Kassav[?]'s popularity grows in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and Paris; the band and its imitators help invent a style of music called zouk[?], which will soon explode across the Caribbean, Africa and other parts of the world
Rappers like LL Cool J (Radio) and Kurtis Blow (America[?]) help bring rap closer to the mainstream than ever before; LL Cool J is especially known for organizing rap into traditional song structures
The term world music is first used as a marketing category to describe several dozen kinds of folk music from around the world; the term immediately draws criticism from artists like David Byrne, who eventually dismissed it as "a way of relegating this 'thing' into the realm of something exotic and therefore cute, weird but safe, because exotica is beautiful but irrelevant; they are, by definition, not like us".
Rai's popularity and influence in Algeria and among immigrants in France help to begin breaking into the mainstream there, and elsewhere in Europe, including future-superstar Cheb Khaled (Kutche[?])
The MD MC's[?] "Salvador Astral" is one of the earliest international hits by a Brazilian hip hop group; it kickstarts the scene in Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities
dc Talk's "Jesus Freak" is the first rock song to win the Dove Award for song of the year; this is the first time a non-traditional genre won the award for best Christian-themed song