Global Music as an Open Concept – A Weitzian Approach to the Meanings of the „Music of the World”
Global Music as an Open Concept – A Weitzian Approach to the Meanings of the „Music of the World”

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I argue that there are advantages to understanding „global music“ (also known as „world music“) as an open concept, following Morris Weitz’s seminal account on the open-ended nature of art, as well as Theodore Gracyk’s characterization of popular music as an open concept. In the first part of the paper, I delineate prevalent critiques directed towards global music (or world music – I will use both terms interchangeably throughout the paper), which I present by commenting on David Byrne’s well- known article I Hate World Music. Central to my discussion are the two most dominant contentions: purported vagueness in defining the meaning and scope of global music, and its alleged propagation of politically incorrect values by broadly categorizing it as „non-Western music “. By employing a Weitzian approach to open concept strategy, I show that a strict definition of the meaning and scope of global music is not an imperative for a nuanced understanding of it. Furthermore, I contend that the open-endednature of the concept of global music can help in ruling out the perception that its supposed „non- Westernity“ is an „essential property“ of the genre.

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