Resources

General Resources

• CIA World Factbook
• Ethnologue (languages of the world)
• United Nations geoscheme of the world
• World Population
  • What Does It Mean to Be Human? (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)
  • Population growth
  • World population statistics from 1750 (based on UN Report: The World at Six Billion, page 6)
  • Transatlantic Slave Trade
    • Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (slavevoyages.org)
    • slaveryimages.org
    • Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes (animation)
    • 18th century British slave ship Brookes (1807 commemorated)
    • Ending the Slavery Blame-Game (Henry Louis Gates, NYT, 4/22/2010) (original article–Wes login required)

• AAA statements
  • on “Race” (1998)
  • on “Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics” (1997)
• Merriam-Webster has a new definition of “racism”
• “Can Blacks Be Racist? – March 2009” (David Pilgrim, Jim Crow Museum, FSU)
• “Ethnic” (OED)
• “About 6 Million U.S. Adults Identify as Afro-Latino” (Pew, 5/2/2022)
• “Ethnic groups” (2:45, Dragnet, 10/3/68, “Community Relations,” season 3, episode 3)
• Oxford English Dictionary
• History of the Entire World (Bill Wurtz)

Music Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Museums/Resources

• Grove Music Online (massive encyclopedia)
• Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
• Musical Instrument Museums Online
• Wesleyan Virtual Instrument Museum 2.0
• Digital Resources for Musicology
• Radio Garden (explore live radio by rotating the globe)
• Global Jukebox (Alan Lomax)

Religion

• Global Religious Futures (Pew Templeton Project)
• The Sunni Shia Divide (CFR)
• Islam
  • Spread of Islam (YouTube)
• Buddhism
  • Spread of Buddhism (YouTube)
  • The Spread of Buddhism to AD 600
• Christianity
  • Spread of Christianity (YouTube)
  • Spread of the Indo-European Languages in Eurasia

• Statement by the Director-General of UNESCO on the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, a UNESCO World Heritage site (10/14/2016)

World Music (the phrase)

• “World Music History,” Ian Anderson (fRoots, March 2000)
• June 1987 Minutes and Press releases
• David Byrne: “I Hate World Music” (NYT 10/3/1999)
• Endeguena Mulu: “Why the Term ‘World Music’ is Bullshit” (True Africa, 9/29/2015)
• “How Bob Marley Posthumously Became a Household Name” (Village Voice, 7/9/2014)
• “Peter Gabriel Says Real World Record Label Can Last Another 25 Years” (BBC, 7/27/2014)
• 50 Years of Ethnomusicology at UCLA (1960-2010)
• Grammy Awards
  • Burna Boy’s Grammy Loss Highlights The Issues With The World Music Category (uproxx.com)
  • The Recording Academy Announces Major Changes For The 2022 GRAMMY Awards Show
  • Grammy Awards Change Name of ‘World Music’ Category to ‘Global Music’ to Address ‘Connotations of Colonialism’ (variety.com)
  • Why The GRAMMY Awards Best Global Music Album Category Name Change Matters (grammy.com)
  • Opinion: Grammy’s ‘global music’ categories ignore musicians from much of the globe (npr.org)
  • World/Global Music Grammy Award Winners: grammy.com;  Wikipedia
  • Three New Categories Added for the 2024 Grammys (grammy.com)

World Music (record labels, magazines)

• Buda Musique
• Musiques du monde: un tour des labels (some links do not work)
• Magazines
  • Songlines
  • Global Music Network
  • fRoots

Recordings (ethnographic and commercial)

• Smithsonian Global Sound (Wesleyan access only); some links to liner notes do not work, so get them from Smithsonian Folkways main website (use the search bar to find the title)
• UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music
  • Complete list (pdf)
  • UNESCO albums reissued on Smithsonian Folkways
  • UNESCO Auvidis Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
• Naxos Music Library (Wesleyan access only)
• British Library Sounds (online streaming)
• Alan Lomax Archive
• Excavated Shellac: An Alternative History of the World’s Music (liner notes)

Maps

• Languages of the World (University of Graz)
• languagesoftheworld.info (maps)
• The World’s Languages, in 7 Maps and Charts (washingtonpost.com)
• 1931 Rand McNally Histomap of the World (slate.com, Rumsey map collection)
• “Why Does Africa Have So Many Languages” (csmonitor.com, 4/21/2015)
• Silk Road
  • Music and Musicians along the Silk Road (Ted Levin)
  • Silk Road (worldhistory.org)
  • Silk Road (UNESCO)
  • Silk Road interactive map (UNESCO)
  • Silkroad Ensemble

Sound

• Virtual piano (virtualpiano.net)

• The most mind-blowing concept in music (Harmonic Series)

• Overtone series (Dave Darling)
• synthesizing overtones
• Physics of sound
• The Science of Sound (jump rope: 30:00)
• How to play harmonics on the flute

• Tips for composers and flutists – Harmonics – Extended flute technique – Daniela Mars

• Harmony
  • “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright” (Peter, Paul and Mary, London, 1963)
  • “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” (Heartstream, Japanese trio)
  • “Witchy Woman” (Eagles, 1973, BBC; 1:37)
  • “Take it Easy” (Eagles, 1994, MTV)

• Science of voice resonance (pink trombone)

• Texture and space (Malian bogolan fini)
• Audio frequency test

Miscellaneous

• Sachs-Hornbostel Musical Instrument Classification System
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
• “All music is folk music: I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” (Big Bill Broonzy)
• The Evolution of Diet (National Geographic)
• A Single Migration from Africa Populated the World (NY Times, 9/21/2016)
• “People of Color Who Never Felt They Were Black” (washingtonpost)

• “How to Argue Against Identity Politics Without Turning Into a Reactionary” (Yascha Mounck, NYT 9/22/2023)

• “Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights” (Dibussi Tande, 2010)
• endgenocide.org
• “College Cancels Performance by Afrobeat Band” (gawker, 2013)
• Growing Into Music (children learning music around the world)
• Writing About Music (UNC)
• Book Reviews (UNC)
• In the Moment: Poetry Duels and Improvisation (2022) (folkstreams.net)
• Most viewed music videos of all time (kworb.com)