I'm not a fan of the term "World Music". I like a lot of the music that is marketed under this title, but I'm finding I'm liking less and less of what I'm hearing and what seems to be available. What interests me is mostly traditional music from other cultures. From what I've seen in the CD store on the rare occasions in recent years when I've had money to spend on CDs, it seems like there is ever more of what I've called "ethno-pop" and "ethno-kitsch" on another thread today.

In Germany, they play quite a bit of "World Music" on the radio and one of the broadcasters (HR 2 in Hessen) seems to put on quite a few concerts in Frankfurt. I'm very grateful for it, but there's more and music that I don't like. I'm as eclectic as the next guy, but a lot of what I'm hearing lately sounds like a bit of a mish-mash. Some of the broadcasts from festivals have been quite disappointing and I've turning more stuff off lately.

It seems like the same thing is happening to so-called "World Music" as happened and is still happening with folk music (definition available upon request).

It's not really a very useful term, anyway, because it refers to so many kinds of music that couldn't be more different.