Question: What is the difference between World Music, Folk Music, Latin Music and Jazz?
I can't quite figure out where the line gets drawn between world music, Latin music, folk music, jazz and blues.
Answer: This is an interesting question. In reality, the lines between different sorts of ethnic and traditional musics are nebulous and constantly changing. For the purposes of About.com, these genres have been split up simply because no one person is fully capable of covering them all... if you think about it, everything that's not Pop or Rock music will fall into these categories, and that's a whole lot of music to cover!
So if you're looking for Latin music (everything from Shakira to Tierra Caliente fiddling), you'll want to go to the About Latin Music site.
If you're looking for alt.country, bluegrass, singer/songwriter, folk-rock, etc., check out the About Folk Music site.
If you're looking for jazz music or blues music (and you'll have to ask these guys how they divvy it up between them!) go to the About Jazz Music and About Blues Music sites.
If you're looking for pretty much everything else that doesn't fit into these categories, hang around here. You'll find everything from Reggae to Ragas and Celtic to Klezmer on the world music site.
And yes, you might sometimes notice some crossover between all of these genres, but don't blame the writers, blame the musicians! When they insist on making pesky genre-bending music, it sure does make it confusing for us writers. I'm kidding, of course.... there would be very little music around today if it weren't for the millenia of musical innovation that this world has seen. Take up the adventure and explore it all with us!
