Global Pop: World Music, World Markets

While Taylor's extensive endnotes and bibliographic citations are likely to put off the casual reader, his thorough research makes Global Pop a fine introduction for the more scholarly world-music listener. The consequences of such early mainstream successes as Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon haven't gone unnoticed in Taylor's study. Instead, the author attempts to look beyond the music-industry veneer in search of answers to questions of aesthetics and ethnography. A discussion of the liner notes to the Kronos Quartet's ""Pieces of Africa"" leads to investigations into authenticity and the motivation behind mainstream patronage. Taylor likewise examines the comparatively minor successes of Sheila Chandra and Apache Indian, artists whose names will unfortunately remain foreign to the majority of music buyers regardless of industry efforts to adjust their sound to fit the marketplace better. Taylor would have done well to consider the marketplace himself; his prose style is typical of texts compiled to support the weight of the author's advanced degrees. Fans of such worthy artists as Yassour N'Dour and Angelique Kidjo should stop by the record store for a little less strenuous world music experience. (Aug.)