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The quest for change has often been a family affair: many top global-music performers, including Nigeria's Femi Kuti (son of Fela), Jamaica's Ziggy Marley (son of Bob) and Brazil's Max de Castro (son of Wilson Simonal), are the children of musical pioneers. Now, around the world, old traditions are being revived, remolded and returned to prominence by a new generation and new technology. In Tijuana, Mexico, young DJs are crossing traditional norteno (a polka-like music) with not-at-all-traditional techno to create a fresh genre, Nortec. In Bogota, Colombia, the rock duo Aterciopelados is mixing old-time accordion-driven vallenato with clubland drum-'n'-bass beats. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the great chanteuse Marisa Monte is smoothly blending samba and art-pop.
Centuries of customs have changed in just decades. In the 1940s and '50s, radio brought the music of the outside world to much of Africa for the first time. In the 1970s, audiocassettes made it possible for Third World musicians to disseminate their own music quickly, cheaply and profitably. Acts like the Congo's Papa Wemba became continent-wide superstars.
In the 21st century, the Internet has opened up the world to itself. In the distant past--say, three years ago--global-music fans had to wait for a record label to decide whether to distribute a foreign artist in their country. South African diva Brenda Fassie's last three CDs weren't picked up by American distributors, despite the fact that they were best sellers in Africa. Today, Internet file-sharing services allow users to listen to whatever they want, anywhere they choose, anytime they please. (And Fassie's Stateside appeal is recognized by some: Banana Republic plays her song Vuli Ndlela in its stores.) Conflicted about the ethics of unauthorized file sharing? Online music stores--which tend to have wider and more eclectic inventories than their bricks-and-mortar counterparts--allow fans to buy hard-to-find CDs (like, say, the excellent compilation Zimbabwe Frontline 3: Roots Rock Guitar Party) quickly and conveniently, albeit sometimes expensively.
The we-are-the-world maxim is this: music is the universal language. For the mainstream record industry in the U.S., however, music in languages other than English often wasn't considered universal; it was controversial.
Richie Valens hit it big with La Bamba in 1959. The music industry didn't wholeheartedly embrace another Latin rocker until Santana's autumnal success in 1999.
Now tongues are coming untied. Wyclef Jean's platinum hip-hop CDs, The Carnival and The Ecleftic, mixed English and Haitian Creole. Christina Aguilera, who launched her career singing English-language teen pop, recorded a CD entirely in Spanish last year. Increasingly, world-beaters are collaborating and connecting with one another. Colombian rocker Shakira's new CD was executive- produced by Cuban-American Emilio Estefan Jr. and draws from Argentine tango.