Globalization may be a fighting word in politics and business, but in the realm of music it has a nice ring to it—and a funky beat, and a tantalizing groove. Today musicians and listeners the world over are plugged into one another via the Internet, TV and ubiquitous recordings. The result is a vast electronic bazaar through which South African kwaito music can make pulses pound in Sweden, or Brazilian post-mambo can set feet dancing in Tokyo.

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Cultures are borrowing the sounds of other cultures, creating vibrant hybrids that are then instantly disseminated around the globe to begin the blending process all over again. "Musically, to an unprecedented degree, the U.S. is part of the world and the world is part of our experience here," says Christopher John Farley, editor of this special issue devoted to capturing the verve, color and variety of the global-music phenomenon.

As TIME's pop-music critic, Farley was well primed for the assignment. In recent years he has traveled to Sweden, Brazil, Japan, the Bahamas, France, Mexico, Jamaica and Ireland, among other places. And, as a Jamaican native who moved to the U.S. as a kid, he was keenly attuned to the diversity of indigenous musical styles and traditions. Even so, Farley found he had a few things to learn about the international scene. When it came to Utada Hikaru, one of Japan's top singing stars, he "had always imagined her far away, in Tokyo or Kyoto. It was startling to find that she lives here in New York City."

Chief reporter Lisa McLaughlin—like Farley, already an aficionado of world music—was delighted to find that her duties included continuing to do things she had been doing for years: combing through websites and Internet radio sites, reading foreign music magazines and exchanging tips with friends and contacts in countries from Jordan to China. "Best of all, though," she says, "was getting to interview U2."

Our art director for the issue, Janet Michaud, a classically trained clarinetist, aimed to create a lively, elegant design that would "have a voice. I wanted even the type to be lyrical," she says. Photo editors Marie Tobias and Jessica Taraski complemented that voice by encouraging their subjects to have fun in the photographers' studios. South African singer Brenda Fassie "swept into her session like some marvelous rock-'n'-roll diva, wearing snakeskin boots," Tobias recalls. Tobias and Taraski insisted that Fassie keep the boots on for the shoot, which she did, barely suppressing the impulse to dance in them to the strains of Aerosmith, which were blaring in the studio.

Meanwhile, all of us who worked on this issue are acquiring the CDs of our favorite discoveries, from Nigeria's Femi Kuti to the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. In this special feature, we're sure you'll make some exciting discoveries of your own.

Christopher Porterfield, Executive Editor