不要將這里的Ethnic Fusion和World Fusion（爵士音樂和世界音樂的融合）以及Worldbeat（加入了西方流行音樂元素的世界音樂）搞混了。Ethnic Fusion一般是建立在New Age音樂的聲音和哲學之上，是將傳統(tǒng)的各民族音樂融入當代的電子音樂中，以期在西方的偏重技術和自然與民族的文化間找到一種和諧與平衡。

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爵士音樂家Tony Scott和Don Cherry可能是第一次將世界音樂合成到西方音樂體裁中；Jon Hassell的著名的音樂拓寬了這些EthnicFusion實驗的范圍，并由此在70年代促成了這種音樂類型，后來他又在80年代早期和Ambient的先驅Brian Eno進行合作。漸漸地，這種音樂類型成了當代諸多敢于冒險的器樂家們借用新鮮的節(jié)奏和非西方的樂器來拓寬自身音樂領域的一種樂衷的方式，而另外一些人則是在獨特的民族音樂中加入當代器樂或是新世紀音樂的成分。

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后者的藝術家如Clannad（塞爾特民謠）、OttmarLiebert（弗拉門哥）、Kitaro（日本傳統(tǒng)音樂）和R. Carlos Nakai（美國本土笛樂）。90年代早期，Enigma, Dead Can Dance和Deep Forest又在這種音樂中引入了俱樂部跳舞節(jié)奏以及混音技術，其應用可以從歐洲中世紀音樂直到采樣的非洲土著音樂。但盡管如此，這種音樂也很少可能有更大的市場突破。?

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Ethnic Fusion is not to be confused with world fusion (a synthesisof jazz and world music) or worldbeat (which may draw from any number of worldmusics, often adding a Western pop influence). Instead, ethnic fusion isgenerally rooted in the sounds and philosophies of new age music, seeking toincorporate traditional ethnic folk musics into contemporary electronic music.

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Often, though not always, the aim is to find ways to create unity and harmonybetween Western technology and more earth- and nature-oriented cultures. Jazzmusicians like Tony Scott and Don Cherry were some of the first to synthesizeworld music with Western forms, and minimalist composers like Terry Riley andPhilip Glass sometimes drew upon non-Western scales and structures.?

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Theseexperiments informed early ethnic fusion, most notably the music of JonHassell, who helped establish the style during the late '70s and early '80swith his solo work and his collaborations with ambient pioneer Brian Eno. Intime, ethnic fusion became a favorite way for adventurous contemporaryinstrumental musicians to broaden their sound with new rhythms or non-Westerninstrumentation; others came naturally to a particular ethnic music and fusedit with a contemporary instrumental/new age sensibility.?

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Artists in the lattercategory included Clannad (Celtic folk), Ottmar Liebert (flamenco), Kitaro(Japanese folk melodies), and R. Carlos Nakai (Native American flute music).During the early '90s, ethnic fusion artists like Enigma, Dead Can Dance, andDeep Forest found a wider audience with the introduction of club-ready dancebeats into the mix, which could feature anything from medieval European musicto sampled field recordings of African pygmies. But even if there were very fewlarger commercial breakthroughs, ethnic fusion maintained a degree ofpopularity through the remainder of the '90s.