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Books

The Rough Guide to World Music

In its first edition it was big. It was (pretty) exhaustive. If you were in the habit of buying computer books, it seemed like a bargain. At almost 700 pages the coverage was pretty good, yet there were plenty of gaps (Where's Quebec? Where's Israel, except as a sidelight to Klezmer?). Arranged geographically, it provides useful overviews that make it easy to find similar artists. Each subsection has discographies and recommended purchases which I've found to be useful.

The new edition is actually in two volumes. The first volume, which is the same size as the first edition, covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As you'd expect there's much greater detail and better coverage. It seems to me that the recommended purchases are more easy to come by. The second volume, due out in the fall of 2000, covers everywhere else (unless they've left out Quebec again).

The Virgin Guide to World Music

Much smaller than the Rough Guide and slightly older, I find myself returning to this volume, despite, or maybe because of the reduced coverage. After all, there's no way you can read the Rough Guide in the tub. Despite its size, this volume does cover some material the Rough Guide doesn't, e.g., the Iranian Music Scene in L.A.

World Music CD Listener's Guide

Another book you can read in the tub published by Billbord Books. This one concentrates on what its author Howard Blumenthal think are the 900-odd best World Music titles. The focus is on artists you have had a good chance of hearing about and have a good chance of finding in your local CD store (assuming you don't live near Utica, NY). This means that unless you're new to World Music, you probably won't make many discoveries. There's nothing wrong with his choices, though, and unlike some of the other books listed on this page, you can read this book comfortably in the tub.

musicHound World

This one is rather like the World Music CD Listener's Guide, but at 1095 pages it's much, much bigger. It has it's share of typos, weird omissions (Gonzaguinha but not Luis Gonzaga Sr., Ruben Gonzalez but not Compay Segundo, Asha Bhosle but not Lata Mangeshkar), things to argue about (Baaba Maal's Nomad Soul isn't really a five star album, and they don't warn you that received wisdom is that import version of Maal's Lam Toro is to be preferred to the U.S. release). Nevertheless, it's a valuable reference guide which provides decent information about artists at the expense of geographic, genre or ethnographic information.