New Artists Are Shaping World Music : Pop music: A wider range of influences brings forth an eclectic world of hybrid works using reggae, hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz.

Imagine someone thinking that rock music today is defined by the latest records by the Rolling Stones or Alice Cooper. In a way, that’s been the situation for Americans interested in world music, a field where most of the familiar artists are veterans of 20 or 30 years of recording.

But now a younger generation of performers is arriving with an expanded set of influences at its command. Increasingly, these younger artists--like Haiti’s Boukman Eksperyans, which makes its local debut in a free concert at the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday--are drawing from their own pop traditions to fashion their sound.

“You’re seeing a two-fold thing--people are trying to do this eclectic blend, but others are going back to traditional rhythms . . . and putting their own updated spin on that,” said Tom Cheyney, associate editor of The Beat, a monthly magazine specializing in world music.

The range of approaches is almost as extensive as the number of artists involved. Boukman Eksperyans has built on traditional Haitian rhythms and brought a smoother sheen to the vibrant compas style popularized by such veterans as Tabou Combo.

Brazilian singer Margareth Menezes, whose second Mango album is scheduled for an October release, has introduced new Brazilian rhythms into her material and looked to the Caribbean for songs by Boukman Eksperyans and the leading zouk group Kassav.

“I like the cultural exchange with music,” said Menezes in Portuguese through an interpreter. “You don’t have any walls when you exchange with another culture that musically is strong, like America or Africa.

“Everybody in the world wants to have something like a harmony, a meeting of all the musics together. Mixed music is a lot better than trying to show only your own tradition. When we mix something, we discover other new things.”

Rock lead guitar, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson have had a wide impact on these younger musicians, but the greatest single influence fueling those new discoveries may be reggae.

Majek Fashek is one who heard the Jamaican music’s siren call, but the young Nigerian, whose new album is called “Spirit of Love,” has continued to explore a new hybrid of Jamaican and African rhythms blending rock guitar leads and talking drums.

“In Africa, they’re used to the talking drums in juju music and highlife music,” Fashek said. “It is the rock ‘n’ roll that is kind of strange.

“When I started making my first record, I was more into reggae and a little bit of rock. On my new record, I’m getting close to this music I’m playing (live) now, fusing the main rhythms.”

More hybrids will undoubtedly spring up as musicians become exposed to other styles through recordings or by living in different places. The hip-hop movement has barely started to filter down into world music, for instance, but elements of that sound are almost certain to become increasingly prominent in the next few years.

“Any bands based away from their hometown and culture are influenced by what’s going on where they are,” said Jonathan Rudnick, director of promotion and publicity for New York world-music club S.O.B.’s. “It can be anything from reggae to hip-hop to soul, funk and jazz.”

The process will be an ongoing one.

“The kind of music I do is a modern music that happens in the whole world,” Menezes said. “I always try to have these meetings, between all the music from Brazil and music from other countries. Maybe someday I’ll start singing the blues.”