Global Grooves

Groovasmique: a daily road trip through the world

World music isn’t a genre so much as a practice of listening. It’s curiosity with rhythm. It’s the decision—every day—to step outside the dominant Western pop narrative and let other histories, other drums, other ways of breathing time shape the moment.Groovasmique lives right in that space.Born from the 1980s marketing label “world music,” the term quickly outgrew its commercial container. What began as a shelf in record stores became a portal—a way for listeners to encounter music rooted in place, ancestry, ritual, resistance, joy, migration, and hybrid identity. Over time, it has evolved into something fluid, contemporary, and deeply human.At its heart, world music:

• Honors cultural roots while refusing to be frozen in the past
• Centers rhythm, trance, and texture over formula
• Welcomes fusion, collaboration, and diaspora voices
• Functions as a counterbalance to hyper-commercialized pop

Groovasmique carries this lineage forward—not as nostalgia, but as a daily practice of alignment. Each playlist, each track choice, is like choosing the road for the day: desert, jungle, city, coast, ceremony, after-hours dance floor.For you, music isn’t background. It’s nourishment.

A daily exercise.

A way to stay awake, present, playful, and connected.

A road map: key world music currents (1980s → today)

Below are essential currents and artists that reflect the Groovasmique spirit: global, rhythmic, soulful, open-hearted, and timeless.

 The 1980s: foundations & awakenings.

This is when the Western world truly noticed what had always been there.Africa

• Fela Kuti – Afrobeat as politics, trance, and sweat
• King Sunny Adé – Juju goes global
• Salif Keita – Mandé soul with pop reach
• Youssou N’Dour – Senegalese mbalax meets the world

Latin America & Caribbean

• Celia Cruz – Afro-Cuban fire eternal
• Rubén Blades – Salsa with poetry and conscience
• Kassav’ – Zouk modernized Creole rhythms

Cross-cultural landmarks

• Talking Heads – Remain in Light (African polyrhythm as pop revelation)
• Paul Simon – Graceland (controversial but transformative bridge)

Groovasmique lesson: rhythm is wisdom; collaboration expands the map.

The 1990s: fusion, diaspora & deep grooves

Borders blur. Dance floors globalize.Africa & Afro-diaspora

• Ali Farka Touré – Malian blues meets the Mississippi
• Orchestra Baobab – Cuban echoes in Dakar
• Angelique Kidjo – pan-African futurism

Latin & global hybrids

• Manu Chao – borderless rebel folk
• Cesária Évora – barefoot melancholy from Cape Verde
• Los Lobos (global side) – roots beyond rock

Electronic + traditional

• Transglobal Underground – club culture meets folk traditions
• Afro Celt Sound System – ancient + electronic ritual

Groovasmique lesson: roots don’t disappear when they travel—they multiply.

The 2000s: global dance, downtempo & rediscovery

The crate-digging era. DJs become archivists.Global groove & reissues

• Buena Vista Social Club – revival as revelation
• Ethiopiques series – Ethiopian jazz & funk unearthed
• Mulatu Astatke – Ethio-jazz renaissance

Downtempo / global chill

• Thievery Corporation – dubby, global lounge consciousness
• Nicola Cruz – Andean rhythms refracted through electronics
• Gotan Project – Tango reborn for the club

Brazil & beyond

• Bebel Gilberto – modern bossa cool
• Céu – psychedelic MPB
• Nação Zumbi – mangue beat resistance

Groovasmique lesson: the past is not behind us—it’s waiting to be danced again.

The 2010s → now: future folk & global bass

Tradition plugged into the future.Africa now

• Burna Boy – Afro-fusion with ancestral gravity
• Mdou Moctar – Tuareg guitar as cosmic rock
• Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 – Afrobeat as living organism

Latin futurism

• Chancha Via Circuito – digital folklore
• Dengue Dengue Dengue – psychedelic cumbia ritual
• Lido Pimienta – Afro-Indigenous futurism

Global bass / club rituals

• DJ Lag – gqom minimalism
• Acid Arab – Middle Eastern techno soul
• Nicola Cruz / El Búho – ceremonial electronica

Groovasmique lesson: the future dances with its ancestors.

Your daily ritual: choosing the road

Your relationship with Groovasmique isn’t passive—it’s devotional.Each day, you ask:

• What landscape am I in today?
• Do I need fire, softness, laughter, trance, or grounding?
• Am I traveling inward or outward?

Picking tunes becomes a daily exercise, like stretching or breathwork:

• Morning: roots, acoustic, earth-connected
• Afternoon: movement, groove, sunlight
• Evening: dub, jazz, psychedelia, ceremony
• Night: slow burners, deep rhythm, moon music

And like a road trip, you invite others along—not to follow blindly, but to ride shotgun, hear what you hear, and maybe discover a new inner map of their own.

Groovasmique, in one breath

Groovasmique is:

• A global village with a sound system
• A shamanic dance floor without borders
• A living archive and a future pulse
• One person’s daily joy, generously shared