Worldbeat

Worldbeat is a music genre that blends Western pop music or rock music with traditional, folk or world music influences. Worldbeat is similar to other cross pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural contrast between its modern and ethnic elements.

Terminology

Worldbeat is akin to world fusion and global fusion, each of which primarily manifest as a blend of ethnic music tradition and Western, popular music. These particular music genres can also reflect in a cross-blend of more than one "traditional" flavor, producing innovative, hybrid expressions of world music. As with most "world" laden genre categories, worldbeat is not clearly defined as are the many classic world music subgenres, such as Irish folk, gamelan, or calypso. In general, the expanding family of ethnic music subgenres under the world music umbrella represents an intrinsically nebulous terminology, which depending on how one interprets a particular hybrid of world music, can be interchangeable to a significant degree. Worldbeat defines a hybrid of what can be listed under the generalized world music term, even though it features a prominent interbreeding with elements of Western, pop music.

Worldbeat (album)

Worldbeat is a 1989 album recorded by Kaoma. It was the band's debut album and provided three hit singles, two of them achieving success worldwide: "Lambada", "Dançando Lambada" and "Mélodie d'amour". The album is composed of songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English. It was ranked in the top 25 in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Australia and Austria. It topped the Billboard Latin Pop in the U.S.

The album generally received positive reviews from critics. Allmusic said about Worldbeat: "Not outstanding but definitely appealing, this CD effectively combines South American elements with dance music/disco, reggae and hip-hop. One hears Chic's influence on the funky "Sopenala.""

Track listings

Certifications

Charts

See also

Kaoma

Kaoma is a French-Brazilian pop group made up of former members of the band Touré Kunda: Chyco Dru (bassist), Jacky Arconte (guitarist), Jean-Claude Bonaventure (producer and keyboardist), Michel Abihssira (drums and percussion), Fania (vocals), and Loalwa Braz (lead singer), Chico and Roberta (dancers). Chyco Dru is from Martinique, Jacky Arconte from Guadeloupe, and Loalwa Braz from Brazil. They are best known for their 1989 hit single, "Lambada".

Career

In 1989, they had a major chart-topping hit with their dance music single "Lambada," a direct cover of Brazilian singer-songwriter Márcia Ferreira's 1986 dance hit "Chorando se foi," which itself was a legally authorized Portuguese-translated rendition of the original 1981 slow ballad, "Llorando se fue" by the Bolivian group Los Kjarkas. Given Kaoma's clear act of plagiarism and release of their single without Los Kjarkas' permission, Los Kjarkas successfully sued. "Dançando Lambada" and "Mélodie d'amour" were the next two singles and were also hit singles, although they failed to earn the same success as "Lambada". "Lambada" peaked at number 46 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.