How The World Changed Music

Where do musical ideas come from? What else, aside from imagination, shapes the way music evolves? In How The World Changed Music, Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas and guests explore the ways in which social, economic and cultural forces have affected musical traditions around the world.

In each nine-minute episode, Simon, a musicologist and former pop producer, takes one track and one super-fan, to explore the stories behind the song.

Programme Two
The Fairwell Blues by Sol Ho‘opi’i looks at the migration of Hawaiian musicians to the USA and the way that the technologies of recording and guitar design were crucial to the making of this landmark jazz record.

A virtuoso performance, Sol and his Novelty Trio recorded The Fairwell Blues in 1926. It would go on to influence both the development of Country and Western music as well as the birth of Rock ‘n Roll.

• Produced by Rami Tzabar for BBC World Service

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