"World Music"

The past year or so I've been listening to more and more "world music". It's funny, in music stores here in Japan, the sections are titled: Japanese pop/rock (aka J-POP), International (which basically means North American and some British music), Jazz, Blues, Classical...
and then "World Music". What IS that?! (for more on that subject, read this text by Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil: http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/sec_textos_view.php?id=1&language_id=2)

I've discovered that it means a lot of genuinely excellent music that hasn't been overproduced, over-promoted or overplayed. The challenge is finding out what suits your taste, and the second challenge is finding it; Tower and HMV have pitifully small sections, and Jeugia is only slightly better. I have found Amazon (online) has a good selection, and you can even listen to a lot of music online first.

My Recommendations:
Tarkan (Turkish)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=118478859

Gilberto Gil (Brazilian)
http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/index.php?language=en

Cesaria Evora (African - Cape Verde)
http://africanmusic.org/artists/evora.html

Vera Bila & Kale (Romany music)
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/67743
http://romove.radio.cz/en/print/18527

Tété (French)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=140228429

Antonio Carlos Jobim (Brazilian)
http://bjbear71.com/Jobim/interview.html#Biography

Serge Gainsbourg (French) http://sergegainsbourg.artistes.universalmusic.fr/1024/push/netsc1024_.html
http://www.francevision.com/nsltr/vf14/gains.htm

Iva Bittova (Czech)
http://www.musica.cz/bittova/

Zuzana Navarova (Czech) (who sadly died in 2005 at age 45)
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/61087

Andrea Bocelli (Italian) (pretty popular actually)
http://www.bocellionline.com/

Also, under 'dance' or 'club', but not American:
Gotan Project (Argentinian)
http://www.gotanproject.com/

Talvin Singh (Indian)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/441762.stm