Art Thieme above -- sure, if you have a megacity and the population to support a vast record store, the old "International" sections could be delightful. The one I remember from the 1970s was the one in Sam The Record Man in Toronto, which allegedly was Toronto's largest record store.   I only made one trip to the old Rose Records, and I have pretty fond memories of that too.

But my everyday life was in a middling-sized college town, and the "International" bin there, at best, was a collection of boring-looking albums from government-approved art troupes, and schmaltzy middle-of-the -road pop sung in non-English languages. Through a few quirks I'd gotten turned on to Soukous in the early 1980s, and until the World Music marketing concept hit, it simply was not possible to find Soukous albums in my town.

And yes, the world music bins are always quite racist, that's why the Scandinaian fiddle bands get tossed in there. :)