Dirty Linen Book Reviews

Global Pop, World Music, World Markets
by Timothy D. Taylor
Rout ledge ISBN 0-415-91872-3 (1997)

Finally, an easily digestible yet academically sound tome that gathers up and explains this sprawling popular phenomenon called world music. Timothy D. Taylor, Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Columbia University, takes the right approach from the get-go, opening up the discussion with the query "Hasn’t world music been around for thousands of years?" and proceeds to answer that with focuses on the world market, musicians, listeners, and the discourses of world music. Specific musicians and groups (Peter Gabriel, the Kronos Quartet, Zap Mama, and more) who are part of ethnic cross-pollination are highlighted and sometimes targeted as examples of inauthenticity.

Taylor uses stories, analyses of song structure, quotes, lyrics, and appendices of industry statistics to make his ethnomusic and business interpretations clear, and everyone from loving listener to music mogul will benefit from this read.

— Stacy Meyn (Alameda, CA)

Tomás’ Tunebook
by Tomás Ó Canainn
Ossian ISBN 0 946005 28 1 (1997)

As evidence that the new indeed can be traditional comes this book collecting 50 original Irish dance tunes from the pen and heart of Tomás Ó Canainn. Noted piper and author of the influential Traditional Music in Ireland, Ó Canainn here presents "fifty original Irish dance tunes for most instruments." In addition to clean and crisply rendered arrangements, Ó Canainn provides an illuminating and sensitive chapter that details his philosophy on ornamentation in Irish music. This is a solid resource and fine book, one that is, like the tunes it contains, full of beauty. — Nick Crews (Plainfield, IN)