Noise of the World: Non-Western Musicians in Their Own Words

Noise of the World captures the world music scene through the eyes of the musicians who create it, all in their own words. Drawn from original interviews conducted over the last 20 years—with artists who left a massive musical legacy, like Nigeria’s Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and artists that continue to make crucial recordings, like Winston "Burning Spear" Rodney—it will feature artists whose music has become part of the "mainstream," like the Gipsy Kings and Gloria Estefan and artists like Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba, who managed to cross over and garner that rarest of things, a pop hit, while retaining their roots, talking about making music in their native country and in exile. There is as much dissent between the artistic and holistic outlooks of Nigerian artists like Sunny Ade and Fela Anikulapo Kuti as there is between a religious rock band and a satanic metal band. These open and honest self-portraits will give music fans a greater appreciation of what is behind these sounds and the suffering these artists have endured and triumphs they have enjoyed.