• -its internal characteristics
• -its external contextual factors
• -the ways users incorporate it into their lives

--Canadian composer John Kim Bell, established a fund to assist aspiring Aboriginal artists  
--The music of Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn focuses on political and environmental issues   
--Canadian children's singer-songwriter Raffi is passionate about the environment, a love and concern which is reflected in his music 
--Bob Geldof, mounted a massive fundraising effort of unprecedented scope through his "Feed The World" and Band Aid/Live Aid projects  
--Rock musician Sting, who has worked to aid in the preservation of the world's rainforests  --Brenda Baker is a Saskatchewan musician and social activist  
--Robbie Robertson, Canadian-born former member of the rock group The Band, produced a compilation album of Aboriginal recording artists entitled Music for Native Americans   
--Kashtin sings in their native tongue 
--Willie Nelson raised funds and support for American farmers through his "Farm Aid" concerts and projects 

Perhaps no other country in the world has used music so effectively as a means to communicate dissent than South Africa, where music has served as a powerful vehicle of protest against racial injustice.  

Blacks demonstrated their resistance to apartheid with protests and civil disobedience and through artistic expression. Songs, dances, plays and other art works proved to be an effective means of exposing cruelty. In South Africa today, culture and politics can no longer be separated. Of all these artistic expressions, music has played the most pivotal role. South African musicians became the most outspoken critics of the system, chroniclers of the people's suffering, and uncompromising fighters for a new, democratic, and nonracial nation.  

South African music has established a worldwide reputation because of its powerful message, its vast array of styles, and its excellent creators and performers. Its effectiveness caused the Pretoria government to force musical artists into exile and to make it illegal for their music to be aired on radio or even to be listened to privately. Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, and Julian Bahula are just a few of the many  internationally acclaimed artists who were exiled. Their efforts succeeded in reducing censorship. 

The evolution of global communication systems has enabled world music to influence the development of Western popular music, and has also allowed  'internationally acclaimed' popular music to influence the musical preferences of much of the  world's population.  

The sharing of musical ideas across cultures happens in many ways as composers incorporate ideas from many sources.  Producing songs in one's native language is politically and culturally important.   In a 13 February 1995 article in Maclean's magazine it is noted that "ten years ago anyone singing in a native language couldn't get played except at midnight on a `roots' station." The interconnectivity of the world, suggests new methods for the appreciation and creation of music. Listeners combine and view music in a globalized, externalized dimension; a generation of interpretation has been globalized within the mind itself.