Cultural Sociology

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Jo Haynes Cultural Sociology 2010 4: 81 originally published online 4 March 2010 DOI: 10.1177/1749975509356862 The online version of this article can be found at: http://cus.sagepub.com/content/4/1/81

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Cultural Sociology
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In the Blood:The Racializing Tones of Music Categorization

I

Jo Haynes
University of Bristol, UK

A B S T RACT

This article examines the categorization of world music and how vexed and contentious issues pertaining to ideas of difference are navigated within processes of production and consumption of world music. By drawing on a study of British world music, it highlights the ambivalence expressed towards ethno-cultural hybridity and the way that racialized pathologies can be challenged or created and reinforced. It explores ideas about musicality and cultural expression that underpin the musical preferences and cultural values of consumers, musicians and professionals as a manifestation of the cultural logic of differentiation. It highlights the ongoing difficulty of explaining social and cultural phenomena without recourse to the idea of race, in contexts shaped by antiracist and cosmopolitan ideals. By illustrating how world music categorization does not erase race or nation, but instead recontextualizes both, this article provides an helpful insight into the changing dynamics of race.
K E Y WOR D S

categorization / ethno-cultural hybridity/ global music industry/ musical genres/ racialization/ racism/ world music

Introduction
he central theme dominating a recent discussion forum, A Jazz Odyssey: Music and Migration,1 was the connection between the historical and exclusionary contours of migration and jazz in relation to the taxonomy of contemporary European jazz, the essence of which was encapsulated in a question posed by Kevin LeGendre;2 namely, is the constitution of European jazz referring to jazz made by Europeans or jazz made in Europe? This belies the more

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substantive question of who is/can be European and, indeed, the discussion forum attempted specifically to address this throughout the day. However, according to the musicians present, many of whom were recent migrants to Europe from Africa and the Middle East, although they considered their music to be a form of jazz, it was often perfunctorily categorized as world music by the music industry and media. Moreover, they believed that this default categorization derived from longstanding racialized boundaries operating within Europe. Thus, while the discussion forum grappled with the notion of who is European and what constitutes European jazz, the industry expediently assigns the musical output of groups constituted as Other, i.e. not European, to the world music category. Given that Europe is still accused of sanctioning an ideological construction of itself that remains racially exclusive (Gilroy, 1993; Kushner, 2005) and of failing to come to terms with race itself (Goldberg, 2006), the question posed and left unanswered by the discussion forum provides a useful starting point for further interrogation of world music categorization in relation to the idea of race. The tenor of the discussion and the negative perceptions of the classification of their jazz as world music could be perceived as both insightful and yet banal. Musicians are renowned for their complaints of being pigeon-holed into stereotypical musical categories by the industry. All categories, even categories of music, valorize certain points of view at the expense of others, and while categorization is an inevitable facet of social life, there are consequences, as they reflect a political or ethical choice (Bowker and Leigh Star, 2000). While there are no agreed definitions of what constitutes world music, and in fact a level of arbitrariness to its classification dependent on where you are in the world (Inglis and Robertson, 2005), there are several familiar schemas that are used to define the limits of its heterogeneity. The first of these schemas, popular within contexts such as Britain, one which was found to be dominant in the research this article draws on, is where world music is largely defined in opposition to what are mainstream (Guilbault, 2001) or European (and AngloAmerican) musical formations (Pacini, 1993; Taylor, 1997). This is despite the fact that the term world music also incorporates music from Europe, Australia and America, albeit music from oppressed or aggrieved minorities such as Australian Aboriginals and Catalans. Thus another important classification schema used by those in the British context is that the term refers to music from (some) minority groups within European and (North) American geographical areas (Guilbault, 2001). The final schema of significance in the British context is the result of processes of globalization and attendant forms of ethno-cultural hybridization that have mainly taken place from the latter portion of the 20th century (Bohlman, 2002). Central to the aesthetic and political debates about world music, especially with respect to its commodification in a global music industry, is the fact that it is music simultaneously renowned for innovative forms of ethno-cultural fusion but also believed or, in some instances, expected to remain true to or reinforce cultural traditions and a fixed sense of place or racial/national identity

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(Haynes, 2005). On the basis that world music is expressive of both of these tendencies, there are obvious dilemmas confronting those who consume, create, produce and distribute the music in relation to whether the music should be lauded for its authenticity or celebrated for its hybridity. Indeed, this is one of the major fault lines in evaluations of world music by those involved in its production, distribution and consumption (Inglis and Robertson, 2005: 162). It is my further contention that the operationalization of authenticity and hybridity in this context can be traced through the idea of a one race one nation/culture or place one music rule which underpins the explanations not only of the musical ability of some ethnic groups operating within the world music context, but also of their musical affinity. Moreover, in extension of the significance of the one race one nation/culture or place one music rule to the categorization of world music, the cultural value believed to be derived from it and evidenced throughout the interviews in the research this article draws on is based on its symbolic currency as a blueprint for a multicultural world (Jowers, 1993); or as representing a form of one-worldism (Erlmann, 1996) or a post-race (cosmopolitan) world (Haynes, 2005).3 In the UK, where world music was developed as a marketing category and where companies like WOMAD (The World of Music and Dance)4 are located, world music is linked to antiracist and cosmopolitan ideals and has an academic and leftist genealogy (Frith, 2000). Indeed, the web site for WOMAD as one of the major world music organizations, if not the major world music organization, quotes Peter Gabriel, who claims that music proves the stupidity of racism.5 The process of musical categorization in relation to the presentation of ideas of culture, race and nation is complicated by this politicized discourse and from a sociological perspective is therefore of paramount importance. An empirical insight into the processes of production and consumption in the British world music scene from within can make a unique contribution to the world music debates which to date have been largely theoretical. This article unites three objectives in its approach to world music. The main objective is to examine how people in the world music industry discursively and practically navigate vexed and contentious issues of race (that world music is presumed to disrupt) in the production of world music. Second, it traces the process of racialization through ideas about musicality and cultural expression which underpin the musical preferences and cultural values of musicians, consumers and professionals. Finally, in doing so, it assesses world music as an attempt to challenge racism through the equal valorization of culture and respect for difference and thus contemplates the possibility of being able to move beyond the categorization and explanation of social phenomena without recourse to ideas of race. The next section provides some relevant methodological background to the research, including an overview of the categories of people participating in the study (professionals, musicians and consumers), as well as a discussion of access and the extent to which the views expressed are an artefact of the research process.

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Setting the Scene

The research took place between 1999 and 2001 and included interviews with 32 people, many of whom were instrumental in the development of the world music phenomenon in Britain from the 1990s and are responsible for its current organization and promotion today. Their roles within the world music industry6 incorporated a range of creative, managerial, pedagogical and administrative activities. They included: writers and critics for music magazines, newspapers, journals and books such as the Rough Guides;7 creative directors of world music organizations, marketing personnel and A & R (artist and repertoire) representatives from world music labels; music producers; musicians from critically acclaimed and amateur bands; and BBC radio and TV producers. Additionally, consumers of world music constituted another category of interviewee. Categories of people are clearly not always mutually exclusive. For instance, many musicians were also producers or promoters and vice versa; and clearly all were consumers of world music and/or claimed an affinity to world music. However, the professionals and musicians are analytically distinct from those who only occupy the consumer category. The social positions of the participants therefore relate to managerial, professional and associated professional occupational categories.8 The majority of people that participated in this research were white (notably English) and between the ages of 29 and 55, although there were seven people who identified as mixed race, AfricanCaribbean, Pakistani, Argentinean or Nigerian. Previous involvement within the local Bristol music scene, closely connected to aspects of the world music scene, provided an insight into the organization of festivals and gigs, an awareness of the terminology and references used and initial key contacts. In order to gain access to specific people within the world music scene I utilized these existing contacts and adopted the strategy of snowball sampling as one of the methods of recruitment of research participants. However, given that the parameters of the research were also defined by the development of world music within Britain, specific professionals were targeted.9 These people played significant roles within the industry since its inception in the 1980s and thus with respect to world music discourse and practices, such as music producers, promoters, creative directors, journalists and DJs. Hence, key people whose views were important because they had been instrumental in getting the world music scene developed within Britain, and continue to have an influence, were part of a purposive sampling strategy. Bennett (2002) argues that popular music research often complicates researchers position due to their insider knowledge or because they are or have been aficionados of the music. Moreover, he argues that the methodological advantages of such knowledge and issues around access to particular music scenes need to be evaluated within the research process, but seldom are. In the research on which this article draws, the importance of having a degree of insider knowledge and prior contacts was beneficial for theoretical as well as obviously practical purposes. The impetus for the research hinged on the fact

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that although the dominant political views and cultural values expressed by musicians and consumers alike (with whom I had previously come in contact) displayed an antiracist political sensibility, their aesthetic values and musical preferences revealed traces of biological racism and fixed notions of cultural difference. Moreover, unlike other contexts for the study of racism as typically centred around explicit processes of exclusion, the world music context suggested a social space shaped by racialized processes of exoticization that were ambiguous and less explicit. Therefore, while an insider knowledge of the world music scene provided access and familiarity with world music discourse, a critical distance was emergent at the outset of the study due to the theoretical impetus to explore the contours of the racialization process in this context. The study incorporated participant observations and qualitative interviews with industry professionals, musicians and consumers. The semi-structured indepth interviews explored a range of topics, including their knowledge about world music and its categorization; their musical preferences; attitudes towards ethno-cultural hybrid musical forms; and details either of their professional roles or experiences as musicians within the world music scene. In any research it is important to interrogate the extent to which the responses given are artefacts of the interview setting and to what extent this can be controlled for. For example, in this research did the questions elicit responses that are more explicitly and determinedly antiracist than the interviewee might actually be? The questions in the interview were oriented towards explaining tastes and understanding of the music and attitudes towards ethno-cultural hybrid music forms, rather than explicitly targeting views on race and ethnic difference, although at the end of the interview respondents were asked to describe their ethnic background and to discuss whether they thought racism was more or less endemic in the UK than 10 years ago. However, it is arguable that the particular cultural capital at their disposal would suggest awareness that certain kinds of social and political discourse associated with ideas of race are unacceptable generally. In this sense they would always monitor their own expressed views and responses to questions, but they may be more sensitive to how they portray themselves when participating in an (academic) research context. Most of the participants across all categories were educated to degree level and many of the world music professionals were multi- or bi-lingual, and had either studied languages at university and/or had spent time in their childhood in other countries because of their parents occupations in the foreign/diplomatic or armed services. A lot of their jobs entailed travel, especially for the purposes of music promotion or production, writing about the artists/music and/or they were avid world travellers in their leisure time.

Racializing Tones
Despite its spurious scientific basis and the persistent calls to erase the term from everyday usage (see, for example, Gilroy, 1998), race still plays a significant role

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in explanations of individual and group differences and the nature of how people live. Ideas of race specifically have an extensive historical connection to explanations of the ontology of music and its social and political significance. Indeed, from an academic perspective, the idea that each race has its own manner of musical expression (cf. Kunst, 1950) used to be a pervasive feature of ethnomusicology. Radano and Bohlman (2000) also argue that historical musicology is committed to what is and is not racial, which in turn means adhering to the distinction between what is and is not European music. Thus, racialized discourses can be traced through aesthetic criteria used to evaluate and explain music that draw on binaries of modern/traditional, intellectual/embodied, sophisticated/primitive, and civilized/natural, whereby European forms tend to be modern, intellectual, sophisticated and civilized. Such binaries not only underpin the categorization of music, they also reinforce symbolic boundaries between Europeans and Others, which ultimately portray both groups in ways that have nothing to do with any objective qualities. For those at the forefront of developing the world music scene in the UK in the 1980s and world music aficionados today, it is hoped that the category of world music disrupts these binaries and the notion of racialized inferiority formerly associated with music from traditional non-Western musics compared to European music (Bohlman, 2002). However, this article demonstrates the way in which ideas of race not only permeate the marketing strategies of the world music industry in terms of situating the music nationally or geographically and with respect to distinct ethnic groups, but also how they underpin aesthetic criteria used to evaluate and explain musicality. The logic underpinning these aesthetic and organizational processes arguably reflects salient aspects of the discourse of differential racialization (or new racism) (cf. Barker, 1981; Taguieff, 1990), characterized by the notion that the cultural expressions of national or ethnic communities are neither superior or inferior, but different (Wieviorka, 1995: 42). To this end, the concept of differential racialization is useful in elucidating the perceptions and opinions of the interviewees. The concept of differential racialization (see for example Balibar, 1991; Murji and Solomos, 2005; Taguieff, 1990) refers to the process of situating or defining individuals and groups (and by corollary, ourselves) in cultural terms (Rattansi, 2005). Although it centralizes culture as the main determinant of difference, this does not preclude race, nor indeed biological factors. It simply allows scope for complexity, especially given the widespread conflation of the terms ethnicity, culture, race and nation, and in the case of world music production and consumption all three are significant. As Gunaratnam reminds us, processes of biological and cultural differentiation through the categories of race and ethnicity are not two separate systems of meaning (discourses) but are racisms two registers (Gunaratnam, 2003: 5, citing Hall, 2000: 223). Moreover, social divisions such as gender, religion and class also intersect with the process of racialization. Brah (1996) for instance uses differential racialization to analyse processes of relational multilocationality within and across formations of power marked by the articulation of one form of racism with another, and with other modes of differentiation (1996: 196). In this way,

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differential racialization can capture the uneven and contingent processes of naming and categorizing individuals and groups in specific social contexts, and does not conceive the power to do so as all or nothing. In turn, this circumvents the deployment of the racist/non-racist grid to understand social contexts and the conceptualization of difference (Rattansi, 2005). This is particularly significant for the description of processes and explanations of contexts which often escape sociological attention because they do not immediately raise the same level of political concern in relation to issues of social equality; in other words, contexts where there is no obvious inferiorization or exclusionary logic at work on the basis of perceptions of racialized differences.10 However, contexts like the British world music scene, which is characterized as having an ideological commitment to antiracism and where ethnic diversity is valorized, can also objectify and exoticize individuals or cultures. Such contexts are important for sociologists, for while the negotiation of difference in processes of production and consumption may objectify racially constituted categories, difference is also portrayed as desirable through the celebration of heterogeneity in music. In understanding the contours of such ambivalence, rather than branding world music or even the wider music industry as monolithically racist, differentialist racialization functions to open up other avenues of inquiry and understanding that the blunt attribution of racism has a tendency to close down (Rattansi, 2005: 271).

In the Blood
In this section the views and perceptions expressed mainly by musicians and consumers,11 rather than industry perceptions and practices, will be discussed in relation to the categorization of music. The discussion begins by examining explanations for musicality which also allude to the perceptions of the relationship between music and normative racialized identities and whether they provide a set of musical tastes that represent an authentic identity. It then examines the contours of ethno-cultural hybridity, both in relation to the syncretic process of musical change, which musicians and consumers are intellectually predisposed towards, and their aesthetic perspective on musicians who attempt to play music not normally associated with their ethnic background. Radano and Bohlman (2000) argue that the racialization of musicality or musical expression is a familiar feature of the everyday vocabulary of race, inasmuch as musical creativity and skill, as distinct forms of cultural expression, are often attributed to biological differences such that a group or individual has musicality in the blood. In many instances across all of the categories of participants, musical affinities and ability were explained by a conflation of national identity, race, and culture, but within many of these explanations biological markers of difference were also utilized. In the following remark, Pauline, a musician, explains her musical affinity by saying it is in the blood,

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as her parents are Jamaican, as well as being due to the cultural influence of being born and having grown up within England:
Well obviously coming from a Caribbean or Jamaican family then reggae is just in the blood, anything out of Jamaicas in there, obviously a lot of funk and that sort of thing but having been born in England I actually love English music, I mean when I was at school we sang a lot of English folk songs and so on we didnt just do classical music we did folk music in general and songs by Joni Mitchell and stuff like that and so in the music that I listen to is a complete reflection of the fact that I was born black in this country. I mean I love Fairport Convention and people like that and theyre as much as a part of my life as Bob Marley is and obviously having done the classical music12 thats a massive influence. (Pauline, musician; emphasis added)

While this signifies the diversity of subjective positions, social experiences and cultural identities of black people (Hall, 1992: 254), it also presents ethnocultural hybridity as a positive discourse to define her experience. However, this is conceived in such a way as to suggest that normative racialized identities provide an obvious musical affinity, i.e. Jamaica and reggae; England and folk. The idea that culture and therefore musical ability and rhythm are in the blood is drawn on throughout the interviews not only to explain the sublime qualities of certain music, but also to explain the difficulties that people have in playing music of a cultural tradition other than their own. The phrase in the blood is clearly a popular way of suggesting that a characteristic or skill such as musicianship or sporting excellence is innate, and some usage of the term may appear innocuous. For example, it is often used when complimenting abilities such as cooking or knitting or DIY. In other words, someones skill is so impressive it is as if the individual does not have to try as it is an aspect of their being; i.e. they cannot help it. In sport, which is often described as in the blood, a specific type of natural sporting ability is ascribed to black footballers, i.e. they are regarded as strong, instinctual and often aggressive, whereas white players are strategic and intelligent (Ismond, 2003). In light of the historical continuity of stereotypes about black people and cultures in relation to having an affinity or closeness to nature and instinct, rather than being of a civilized, cultured and intellectual disposition, the phrase in the blood is therefore problematic because it reinforces symbolic boundaries upon which such racialized distinctions are based. In this research, the tendency to use the phrase in the blood to explain the immutable musical and rhythmic skill of musicians of African and South American descent is notable. Although this is meant to constitute high praise for musical talent and thus act as a positive reinforcement of cultural difference, nevertheless it is articulated through a biological discourse whereby musicality of some ethnic groups is immutable. Affinities for musical genres and musical ability were for the most part perceived as an embodied aspect of identity and thus acted as a symbolic boundary between racially constituted subjects, as shown above. However, when interviewees were asked whether they thought musicians should be able to play whatever music they desired, there was unanimous agreement across all categories of respondents that musicians should play whatever they want and

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that musical creativity did not need to be stifled by arbitrarily ascribed social boundaries pertaining to racialized identities. Hence, from an abstract or intellectualized perspective, it is apparent that the process of musical change and development is understood by all categories of interviewees in more fluid terms to reflect an inevitable musical syncretism. On the other hand, there was an overwhelming individual aesthetic preference for music that actually reflected the opposite; namely, music by artists that were perceived as having remained authentic or true to their nation, race or cultural group. The following account by Mary suggests that an English person cannot play Cuban music very well because the music is not in the blood, although through a process of acculturation one can become somewhat more adept. The results, however, will not be as intense or as deep:
A: Well you wouldnt be able to play it as well because you havent got it in your blood. Q: What do you think you need to be able to play Cuban music then? A: Well you need to grow up with the music around you I think. I mean there are some musicians that enter into it and they really study it and they become part of it but I mean they would have to be the only one I think within a Cuban band for a number of years before you could set up a Cuban band here I think There are a couple of bands in London that play salsa but I dont think theyre quite as intense is probably quite a good word actually, its not as deep. (Mary, consumer; emphasis added)

This type of explanation of the limits of ethno-cultural hybridity that shifts between blood, culture and nation or place is surprisingly common across the categories of respondents, but it is always portrayed as a positive feature of the specific ethnic group perceived as responsible for the music, rather than signifying or implying inferiority. It also extends to how consumers assess the aesthetic quality of music in relation to the one race one nation/culture or place one music rule and thus the degree to which the music is authentic or real. Despite the many assertions that musicians should adopt and adapt the sounds and styles of any musical form if they so choose, as an inevitable aspect of creativity, there is, as mentioned above, a notable level of resistance to certain forms of ethno-cultural hybridity on an aesthetic level, in relation to their own and the consumers musical affinities and preferences. This is evidenced by the following:
I like Latin music played by Latins. I like reggae music played by Jamaicans. I dont like African reggae for example [I like] the jazz played by the black jazz musicians from America, although theres many skilled jazz musicians in Britain, but there is a sort of heart behind it obviously its great still played by other cultures, but I prefer for example the African people playing their music the best because it stems from their culture, their roots are there, so the initial feeling is there, once it comes here it gets a bit transformed. (Elisa, musician; dance instructor)

Again, statements like this were surprisingly common across the categories of respondents. The following articulation of this perspective is made by a

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professional in relation to his own musical preferences, but as someone who has a developed theoretical insight into the complexity of social and cultural identities, his views suggest that there is an irreducible consumer logic that will always prefer it when musicians stick to their own music:
I would never say youre Cuban youve got to be playing Cuban music, musicians of course are free to do what they like, I dont always like it and I dont always like the fusions that occur because I think actually people playing in a tradition outside of their own on the whole tend to play less well than playing their own stuff and very often you can hear that but there are some that are fantastic Youve got a much harder time in a way if youre playing music from another tradition, its obvious if youve got a CD or a concert by a white sitar player and an Indian sitar player, which one are you going to go and hear? The Indian player. (Sean, editor of world music magazine and TV producer)

In this case, not only was there a professional understanding that habits of consumption and audience expectations placed restrictions on how successful such hybrid performances and recordings were going to be; it also reflected Seans own individual musical affinities and taste. One of the ways in which world music is consumed is through the notion of it as ethnic or roots music and as representative of an alternative to mainstream Anglo-American music that has lost a sense of authenticity (Taylor, 1997). However, within this perception there are certain minority ethnic groups or aggrieved minorities that have and will always retain their musical authenticity, notably black groups whether of African or Caribbean descent located in the projects of South Bronx or the estates of East London. Blackness remains the currency for authenticity and is virtually synonymous with musicality and specific musical genres, as the following account demonstrates. This next quote summarizes many of the participants views about blackness:
I think that when it comes to performers and musicians I think that blacks are quite revered you know its as though theyre often like the authentic source of it, well not entirely. I mean say if you had a black Jamaican playing jazz you might not think so, but almost every black group has got their authentic music, even if theyre Jamaican theyve got their reggae or dub or whatever and if theyre this or that theyre always walking in the door with some authentic thing that theyve got, so theyve come to be revered. I think its almost a bit like in sport in the way if hes a football star you forget that hes black and when hes back out on the street its a problem again. (Bruce, musician)

This portrayal of blackness as synonymous with musical authenticity exoticizes and objectifies all black people. Although this is common across all of the categories of interviewees to varying degrees, some also adopt critical perspectives. While the following comment is articulating a political distance from racism by highlighting the positive social consequence of world music the result is again a confirmation of the exoticization of specific social groups:
World music makes it totally unacceptable to be prejudiced Because those other cultures are made to look kind of cool and sexy arent they, and it breaks away

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certain stereotypes that we might have about blacks, South Americans and Latin American people theyre all made to be really cool, theyre party people and really cool so we dont think of them as guerrillas in the jungle or something like that or Communist nutters out in the jungle. (Bruce, musician)

That all black people are assumed to be cool and/or to be the performers in certain contexts was also illustrated by Elisa, a musician, who recounted that while at Glastonbury festival13 her black friends were treated with reverence by white people around them because they assumed that they were musicians. Despite having a social critique of this type of interaction, Elisa suggests that sport and music are two of the best skills to excel in:
I think black people dont want to be stereotyped as either good sports people or musicians you know they dont want that, they want to feel like they could be a doctor or a lawyer because they are clever people just by listening to the music you know that they are clever people that they have less brains is rubbish its just that its a different culture and they have been oppressed thats all you know and their language is a different language but now they live in Britain they want to integrate so they dont want to be stereotyped as musicians or good runners or whatever you know although they know that they are, they reign in that really all over the world really. I say to them myself you should be proud of it that youre good at that its the best thing to be good at you know but they dont like it, they want to feel that they can do anybodys job. (Elisa, musician; dance instructor)

This type of comment alludes to the dilemmas of social explanation in this cultural and political context. On the one hand, there is a need to challenge dominant racialized representations, in this case the natural musical and sporting ability of black people, but, on the other, an acknowledgement of the social world produced by such representations, where the logic of differential racialization can also lead to forms of exclusion from and under-representation within certain professions such as medicine and law. However, the implication of acknowledging the positive aspects of musical and sporting achievement reinforces the racialized embodiment of musical skill. Hence, although the desire to combat racism is of paramount importance to the consumers of world music interviewed in this research, the insistence upon the valorization of all cultures and respect for their differences, without exorcizing the idea of race itself, creates untenable positions in relation to musical preferences and explanations of musicality.

Categorizing World Music

The framework for the production of culture utilized in the analysis of interview data reflects world musics constitution as a cultural product with form, meaning and content shaped by creative practices and consumer expectations that are in turn shaped by wider cultural and social processes (see for example Fabbri, 1982; Frith, 1996; Negus, 1999). As a cultural product, it is also organized and shaped by a commercial industry. The previous section explored some of the dilemmas relating to the musical preferences and expectations for

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consumers, as well as their explanations for musicality. This section will utilize interview data from world music professionals to examine world music as a genre shaped and determined by the instrumental values and practices of the industry professionals. Most world music professionals (and many others interviewed) acknowledged the marketing origins and the potential difficulties associated with the term world music,14 given its all encompassing nature:
When you start categorizing world music, which involves the musical aspirations and expression of 150 plus countries into one term and youre talking about it in terms of history, in terms of movements, in terms of technologies it [the term world music] doesnt really do much justice. (Peter, world music promoter)

Despite this, and in line with previous studies (see for example Taylor, 1997), many of the interviewees endorsed a broad definition of musical styles under the aegis of world music, from the very pure tribal traditions to contemporary fusion stuff (Sean, editor of world music magazine). While there are no specific sounds and styles that constitute it as a genre in the same way that one would be able to identify what constitutes the instrumentation or chord progression for blues or reggae music for example, underpinning all of the perceptions of world music for the professionals interviewed in this research was an acknowledgement of the significance of a sense of place and/or origins.15 Moreover, for the majority, although world music potentially does include all music from everywhere, the dominant image of its constitution reinforces the first schema; namely, a division between what is Anglo-American or European and what is non-mainstream or non-European music.16 It is also thought mainly to represent music created by minority ethnic groups, thus reflecting the second schema, although that is not to say that all of the professionals were comfortable with this portrayal. Some professionals believed that the vast amount of fusion of styles constituting world music also challenged racialized boundaries associated with music and thus that the label was a positive step towards improving the nomenclature for categories of music, and by extension people. Louise, a veteran in the world music industry in the UK, supported the category of world music for this reason:
Its awful to call something non-Western. I mean you wouldnt call a woman a non-man. Do you know what I mean? Or a white a non-black or a black a non-white so give it a positive name. I think that was a very positive step. (Louise, music producer and radio DJ/producer)

Although the categorization of world music is viewed as a way of bypassing negative labelling as non-Western, non-European, and so on, nevertheless such divisions still underpin and determine the categorization process itself. Hence, the recent complaints by the jazz musicians at the discussion forum mentioned above. Frith (2000) has argued that given the importance of the sense of place and origins to the musics cultural and political value (reflecting a combination of cosmopolitan, multicultural and antiracist ideals as evidenced in the interview data

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drawn on for this article), those specifically working on the production of world music have to draw on a level of ethnomusicological expertise. In providing biographical details and histories of the musics evolution on sleeve notes and in festival programmes, they are ostensibly required to situate the music and therefore perform calculations of where music belongs in the world. In fact, this type of ethnomusicological expertise is invaluable within the world music industry because often the music acts as a vicarious substitute for travel or as reminders of time spent in remote or distant places, as suggested by a former employee of an international world music organization now working in music retailing:
I do think its like that sort of feeling like youre in that country you know, you get people coming in here a lot and theyve been on holiday somewhere and they want something to remind them of that holiday thats why they buy world music thats how they start off. (Valerie, former marketing/publicity officer; music sales)

The association between world music and travel was a common perception of all of the professionals. One professional who has been involved in the development of world music in the UK since the late 1980s suggested that backpacking tourism was an appropriate metaphor for world music:
Ive thought about world music over the past 15 years and I think if you could get sort of models from other things like say anthropology or Orientalism or colonialism as ways of looking at world music, and I think one of the most apposite appropriate metaphors for it is backpacking tourism, because on the one hand people go abroad, I went to India, I came back, I thought when I get back Im going to go to HMV and look at what theyve got or buy the cassettes while Im here, but theres also the fact that world music is a kind of tourism in its own way and I think theres an illusion that you can get involved in other cultures through backpacking tourism. (Martin, world music critic and journalist)

Due to its vicarious association with tourism, world music is used to represent fixed relationships between specific locations and national/cultural identities. Sometimes this entails representing the music in an ahistorical and/or apolitical fashion where the complexity of ideas of race, culture and nation are diluted, as asserted by the following comment:
I think that there are people who have got a vested interest in selling world music in a particular way and they dont engage with those complexities There are people whove got a vested interest who have seen the complexities and they want to keep it as a simple thing where they understand it and they will tell you what its all about and Ive never wanted to put myself in that position, although I have done that by writing for the Rough Guide [see endnote 5] but that was like very late on, and I thought well somebodys got to do it. (Martin, world music critic and journalist)

Martins comments provide a critical insight into the world music business, which other professionals also expressed but less overtly. Indeed, most of the professionals were certainly aware of the potential discursive traps surrounding world music and were eager to correct what were believed to be misperceptions of their professional practices as exploitative or racist.

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Given the antiracist sensibilities of many people working within the world music industry, there was a degree of self-consciousness and ambivalence expressed in relation to the way musicians were marketed and portrayed at festivals, aspects of which ultimately reflected wider social and political processes that normalize whiteness and the constitution of European music. Douglas explained this discomfiture when witnessing a performance at a WOMAD festival:
Sometimes it doesnt work sometimes you get a band and itll just reinforce a stereotype and it wont break down racial stereotypes it will reinforce them. I know a lot of people felt that about the South African band that were on last year [at WOMAD], the singer and the dance moves that they were all doing, I mean if you dont know anything about South African music and the township thing, Im sure it had its own discrete context explanation, but for the uninitiated it must have looked just like youd expect it to and it didnt challenge stereotypes and I remember hearing people saying something to that effect, but you know they were fantastic dancers it was a spectacle, they were great singers, I enjoyed it for its own sake and I think thats what comes out of WOMAD at the end, the commercial aspect of it aside, I mean it has to make money (Douglas, journalist and travel writer)

The explanation of the dynamics of performance, audience perception and expectation is compelling in this example because, while demonstrating awareness that an opposing political value is being reinforced, it also suggests that ultimate responsibility for racialized representations lies in the musical performance, not in the imaginings and ideas of spectators. Some performers, not necessarily those discussed above, are encouraged by the industry to perform their music to a global (not their local/home) audience in ways that may reflect overtly exotic, sexualized stereotypes and a more authentic or primitive sound (see also Haynes, 2005; NDour, 1992). However, regardless of the agency and responsibility of the musicians here, by taking a position affirming that in fact they were good dancers, they were great singers Douglas is suggesting that the stereotypes can be true, that performances that do reinforce embodied racialized pathologies also retain an aesthetic value. Despite the discomfort created by the fact that the world music industry perpetuates stylized versions of ethnicity to present and categorize the music (Taylor, 1997), which can reinforce the idea of it being embodied by nonwhite/ethnic musicians, there was resigned acceptance in relation to the typical British world music audience characterized as 30 plus white middle class rather than broadly based (Sean, editor of world music magazine). Indeed, many interviewed in this research across all three categories (consumer, musician and professional) identified liking world music and therefore possessing a broad ranging curiosity as a white European thing (Sean, editor of world music magazine). The dominant portrayal of musicians as ethnic or nonwhite or Other and the audience as predominantly white does tend to propagate a familiar paradigm of white appropriation of indigenous musical forms and thus asymmetrical power relationships based on exploitative exchange. However, the following quote illustrates how for some key people involved in the organization of music festivals, promotion of artists and music production within the world music industry, this is not an issue to be concerned with:

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To be quite honest, as organizers, we just really appreciate the people who pay because thats how it works, thats how the musicians are paid, thats how we make our living whether they are black or they are white. Now all of these angst ridden questions Oh you know if theres all of this music which is mixed why isnt the audience as mixed as that? Well should I really be worrying about that? The events that I help to organize are open to everybody and I feel that there are terrible problems of separation in this society and that our festival is a reflection of that, its not a reflection of our festival, its a reflection of the country that we live in. (Tony, director of world music organization)

This suggests that despite the cultural and political value thought to be associated with world music, there is a simple commercial litmus test underpinning the logic of classification and presentation of music. This is further evidenced by an explanation for the world music audience by another music promoter and events co-ordinator:
I dont think people at the festival organization ever went out to say Lets have a white middle class event. It was never like that, you know they must have had all the best intentions in the world you know but the truth is that those that can afford it will obviously go to that event. One cannot even begin to even apportion any blame to the organizers. I think it would be highly unfair to begin to think its the organizers, the truth is people sit down and organize things, have ideas, put it together with all the best intentions. Without you knowing it, a certain class or group of individuals find themselves are beginning to love what you do. (Terry, music promoter and event co-ordinator]

Neither the normative expectations of music organizations nor the level of social responsibility of professionals within the sector is the issue here. What is of interest is how the world music audience is imagined as separate to the production of it as a cultural form, which is contrary to the idea that the production of music is generally linked to a potential consumer base (Frith, 1996) to ensure music sells. Thus, the attendant political or cultural value of world music for its ideal type consumer arguably is a factor that the industry must integrate into its production choices and marketing styles because it is clearly of the utmost commercial importance.

Conclusion
This article has examined the categorization of world music and how people in the world music industry discursively and practically navigate vexed and contentious issues to do with race. It emerged from the reflections on the racialized aspects of the process of genre classification alluded to by many musicians at a recent discussion forum on music and migration in Europe, where they disclosed their frustration about having their jazz music categorized as world music on the basis of their ethnic background. One aspect of the interpretation of this process is that this is the industrys way of minimizing commercial risk, that the underlying motive to rationalize the classification of music is because, as world music, it is more successful and profitable. However, it is arguable that this operates as
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a profitable categorization because it reflects wider cultural formations and practices, including consumer expectations that are dependent upon the idea of a fixed relationship between music and normative racial identities and cultural differences. By drawing on the findings of a study of British world music, the article has explored how the racialized pathologies and ambivalence towards ethno-cultural hybridity are challenged or created and reinforced through production and consumption of world music First, while there is an acknowledgement that the creative development of individual musicians and musical forms should not be hindered by arbitrarily ascribed cultural boundaries that reflect the idea of normative racialized identities, the dominant preference of world music consumers and also many musicians is for music that not only reflects a straightforward relationship with racialized origins, but also frequently utilizes biological ideas of difference to explain the sublime qualities of the music. Second, the presentation and packaging of world music is often tailored to suit those who view the music as a vicarious substitute for travel, thus the relationship between music and place or identity is portrayed as straightforward. However, this may not necessarily reflect the ethnomusicological knowledge of those who work within the world music industry and their sophisticated understanding of the musics global or hybrid origins. From a first-hand insight into the field of world music in the UK and aspects of its production and consumption, this article has made an empirical contribution to what otherwise are theoretical debates about world musics sociological significance. Moreover, it has provided a nuanced insight into how the equal valorization of cultures inherent in the conceptual and practical aspects of world music categorization does not overcome or erase ideas of race. Instead, while the empirical data drawn on in this article highlight the process and logic of differential racialization, underpinning the categorization of world music by musicians, consumers and professionals alike, they raise a further set of analytical questions relating to the evaluation of the political implications of such processes where there is an aesthetic predisposition towards Others that needs to be addressed further. The world music phenomenon therefore constitutes a specific example of a dilemma described by Gilroy (1998). Namely, if the simplicity of a racial typology remains alluring to those whose political agenda is defined by, in this case, an antiracist cosmopolitanism, this raises further questions in relation to how cultural formations and conceptions of difference can ever be understood without reproducing racial pathologies and creating ambivalence in relation to ethno-cultural hybrid forms.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the anonymous referee and the Editors for their comments, as well as Esther Dermott, Lee Marshall and Tom Osborne in the Department of Sociology, University of Bristol for their constructive comments on an earlier draft.

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Notes
1 The discussion forum was held at City Hall, London on 31 March 2006 and focused on jazz in Europe and the role of migration in the musics development. Policy makers, academics, music producers and musicians aimed to explore: the connections between migration and jazz innovations, influences and trends in Europe; how the experience of musicians can inform practice in other areas; how migration has changed societies and identities in Europe since the Second World War; and finally, jazz in Europe in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. 2 Kevin LeGendre is a broadcaster and journalist with a particular interest in black music. He is the Deputy Editor of Echoes, and contributes to a wide range of publications, including Jazzwise, MusicWeek, Vibrations and The Independent On Sunday. He also appears as a commentator and critic on radio programmes such as BBC Radio 3s Jazz On 3 and BBC Radio 4s Front Row. 3 The type of cosmopolitanism espoused by world music aficionados interviewed in this research can be understood in relation to three key rubrics of cosmopolitanism identified by Vertovec and Cohen (2002: 913): first, as a philosophy or world view, reflecting their desire for people to be citizens of the world and committed to a set of shared values that politically extend beyond nation-states; secondly, as an outlook or disposition that embraces Otherness; finally, a shared expertise in cultural and social competencies or practices that enabled each to manoeuvre through different systems of meaning as a flneur, the modern urbanite (Bauman, 1993: 179). 4 WOMAD is principally renowned for the organization of world music festivals in many countries around the world. The WOMAD organization is part of a larger group of affiliated companies under the umbrella of the Real World Group, which records, promotes, and publishes music, and includes Real World Records, Real World Trading, Real World Multimedia, and Real World Studios for example. 5 See http://www.womad.org/about/ (consulted 18 November 2009). 6 I have utilized Bourdieus concept of cultural intermediary to describe their roles elsewhere (Haynes, 2005). 7 Rough Guide publish books on budget travel to many destinations worldwide that are tailored specifically for the British market, and include discussions of the social history, politics and religion of each place. The Rough Guides repertoire has expanded and now includes CDs that represent a countrys music, as Rough Guides to the music of Brazil and China for example. They also publish Rough Guides to genres of music such as reggae, blues and hip hop in both book and CD form. 8 See the summary of the Standard Occupational Classification 2000 structure at URL (consulted 18 November 2009): http://www.google.com/search?q=standard+ occupational+classifications+uk&rlz=1I7DKUK_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&sourceid=ie7 9 All who participated will remain anonymous throughout this article. 10 A detailed survey of the structural organization of the industry may nevertheless reveal the relative positions of power that are also shaped along racialized lines. Indeed, many interviewees from all categories, i.e. musicians, consumers and professionals, commented in the interviews on the dominance of white people in positions of organizational and financial power in the world music industry. This they perceived as problematic, but inevitable.

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11 The category of consumer can apply to industry people as well as musicians. In this sense, it is not mutually exclusive as all participants in the research consumed world music. However, when their views and perceptions as consumers are discussed, this relates exclusively to the questions asked in the interview about their own personal musical tastes, as opposed to industry practices etc. 12 Paulines musical career involved studying to be a classically trained musician/ composer, which led to an international career as an opera singer. She left the world of opera because of the racism she had to endure and thought she would find more success and peace of mind with world music. However, she came to the conclusion that the world music scene was no better than opera so she decided to work independently of genres and scenes. 13 Glastonbury festival is an annual music, arts and dance festival held on a working dairy farm owned by Michael Eavis in Pilton, north Somerset, in England. The first festival took place in 1970, when acts included Marc Bolan, Keith Christmas, Stackridge and Al Stewart, with an audience of 1500. Today the festival attracts over 150,000 people with international performers desperate to be included in the line-up. 14 For a detailed account of development of the term world music see the following website: http://www.froots.demon.co.uk/features/world_music_history/minutes/ 15 The strategic formatting within world music incorporates what Negus (1999: 165) has defined as the process of reterritorialization, whereby artists from old and new domestic repertoires are potentially taken from anywhere in the world, and relabelled as world music performers. The music is then distributed to consumers in specific local contexts where the label world music has meaning and value (for example, in Britain, the USA, Canada, Japan, France, Australia and New Zealand). 16 There is also an acknowledgement that a number of musicians and types of music included within the world music genre come from within Europes borders. This typically includes traditional and/or domestic music from eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary and/or music by ethnic groups considered to be Europes internal Others such as Turks in Germany or Algerians in France.

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Jo Haynes
Jo Haynes is Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on race/ethnicity, particularly how they are constituted and reproduced within local and global music cultures. Address: Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, 12 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UQ, UK. Email: jo.haynes@bristol.ac.uk

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