined by a radius that extends from a Western center.
Some musicians and curators of music have come to dislike the term "world music". To these critics, "world music" is a parochial, catch-all marketing term for non-Western music of all genres. On October 3, 1999, David Byrne, the founder of the Luaka Bop music label, wrote an editorial in The New York Times entitled "I Hate World Music" explaining his objections to the term. Byrne argued that the labeling and categorization of other cultures as "exotic" serves to attract an insincere consumership and deter other potential consumers.
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