War, the counterculture, the early stages of space ex-
ploration, and changes in gender roles in American
society. The show appealed to and navigated the nos-
talgia for earlier decades so central to 1980’s culture,
as well as a lingering cultural need to understand the
social upheaval of the 1960’s from the vantage point
of the 1980’s.
Impact The Wonder Yearshad a widely varied viewer-
ship. As a result, the show sold air time to a broader
than average range of advertisers, seeking to reach
the show’s wider than average demographic. This
marketing strategy was partially responsible for the
show’s success. The series also offered a retrospec-
tive look at the turmoil of the 1960’s and allowed
viewers to gain some historical, as well as personal,
understanding from each episode.
Further Reading
Gross, Edward A.The Wonder Years. Las Vegas: Pio-
neer Books, 1990.
Lasswell, Mark.TV Guide: Fifty Years of Television.New
York: Crown, 2002.
Roman, James.Love, Light, and a Dream: Television’s
Past, Present, and Future.Westport, Conn.: Prae-
ger, 1996.
Jennifer L. Amel
See also Back to the Future;Cheers;Cosby Show, The;
Family Ties;Married... with Children; Sitcoms; Televi-
sion.
World music
Definition A marketing category for music
originating from, influenced by, or blending or
incorporating elements of non-Western musical
traditions
Large concerts and recordings with famous popular musi-
cians in the 1980’s gave traditional musicians a chance to
be heard by a greatly expanded audience. The music indus-
tr y began to market traditional musicians by using a more
blended or universalist approach.
Until the 1980’s, most published recordings of tradi-
tional music (with the notable exception of produc-
tions controlled by academics) were marketed as a
kind of tourist experience, with appeal to the exoti-
cism and adventure of hearing something “differ-
ent.” In contrast to this, scholars in the field of
ethnomusicology had developed methods for the
formal study of music on a global scale, and a few
Western classical composers had already utilized
non-Western rhythmic and melodic elements in their
works. Starting in the 1950’s, jazz musicians em-
braced Latin music, followed by pianist Dave Brubeck
with meters from Eastern Europe, saxophonist John
Coltrane with African and East Indian musical con-
cepts, and other musicians who were interested in
expanding their horizons. The term “world music”
was used in academic circles during the 1960’s as a
way of identifying the breadth of global traditions
and to express cross-cultural identification. Interest
in global traditions accelerated in the late 1960’s
when members of the popular British rock group
the Beatles began using Indian music and instru-
ments in some of their pieces.New Age and World Music Later, some musicians
began exploring the possibilities of music, especially
world music, for holistic therapy and meditation,
in a related movement known as New Age music.
This term is credited to guitarist William Ackerman,
founder of the Windham Hill recording label. Jazz
flutist Paul Horn became known for incorporating
the actual acoustic environments of various famous
sacred spaces around the world. Similarly, jazz saxo-
phonist Paul Winter, who also tended to blur the dis-
tinction between New Age and world music, became
interested in environmental sounds, especially find-
ing affinities with animal sounds. Another impor-
tant exponent of New Age music was R. Carlos
Nakai, a flutist and composer of Native American
(Navajo and Ute) ancestry who began using a tradi-
tional cedar flute in compositions that blended na-
tive melodies with ideas inspired by his own cultural
experiences, including a deep reverence for nature.
By the 1980’s, music fans had become accustomed
to hearing elements of global traditions blended
with jazz and popular music. Indian tabla virtuoso
Zakir Hussain, who started the Diga Rhythm Band
with drummer Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead
in the 1970’s, was active in experimenting with com-
bining world percussion instruments and styles. Hart
also collaborated with Nigerian drummer Baba-
tunde Olatunji during the 1980’s. Jazz guitarist John
McLaughlin, who played in Shakti (a quartet with
Hussain and two South Indian musicians) during
the 1970’s, continued to include Indian elements in
his music during the 1980’s, when he formed a trio1064 World music The Eighties in America