At a meeting on the 29th June ’87, representatives from most of the main independent record labels dealing with international/roots music discussed ways of achieving a greater awareness of their music in the retail trade, in the press, and among the public.
One of the problems perceived as hindering the development of this music is the haphazard racking of the records in the shops. As the labels concerned have a very wide spread of music in their catalogues, many shops willing to stock this material could benefit from expert advice about this specialised (but not specialist) music.
It was agreed that the term WORLD MUSIC would be used by all labels present to offer a new and unifying category for shop racking, press releases, publicity handouts and ‘file under…’ suggestions. This means that you no longer have to worry about where to put those new Yemenite pop, Bulgarian choir, Zairean soukous or Gambian kora records.
We shall be making October “WORLD MUSIC” month, heralded by an NME cassette, a dealer campaign and extensive promotion and advertising in the popular press.
Any further information is available from Chris, Ben and Roger at GlobeStyle, 48-50 Steele Road, London NW10 7AS. Tel: 01 453 1311.
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