Most countries have some sort of music industry. It may be small or a little ramshackle but it's there, helping to make recordings available in some sort of semi-orderly fashion. It promotes performances, broadcasts music, talks about music in publications. Mauritania's Beydane and Haratine music has no industry to promote it-- the country is one of the few places in the world with no private or even state system in place to capture and disseminate music. The music happens live, played by musicians hired by an audience; it could be a wedding party, an official function, or just a group of friends who want to do a little dancing. The majority of the musicians live and work in Nouakchott, the sprawling, mostly improvised capital city.

- Pitchfork.com