International

In the Western world, "World music" refers either to music that doesn't fall into the North American and British pop or folk traditions or to hybrids of various indigenous musics. Certain styles -- such as Jamaican reggae or Latin pop -- grew large enough to be classified as their own genre, but everything else, from traditional Chinese music to African folk, is classified as world music. Worldbeat is something different than world music, since it's usually the result of Western hybrids and fusions, yet it still falls under the world music umbrella because it borrows styles, sounds and instrumentation from various indigenous musics.

International Subgenres & Styles

African Traditions
African Folk Afro-beat Afro-Pop Desert Blues
Asian Traditions
Asian Folk Throat Singing
Brazilian Traditions
Afoxe Afro-Brazilian Axe Bossa Nova Brazilian Folk Brazilian Pop Carnival Forro MPB Samba Tropicalia
Caribbean Traditions
Bahamian Belair Cadence Calypso Chouval Bwa French Antilles Guadeloupe Gwo Ka Haitian Jamaican Junkanoo Martinique Mento Party Soca Rapso Soca Spouge Steel Band Trinidadian Vaudou Zouk
Celtic/British Isles
Breton British Celtic Celtic Folk Celtic Fusion Celtic Gospel Celtic New Age Celtic Pop Celtic Rock Contemporary Celtic Country & Irish Drinking Songs Pibroch Pipe Bands Scottish Country Dance Scottish Folk Traditional Celtic Traditional Irish Folk Traditional Scottish Folk Welsh
Central African
Burundi Congolese Kalindula Mbuti Choral Ndombolo Pygmy Soukous Zairean
Central American Traditions
Guatemalan Honduran Nicaraguan Panamanian Salvadoran
Central European Traditions
Alpine Austrian Bava Bavarian Czech German Hungarian Folk Moravian Polish Slovakian Volksmusik
Central/West Asian Traditions
Azerbaijani Dagestani Georgian Georgian Choir Kazakhstani Tajik Tibetan Tuvan Uzbekistani
Chinese Traditions
Chinese Classical Traditional Chinese
East African
Benga Bongo Flava Ethiopian Pop Kenyan Mozambiquan Omutibo Somalian Sudanese Swahili Taarab Tanzanian Ugandan
Indian Subcontinent Traditions
Bangladeshi Bengali Bhangra Bollywood Carnatic Dhrupad Giddha Indian Indian Classical Indian Pop Nepalese Pakistani Qawwali Raga
Indonesian Traditions
Balinese Gamelan Jaipongan Javanese Kecak Macapat Poetry Sumatran
Japanese Traditions
Enka Japanese Orchestral Kabuki Noh Okinawan Traditional Rakugo Shinto Traditional Japanese
Jewish Music
American Jewish Pop Chassidic Hebrew Jewish Folk Klezmer
Mediterranean Traditions
Cretan Dimotiko Greek Greek Folk Greek-Pop Laika Nisiotika Rembetika Sardinian
Middle Eastern Traditions
Afghanistan Al-Jil Apala Arabic Armenian Armenian Folk Belly Dancing Egyptian Iran-Classical Iranian Iraqi Islamic Israeli Kurdish Kuwaiti Lebanese Middle Eastern Pop Palestinian Persian Saudi Arabian Sha'abi Syrian Traditional Middle Eastern Folk Turkish Yemenite
Nordic Traditions
Danish Finnish Folk Icelandic Joik Norwegian Norwegian Folk Sami Scandinavian Swedish Folk Yodel
North African
Algerian Berber Mauritanian Moroccan Rai
North American Traditions
Acadian Cajun Canadian Contemporary Native American Creole Inuit Native American Quebecois Traditional Native American Zydeco
North/East Asian Traditions
Korean Mongolian Siberian Traditional Korean Trot
Oceanic Traditions
Australasian Australian Hawaiian Hawaiian Pop Melanesian Micronesian New Zealand Pacific Islands Polynesian Samoan Slack-Key Guitar Solomon Islands Tahitian Tongan
Russian Traditions
Russian Folk
South American Traditions
Afro-Peruvian Andean Folk Argentinian Folk Bolivian Chilean Ecuadorian Frevo Incan Jibaro Native South American Paraguayan Peruvian Peruvian Folk Quechua Tango Uruguayan Vallenato Venezuelan
South/Eastern European Traditions
Albanian Balkan Baltic Belarusian Bosnian Bulgarian Bulgarian Folk Croatian Estonian European Folk Gypsy Latvian Macedonian Moldavian Mugam Romanian Serbian Sharki Slovenian Traditional European Folk Transylvanian Ukrainian Yugoslavian
Southeast Asian Traditions
Bornean Cambodian Khmer Dance Kulintang Laotian Malaysian Myanmarian Papua New Guinea Philippine Siamese Thai Vietnamese
Southern African
Angolan Chimurenga Jit Madagascan Malawian Marabi Mbaqanga Mbira Mbube Namibian Séga South African Folk South African Pop Township Jazz Township Jive Zambian Zimbabwean Zulu
West African
Bambara Bikutsi Cameroonian Cape Verdean Coupé-Décalé Djabdong French Guianese Fuji Gabonese Gambian Ghanaian Guinea-Bissau Guinean Highlife Ivorian Juju Kora Makossa Malian Music Mbalax Morna Nigerian Palm-Wine Senegalese Music Sierra Leonian Yoruban
Western European Traditions
Andalus Classical Azorean Basque Belgian Contemporary Flamenco Dutch Fado Flamenco French French Chanson French Folk Italian Folk Italian Music Musette Portuguese Punta Quadrille Spanish Folk Swiss Folk Tyrolean
Worldbeat
Folk Dance Folklore International Folk International Fusion Neo-Traditional Pan-Global