We're coming up on the sixth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

9/11 had a deep impact on many aspects of life here.

Among them was the ability of international musicians to come here to perform.

As The World's Marco Werman explains, that's provided an unexpected boost for US-based artists.

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The genre known as World Music had already begun to grow in popularity in the US before 2001.

But after 9/11, it became more difficult and time-consuming for artists to get visas.

Lee Williams runs the annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival in Bloomington, Indiana.

Williams: Before 9/11, when we booked international artists, we were very confident that all the artists would actually show up. But ever since 9/11, we've had cancellations every single year now. And what we've done is develop a huge list of available US-based artists.

Funkadesi from Chicago, for example, is high on Lee Williams' list.

They play a hybrid Hindi-pop reggae fusion.

Williams: I think Funkadesi is our absolute, all-star cancellation band.

And now Funkadesi is a regular at the Lotus Fest because they're a crowd favorite.

US-based world music artists have become unintended beneficiaries of the visa clampdown.

For example, Antibalas from New York plays Afrobeat.

Dengue Fever from LA performs Cambodian psychedelic rock.

And Forro in the Dark is another New York band that plays country music of northeastern Brazil.

They've all seen their bookings grow since 9/11.

But that didn't happen just by accident.

A core group of world music presenters believed there was more at stake than just keeping their venues from going dark.

Bill Bragin is director of Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York.

He was part of that core group.

Bragin: Presenters who were really dedicated to presenting international music to the people of the US felt very strongly that we needed to find strategies to help protect the music, help protect the artists, and continue to grow the audience for international music and not let the waves of post-9/11 fallout prevent that kind of international dialogue. I think everybody felt that it was even more important to have this kind of cross-cultural perspective happening in the wake of that kind of situation.

Singer Anqelique Kidjo is from Benin, but lives in Brooklyn.

She was one of several US-based world music artists who was tapped to play at the first Global Fest in New York in 2003.

The idea was to feature a showcase of a dozen or more world artists in a single evening.

The showcase was timed to coincide with the annual meeting of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Global Fest is now an annual concert in January and consistently sells out.

It's turned into a world party.

But as Bill Bragin explains, that wasn't the original purpose of GlobalFest.

Bragin: The real goal is to get to the people who are the gatekeepers in their own communities, and present a broad range of artists, including many who are based domestically so that they could realize that "Oh, there is a great Brazilian band in New York, and we can present Forro in the Dark even if we can't afford to bring a group from Brazil.

...and to avoid the worries of hearing at the last minute that a bunch of Brazilian musicians did not get their visas in time.

This is New York-based Forro in the Dark.

One of their co-founders is Brazilian-born New York resident Mauro Refosco.

Refosco: We make forro music, it has influences of Brazil, but we are musicians in New York City, living in that reality.

But can a band of urban New Yorkers authentically reproduce the roots music of northeast Brazil?

Does it even matter?

Bill Bragin of Joe's Pub says no.

Bragin: I think that world music produced in the United States is absolutely part of the norm at this point. I don't think audiences make hard distinctions between where the artist is coming from. I think there have been some openings in terms of the kinds of music that people allow into their ears.

That may mean that when visa processing loosens up again, there will be room for many different approaches to music from "out there."

Until then, Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark, jokingly commented that "no visa needed" could be a new marketing strategy for his group.

Refosco: You know, you gave me idea now. This is another way of selling the band.

For The World, I'm Marco Werman.