What is world music?

World music in large shops is normally shelved as its own individual category. The records that are in world music tend to be either artists with a low recognition or of a different language such as French, German and African. The artists who do make it big worldwide come from mainly Britain and America, with occasional bands and singers coming from other countries such as Abba. These bands are the ones who are in the charts. I feel this is the reason for world music getting categorised by it self as it is rare for a song to be in the charts sung in a different language. World music is not actually where the song or album is listened but where it originates from. If somebody wants to find and buy music from a different country they know to look in the world music section rather than the charts or the type of music it is such as rock or classic.