Grime is a music genre that has emerged in London. This new genre is a great example of "global America;" it would not exist without heavy influence from American hip hop and R&B but has its own unique, British identity. Watch this video to learn more. 

Son Rompe Pera is a band of marimberos (marimba players) from Mexico City who combine cumbia with punk. They are an example of how music evolves and morphs as it travels across the world. This band's fusion of music genres is an example of the effect of globalization. 

Note: They just played at Celebrate Brooklyn! in Prospect Park this past summer. They were awesome to hear live!

This book by history professor Krystyn R. Moon discusses the American vaudeville scene of late 1800s-early 1900s and American "Orientalism," described by scholar Edward Said as "a western style of dominating, restructuring, and having authority over" the non-Western world. As Moon writes, "By the end of the eighteenth century, many European and American writers...began systemically to marginalize non-Western traditions" (5). Thus the development of "yellowface," a term to describe white American actors' portrayal of Asians during the twentieth century (similar to blackface minstrelsy of the 1800s). This stereotype was then "robbed of its power" by performers of Asian descent. 

The Google book linked here doesn't include access to the entire book, but you should be able to access the introduction, to get a good sense of yellowface and all the layers of racial representation and identity wrapped up in 20th century American vaudeville.  

This episode of PBS' Sound Field program (mentioned in Adam Neely's video last week) focuses on Nigerian composer/musician Fela Kuti and the style of music he created, Afrobeat. Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre, but Kuti's experience learning jazz and other music styles in the US influenced its creation. 

Afrobeat is NOT the same as Afrobeats; Afrobeat came first. Afrobeats isn't even a genre of music, but an umbrella term.

I was introduced to Hisham Aidi's work from a course called "Music and Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa” in grad school. His book Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture is really interesting (it is academic, but not too jargon-y). We're not reading the book for this lesson, but for a sense of what hip-hop diplomacy is (and jazz diplomacy, which happened during the Cold War era), check out this article about the book, which includes music links. This is Part 1 of 4: Hip-Hop Diplomacy, Part 1 – The Avid Listener 

Victor Jara was a Chilean folk singer & activist, sometimes called “the Bob Dylan of South America” (anything problematic with this? Why is it that artists from outside the US are always labeled in comparison to US artists, but rarely the other way around?). Learn more about his life and legacy in the New York Times article to the right. As a CUNY student you have free access to the NYT. 

More info. on Victor Jara:

• If you speak Spanish, this website is a valuable resource (recommended by the grandmother of one of my friends. She is a Chilean musician/activist who knew Victor Jara personally).

• Victor Jara was part of La Nueva Canción, the New Song Movement which combined music and protest in South America. Click here to learn more about the history of South American music and resistance.