Attempts to define the label ‘world music’ – or those categories to which it is linked, such as worldbeat, ethnopop, New Age, sono mondiale, and musique métisse (hybrid music) – have long been marked by contradiction and controversy. It may be noted, for example, that the geographical reference to ‘the world’ which the label suggests has been defined in the narrowest of terms. World musics are taken to be those musics which come from outside the ‘normal’ Anglo-American (including Canadian and Australian) sources, and mainly from tropical countries. And because the attraction of world music is seen to lie in its use of rhythm, so essential to the aesthetics of African music, the term has usually been associated with musics from Africa and the African diaspora. With time, however, the umbrella covering world music has become more inclusive. It now covers American, Asian and European musics, albeit those of minority groups within these geographical areas. We may conclude, then, that world music is the product of aggrieved populations, either from third world countries (Africa and the African diasporas), or from disadvantaged population groups in a general sense. Given all this, it is both appalling and revealing to note that, within the global economy of popular music offered on MTV, the United States' main music video service, world music is taken to represent a tiny subculture.