The term “world music” has as many detractors as supporters. At it’s worst, as David Byrne has pointed out, it’s a gross generalisation which uselessly exoticises all non western music. Since the term first came into use in the eighties, the music has built up it’s own fanbase, many of whom pride themselves on specialist knowledge of certain types of world music. At it’s best, that shows the success of the term “world music” as a means of marketing non western music. The downside is that the image of world music as something aloof from the general public has traditionally alienated other music listeners.

If you have read Edward Said’s “Orientalism”, the use of the term "world music" fits well with his thesis on the portrayal of foreign cultures by the European empire builders in the 18th and 19th centuries, as something “exotic” and therefore completely alien to western society. However, before you think I’m going to put all my eggs in the “I hate the term world music” basket, I think it’s worth mentioning that the people who invented the term weren’t Orientalist Western supremacists. Actually, they were a group of well intentioned people who wanted to bring music from other countries to a western audience and give it a place in the market so the artists (and the companies of course) could increase their audience and income.

At the time, there was nowhere in music shops to rack the likes of Salif Keita or Fela Kuti and the companies who wanted to sell it realised that they needed to label it up in some way before it could be marketed. So the marketing label they decided on was “ world music” – it could have been something else like “global beat” but this was the term they opted for after some debate. At the Womex Expo in 2004, I heard one of the founders of the "world music" phenomen, Joe Boyd speak. He and his colleagues saw the term world music as a launch pad and fully expected that once listeners became more knowledgeable, the music would break down into it’s own categories in much the same way that reggae and salsa are recognised internationally in their own unique genre. This has happened to a degree, earning genres like Portugese Fado a worldwide audience but the term “world music” is still the commonest way of marketing a whole load of diverse music from all over the globe.

In this way it’s not a lot different from many other genres of music – Bjork doesn’t sound anything like Elbow or Radiohead but they are all labelled up as Indie. Ultimately, marketing terms are intended as a cover all to try to guide consumers towards things they like and are not supposed to be an in depth critique of the musical style of every artist. So many of the arguments have become academic now the genre defying internet has opened up the oceans with it’s infinite ways of cross referencing to find new artists similar to those you already know.

More and more world artists are using international references to other artists to open up new markets to their music – Turkish superstar Sezen Aksu on CD baby is a good example, citing Edith Piaf, Madonna and Rod Stewart as her " sound a likes". Online shops with their “buyers who bought this also bought xxxxx “ references have led hundreds of music fans to international artists they would otherwise never have found.

The Country and Eastern Band is basically a rock band with eastern influences but that doesn't mean that much to people who have never heard us. Whereas in Turkey we could draw references to numerous other artists, it makes more sense in the UK to describe our music as "world" or draw references to artists that are more commonly known such as Rachid Taha.The internet is slowly but surely uncovering all kinds of artists that have previously suffered from being considered a poor cousin to Western superlable superstars.

Things have thankfully moved on since the 80’s when the term “world music” was first bandied about. In it’s 21st century metamorphosis world music is commonly used to describe indigenous or “folk” music from across the globe, and is more likely to be used for UK folk artists like Bellowhead or Eliza Carthy, than international pop artists such as Shehzad Roy or Tarkan.

Club Couscous is the name of a live music club night and not the name of a venue. It’s essentially a night that promotes Mediterranean music of all kinds - music from the Mediterranean countries, music with influences from the region, music made by people from the region. The night has live music from Paula Darwish & The Country and Eastern Band, special guests and a house DJ. Most of our guests are UK based due to the restrictive cost of bringing over artists from other countries. Previous guests include artists originally from Iraq, Tunisia,Turkey, Morocco, Iran and of course the UK. The important thing for me is that the sound of the music fits with the night and appeals to our audience.

In that sense, Club Couscous is more an international music night than a world music night but it’s described as a world music night because in marketing terms, that strikes more of a chord in people’s minds.It’s no use having an ethically correct label if no-one knows what it means and no-one turns up on the night. We all want to see world music artists get a bigger slice of the pie so whatever you want to call it just get on and do it…

Paula Darwish 2008

For information on booking Club Couscous please see the booking information page