Record Label Profile: Putumayo World Music
Monday October 20, 2008
You know them. You love them. That lovely little stack of brightly-colored CDs that beckons to you from beside the cash register at your local artsy gift store, begging to come home with you... Putumayo Records. With fun titles like Putumayo Presents Gypsy Groove and Putumayo Presents Acoustic Africa, and the irresistible tagline "Guaranteed to make you feel good," it's just hard to say no. Plus, there's the bonus of knowing that a portion of the proceeds from any CD will go to a relevant charity... how can you resist?Now, many hard-core world music fans stick up their noses a bit at Putumayo releases. True, they're often a bit hokey, with song selections made to appeal to beginners or first-timers, but that's part of what I love about Putumayo. Their accessible (both physically and musically) CDs have introduced hundreds of thousands of people to new frontiers of music, and turned many of them into new die-hards.
So how do you feel about Putumayo Records? Are they producing goofy CDs for world music "tourists", or are they doing great work introducing people to music they've never heard before? Leave a comment and let us know!
Comments
Not only do I love Putumayo CDs, but I also used to listen to the radio show they produced. I haven’t heard it in a while, but I hope they still have it.
I really appreciate that they always include the pronounciation guide in their liner notes. Sure, I can fake my way though German, French, Spanish and Italian. But Swahili? Gaelic? It’s very helpful when you’re doing a radio program.
It’s easy but unwise to dismiss a label like Putumayo.
Their ‘Putumayo Kids’ series is by far one of the best things to happen to world music.
Agreed on that, Sean - Putumayo Kids has saved many a child (and many a parent) from the insipid offerings of so many hokey manufactured kids’ music artists!
I’ve always loved world music and have between 50-60 Putamayo cd’s. While “snobs” may turn up their noses at our purchases of possibly “hokey” compilations, I would not be exposed to more than half of these artists and their genres if not for Putamayo. In turn, I have shared this music with hundreds of people at one of my jobs, bartender at a tiki bar.
People constantly question their origin. Whenever one can learn and share, a positive exchange of energy happens, especially with music, written words, plants etc … We need more of that! Peace … Kim