Nov. 13 marks the start of the second edition of Mundial Montreal, an annual conference and festival that brings together some of Canada’s finest world music artists.

This year’s festival showcases 33 home-grown and international performers, including Canaille, Heavy Soundz, and Delhi 2 Dublin. In addition, the event this year will feature a World Music Forum, which aims to encourage discussions about the current validity of world music in an age that is increasingly dominated by fusions of traditional genres with electronic sounds. In short, it promises three days of action-packed performances and discussion groups (both free and ticketed), united under the common theme of celebrating and exploring world music as a genre.

Sebastien Nasra, the organizer of Mundial Montreal, emphasizes the festival’s importance as a professional networking platform. It enables world music artists to be introduced to the mass media and the public. With seven years of experience working with world music as a founder of M for Montreal—a music festival taking place concurrently with Mundial Montreal—Nasra is ideally suited to provide a working definition of what world music actually is.

“It’s a very broad question, and everybody has their own answer,” Nasra begins, hesitantly. He elaborates that the main mission of Mundial Montreal is to negotiate what world music is, and how it has evolved since it was first introduced some three decades ago.

It was in the 1980s that people largely began recognizing traditional music cultures normally associated with the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe. Since then, however, the term ‘world music’ has evolved considerably. Nasra points to the Quebecois pop-electro musician Pierre Lapointe as an example of how broad and malleable the categorical label ‘world music’ has become.

“The funny thing is, for someone in New York, Pierre Lapointe is ‘world music’ because he sings in French,” Nasra says. “It’s not always just about the music sound, but the origins of the music or the artist, and the perception of him or her in another market, in another place, with other eyes.”

Nasra’s words were still fresh in my mind when I spoke with Tarun Nayar from the Vancouver-based band Delhi 2 Dublin. The group’s five members boast an exotic mix of Indian, Irish, Scottish, and Korean origins. Their individual musical influences are largely reflected in their electro-infused melange of Bhangra, Reggae, Rock, and Celtic sounds.

I asked Nayar for his thoughts on world music as a genre, and how he sees Delhi 2 Dublin’s place in its context.

“If people want to call us world music, that’s fine, we call ourselves global mash-up or party music,” says Nayar. “A lot of world music traditionally has been authentic music from Africa or authentic music from Ireland, and we’re not authentic, we’re not trying to do anything traditional at all­—we’re just doing whatever we want and having fun.”

It’s clear that world music, as a way to categorize artists, certainly remains up for negotiation. Whether you’re a hardcore world music fan longing to seize the unique opportunity Mundial Montreal offers, or just want to party to Delhi 2 Dublin’s “global mash-up,” Mundial Montreal offers plenty of events to satiate your musical appetite.

Mundial Montreal runs from Nov. 13 to Nov. 16. Tickets and showtime information is available at http://www.mundialmontreal.com/en/