Third World

All Music Guide:

Third World are one of the longest-lived reggae bands of all time, and one of Jamaica's most consistently popular crossover acts among international audiences. While they were long capable of authentic roots reggae, they usually preferred to mix in elements of R&B, funk, pop, and rock (and, later on, dancehall and rap). Purists often criticized their music as tame and polished, overly beholden to commercial concerns. Indeed, they were regular visitors to the American and British charts during the '80s, but the best of their output was undeniably satisfying on a creative level as well.

Third World were originally formed in 1973 by keyboardist Michael "Ibo" Cooper and guitarist/cellist Steven "Cat" Coore. Both had received formal training at music schools in Jamaica, and both had played around the Kingston reggae scene before joining the original lineup of Inner Circle around 1968. When they left to form their own band in 1973, they took Inner Circle bassist Richard Daley with them, and also recruited drummer Carl Barovier, percussionist Irvin "Carrot" Jarrett, and lead singer Milton "Prilly" Hamilton. Barovier was quickly replaced by Cornell Marshall, and the group made its live debut that year at Jamaica's independence celebration. They played around the Kingston club scene and made a name for themselves as one of the few fully self-contained bands around. Having all their own musicians on hand, Third World didn't need to rely on sound systems to play records that weren't practical to duplicate live. As a result, they found it difficult to land a label deal, since most labels in Jamaica were operated by sound systems.

Third World solved the problem by traveling to England for a tour, and subsequently signing with the internationally minded Island label. Island issued their debut single, "Railroad Track," in 1974 and sent them out on a European tour as the opening act for Bob Marley & the Wailers. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1976 and featured a successful cover of the Abyssinians' roots classic "Satta Massagana." The follow-up, 1977's 96° in the Shade, introduced new drummer Willie "Roots" Stewart and new lead singer William Clarke, aka Bunny Rugs. It was an enormous critical success in the U.K. and Europe, and spawned an all-time classic single in the title track. That set the stage for the group's commercial breakthrough album, 1978's Journey to Addis, which featured a funky, disco-flavored reggae cover of the O'Jays' "Now That We Found Love." The song hit the Top Ten on the American R&B charts in 1979, as well as the British pop Top Ten, and the LP climbed into the R&B Top 20. The follow-up single, "Cool Meditation," made the British Top 20, and Third World found themselves international stars.

The group quickly followed its breakout hit with The Story's Been Told later in 1979, and it charted in the U.S., though not as high as its predecessor. In 1980, they issued two albums, Rise in Harmony and the film soundtrack Prisoner in the Street, which marked the end of their tenure with Island. Third World next signed with CBS and debuted with 1981's Rock the World, which gave them another significant crossover hit in "Dancing on the Floor (Hooked on Love)," a British Top Ten. At the 1981 Reggae Sunsplash Festival, Stevie Wonder joined Third World on-stage to perform his tribute to Bob Marley, "Master Blaster (Jammin')"; it went well enough that Wonder wrote and produced two singles on the group's next album, 1982's You've Got the Power. The first, "Try Jah Love," was a funky dance track that became another significant crossover hit in America, nearly reaching the R&B Top 20. The second, "You're Playing Us Too Close," wasn't as commercially successful, but Wonder's efforts were enough to make You've Got the Power Third World's second album to hit the R&B Top 20.

The band's success continued on through the '80s, as 1983's All the Way Strong and 1985's Sense of Purpose both made the R&B Top 50. The latter album produced several minor crossover hits in the title track, "One on One," and "One More Time," which sported state-of-the-art, club-friendly dance beats. However, 1987's Hold on to Love didn't fare so well, and the group wound up parting ways with CBS and moving over to Mercury. Their 1989 label debut, Serious Business, restored their commercial standing with American R&B audiences, climbing into the Top 30 on the strength of a third major crossover hit, "Forbidden Love." One of the first commercially successful fusions of reggae and rap, "Forbidden Love" featured a guest appearance by Stetsasonic lead rapper Daddy O, and charted in the R&B Top 20. Serious Business also marked the departure of Irvin "Carrot" Jarrett, who was briefly replaced by "Forbidden Love" co-writer Rupert "Gypsy" Bent III.

Third World's second Mercury album was 1992's dancehall-flavored Committed, which produced a Top 30 R&B hit in the title cut. However, it proved to be their last major-label outing. Their next release, 1994's concert set Live It Up, appeared on the band's own label and marked the return of Rupert Bent, who wound up joining the band as a guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist, and occasional vocalist. In 1997, founding member Michael "Ibo" Cooper and Willie Stewart both departed, and were replaced by keyboardist Leroy "Baarbe" Romans and drummer Tony "Ruption" Williams, respectively. This lineup released Generation Coming in 1999, landing guest spots from Shaggy and Bounty Killer. Afterwards, Romans was replaced by Herbie Harris, who made his studio debut on 2003's Ain't Givin' Up. The same year Third World celebrated a quarter century of playing music by re-recording their classics for 25th Anniversary. Two years later they returned with Black, Gold, Green, which included guests Beres Hammond, Wayne Marshall, and Blu Fox. Their 2011 effort, Patriots, featured guest vocalists like Gregory Isaacs, Capleton, and Tarrus Riley, plus Marley brothers Stephen and Damian.

Wikipedia:

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World), or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Due to many of the Third World countries being extremely poor, it became a stereotype such that people commonly refer to undeveloped countries as "third world countries," often used in a pejorative way. Over the last few decades, the term 'Third World' has been used interchangeably with the Global South and Developing Countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development. Third World countries includes most of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The Third World has also been connected to the world economic division as "periphery" countries in the world system that is dominated by the "core" countries. Due to the complex history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed upon definition of the Third World and the term is now less popular than it was during the 1970s and 1980s.

Etymology

French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed priests and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. Sauvy wrote, "Like the third estate, the Third World is nothing, and wants to be something." He conveyed the concept of political non-alignment with either the capitalist or communist bloc.

Third World vs. Three Worlds

The "Three Worlds Theory" developed by Mao Zedong is different from the Western theory of the Three Worlds or Third World. For example, in the Western theory, China and India belong respectively to the second and third worlds, but in Mao's theory both China and India are part of the Third Non-Aligned World.

Third Worldism

Third Worldism has been defined as "the idea, popular among Third World autocrats and many American and French leftists in the late 60s and 70s, that – contrary to orthodox Marxism's view that the Western working class would deliver the world from the tyranny of capital that ... Third World elites were the privileged historical actor."

History

A number of Third World countries were former colonies, and with the end of imperialism, many of these countries, especially the smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nation- and institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background, many of these nations were "developing" in economic terms for most of the 20th century, and many still are today. This term, when used today, generally denotes countries that have not "developed" to the same levels as OECD countries, and which are thus in the process of "developing". In the 1980s, economist Peter Bauer offered a competing definition for the term Third World. He claimed that the attachment of Third World status to a particular country was not based on any stable economic or political criteria, and was a mostly arbitrary process. The large diversity of countries that were considered to be part of the Third World, from Indonesia to Afghanistan, ranged widely from economically primitive to economically advanced and from politically non-aligned to Soviet- or Western-leaning. An argument could also be made for how parts of the U.S. are more like the Third World. The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid", the giving of which he strongly opposed. Thus, the aggregate term Third World was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period because it had no consistent or collective identity among the countries it supposedly encompassed.

Recently the term Majority World has started to be used since most people of the world live in poorer and less developed countries.

Foreign Aid and Development

During the Cold War, unaligned countries of the Third World were seen as potential allies by both the First and Second World. Therefore, the United States and the Soviet Union went to great lengths to establish connections in these countries by offering economic and military support in order to gain strategically located alliances (e.g. United States in Vietnam or Soviet Union in Cuba). By the end of the Cold War, many Third World countries had adopted capitalist or communist economic models and continued to receive support from the side they had chosen. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the countries of the Third World have been the priority recipients of Western foreign aid and the focus of economic development through mainstream theories such as Modernization Theory and Dependency Theory.

By the end of the 1960s, the idea of the Third World came to represent countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that were considered underdeveloped by the West based on a variety of characteristics (low economic development, low life expectancy, high rates of poverty and disease, etc.). These countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, NGOs and individuals from wealthier nations. One popular model, known as Rostow's stages of growth, argued that development took place in 5 stages (Traditional Society; Pre-conditions for Take-off; Take-off; Drive to Maturity; Age of High Mass Consumption). W. W. Rostow argued that Take-off was the critical stage that the Third World was missing or struggling with. Thus, foreign aid was needed to help kick start industrialization and economic growth in these countries.

However, despite decades of receiving aid and experiencing different development models (which have had very little success), many Third World country's economies are still be dependent on developed countries and are deep in debt. There is now a growing debate about why Third World countries remain impoverished and underdeveloped after all this time. Many argue that current methods of aid are not working and are calling for reducing foreign aid (and therefore dependency) and utilizing different economic theories than the traditional mainstream theories from the West. Historically, development and aid have not accomplished the goals they were meant to and currently the global gap between the rich and poor is greater than ever.

Over the last few decades, global population growth has largely been focused in Third World countries (which often have higher birth rates than Developed countries). As populations expand in poorer countries, rural people are flocking to cities in a extensive urban migration that is resulting in the creation of massive shanty towns and slums A lot of times there is a clear distinction between First and Third Worlds. When talking about the Global North and the Global South, the majority of the time the two goes hand in hand. People refer to the two as 'Third World/South' and 'First World/ North'; because in theory the Global North is supposedly more affluent and developed, whereas the Global South is less developed and oftentimes more poor.