And the roots of rhythm remain

Joe Boyd was part of a small group of label heads and journalists who chose ‘world music’ as their marketing slogan in the 1980s. They had little idea how fast and how wide those simple words would spread, the controversy it would cause, and only the vaguest idea of how far back the history went. Following the international success of his memoir ‘White Bicycles’, Boyd set out to explore the stories behind the music he had helped to popularise. His experiences as a producer working the world over had given him the skeleton of an idea, though the subject is far broader. Over the past decade he has interviewed musicians, producers and academics, and spent years reading, listening and writing. The resulting book is like no other. He shows how jazz, r&b and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it wasn’t for sounds emanating from over the horizon and below the equator.