JVC Smithsonian Folkways DVDs
Produced by JVC in collaboration with a Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings editorial board of scholars and Multicultural Media, The JVC DVD Anthology of World Music and Dance is a thirty (30) DVD, nine book collection containing over 500 performances from 100 countries. 1200 pages of text in 9 books accompany the 30-volume set. The collection is split into eight geographic regions with one book per region. There is an Introduction book which also contains a detailed cross-referenced index. Each book contains full glossaries, detailed descriptions, and individual essays on the social, cultural, and historical background of the music, dance, instruments, costumes and rituals. They also include maps, charts, photos, and source credits.
The three supplementary sets were co-produced a few years later by Multicultural Media with JVC and Smithsonian Folkways to augment and strengthen three of the geographic areas from the first collection: the Americas, Europe and Africa. These three sets include 11 volumes of all new material, not duplicated in the first collection, with one book each for each videotape volume. These three sets are: The JVC Smithsonian Folkways DVD Anthology of Music and Dance of the Americas; The JVC Smithsonian Folkways DVD Anthology of Music and Dance of Africa; and The JVC Smithsonian Folkways DVD Anthology of Music and Dance of Europe.
