Listening to the World but Hearing Ourselves: Hybridity and Perceptions of Authenticity in World Music

Abstract. This essay problematizes the intersection of aesthetic preferences and positions on authenticity held by listeners as they encounter musical hybridity and processes of globalization. Using analytical ideas drawn from hybridity theory and ethnographic data derived from university listeners who respond to two pop songs from Mali, the author suggests that “perceived authenticity” is a primary determinant of the valuation of world musics. Marketers may exploit listeners’ perceptions, but understanding that authenticity is more malleable and cyclic than its definition suggests reveals the complicated nexus of category boundaries, audience expectation, and the hybridizing processes of cultural interaction.