Global Sounds, Local Blindspots: Who Defines Relevance in Global Music Culture

Amapiano, Afrobeats, Baile Funk and K-Pop are not “future trends”. They are already part of how people enjoy music and build communities. Still, in many European industry contexts, these sounds are treated as niche, external or separate from what is considered mainstream.
This session asks what happens when audiences are already moving differently, but parts of the industry are still using old categories. Who decides what is relevant? Who gets booked, marketed and written about? And what do we miss when we treat global sounds as something ‘other’?
Four invited contributors open the conversation with short inputs. A moderator then guides a fishbowl with one open seat for audience members to join in. The aim is not to explain these scenes from the outside, but to listen to the people shaping them and ask how the industry can catch up.