world music

British

noun

popular music of various ethnic origins and styles outside the tradition of Western pop and rock music

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Their cross-cultural collaboration has been three years in the making and recently featured prominently at one of the UK's largest international folk and world music festivals.

From BBC • Jan. 26, 2026

This included rare discs of world music, arcane complete series of early classical music, Ravi Shankar playing Indian ragas, Led Zeppelin and everything in between.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2025

A prolific musician, Jack DeJohnette also released numerous solo albums, blending jazz, world music, and sound experiments.

From Barron's • Oct. 27, 2025

Inspired by his Grammy category sweep, Batiste incorporated even more genres into his sound, self-consciously dismantling the stigma surrounding world music.

From BBC • Aug. 18, 2023

I watched soccer, cartoons, music shows featuring British boy bands, and world music from Ireland, America, Burundi.

From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023