Worldbeat

Worldbeat is a music genre that combines elements of pop or rock music with traditional or world music. It represents a form of cross-cultural musical fusion, often highlighting rhythmic, harmonic, or textural contrasts between contemporary and traditional influences.

Worldbeat is closely related to terms like world fusion and global fusion, which typically involve blending non-Western musical traditions with Western popular music. These genres may also integrate multiple traditional influences, resulting in innovative hybrid styles. Unlike more precisely defined subgenres of world music, such as gamelan or calypso, worldbeat is part of a broader and more loosely defined category. The terminology surrounding world music and its hybrids is often fluid, and the distinctions between genres like worldbeat, world fusion, and global fusion are not always clear-cut.

As a genre influenced by diverse ethnic traditions, worldbeat has become an integral part of the global music landscape. Advances in digital music production and access to high-quality samples of traditional instruments and styles have enabled artists and producers to experiment with a wide range of musical textures. This technological shift has contributed to the increasing presence of traditional influences in contemporary popular music.

Worldbeat, along with similar hybrid genres, has developed under the broader world music category. These genres are often characterized by their fusion of pop elements with indigenous or folk traditions. In music classification systems, such hybrids are frequently categorized under the general "world" label, which reflects the evolving definition of what constitutes world music.

There is ongoing debate about whether all hybrid genres that incorporate both pop and traditional elements, including worldbeat, should be classified under the world music umbrella. The growing intermingling of global musical styles continues to challenge and expand traditional genre boundaries.