ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE; on the Record Peter Bacon Chooses His Top Five World Music Recordings and Argues That the Crossover Appeal of Some High-Profile Collaborations Best Serve to Bring out the Traditional Aspects of This Style of Music

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Byline: Peter Bacon

WORLD MUSIC

World music is obviously not a musical style at all but a simple marketing ploy to sell music from around the world that doesn't easily fit into any other category, though most of it has strong links with its homeland's traditional folk music.

Some, indeed, is authentic folk music but the most exciting, and accessible, are the modern creations of artists who have mixed their tradition with modern influences, in the form of instruments or styles or even, as is the latest trend, fused their own country's music with that of another, a kind of United Nations of sound.

1 SALIF KEITA Soro (Mango/Sterns): Hearing the title track bursting forth from Andy Kershaw's Radio 1 show in 1987 is a memory that still gives me goose bumps.

One of the greatest singers in the world, and a …