What gets the world's head noddin', feet movin'?

May 27, 2008 4:20 PM

What music does the world listen to?

I'm from the U.S. and I would like to discover music from other countries. The catch: I don't want to buy "World Music" compilations. I'm not looking for the most representative / traditional / pure music forms, like the rest of the world is a museum. So I need your help.

Tell me what you actually listen to! I want to hear about the popular music in your country. What do you play at parties? I'd also love to hear about less popular but excellent music that I'd never hear about otherwise. What albums do you listen to by yourself?

Non-English singers are a definite plus, but I ain't picky. Instrumental is perfectly fine. I don't have any genre preference, so anything you like will most likely appeal to me.

Thanks all!

posted by dosterm to society & culture (29 comments total)

You might try listening to some Muxtapes. I think you'll happen on some great stuff there. Lots of variety.
posted by Chuck Cheeze at 4:26 PM on May 27, 2008

Eastern Europe / ex-USSR listens to Alphaville, Abba, Smokie, and Celine Dion.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:32 PM on May 27, 2008

If a book I read recently is any indication, everybody in the world listens to Celine Dion.
posted by box at 4:37 PM on May 27, 2008

You can check out the Top 10 album and single charts (and more) of many foreign countries in iTunes. Scroll to the bottom and alter the "My Store" setting to the country of your choice.
posted by fire&wings at 4:40 PM on May 27, 2008

Here are a couple of really good Polish acts: Manaam - get an mp3 of "Wyjatkowo Zimny Maj", Golec Orkiestra.
Russian: Mumitrol
posted by Meatbomb at 4:41 PM on May 27, 2008

If a documentary I'm going to see is any indication, everybody in the world listens to metal. I highly recommend the Folk Metal scene, with bands like Finntroll, Vintersorg, Tyr, and Korpiklaani fronting the way.
posted by spinifex23 at 4:48 PM on May 27, 2008

My favorite Japanese artists (I'm not Japanese and don't live in Japan, but friends of mine who have lived there have introduced me to these):

Ringo Shiina

her band Tokyo Jihen (The Tokyo Incidents)

Ayumi Hamasaki (known to many fans as Ayu)

Yoko Kanno

Tomoko Kawase (pseudonyms Tommy heavenly6/february6)

her band the brilliant green

Utada Hikaru (known to many fans as Hikki)

posted by limeonaire at 4:50 PM on May 27, 2008

Here are two previous threads that may be of interest:

What is your country's equivalent of The Anthology of American Folk Music?

We're big in our home country filter - I'm looking for bands that are famous back home, but not well known internationally.

Apologies if you've already seen these.
posted by nitsuj at 4:54 PM on May 27, 2008

Cafe Tacuba, from Mexico is a pretty diverse and interesting band.

Now, I play in a band with three other people from three countries. We sing in many languages and have instruments from many different places. Our songs can be downloaded for free from our site (each pink square opens the lyrics on the left and the song's title is the link to download the mp3). It's for free and it answers the question, so I hope no one will be offended by the self link.
posted by micayetoca at 4:55 PM on May 27, 2008

Also, my boyfriend (the world Latin music fan) recommends these old-school Cuban artists to start with:

Orchestra Aragón

Miguelito Valdez

Beny Moré

Irakere

Orchestra America

Elio Revé

Pérez Prado

My suggestions for newer Spanish pop:

La Oreja de Van Gogh

El Canto del Loco

My boyfriend's Spanish recommendation:

Radio Tarifa

My boyfriend's Brazilian recommendations:

Antonio Carlos Jobim

Jorge Ben

João Gilberto

Gilberto Gil

My Brazilian recommendation:

Cansei de Ser Sexy (you may have heard one of their songs in an Apple commercial)

My Swedish recommendation:

Dungen

My German recommendation:

Juli

posted by limeonaire at 5:10 PM on May 27, 2008

If you go to the Hype Machine and click on Spy, you can filter by location. It's limited, though.
posted by hulahulagirl at 5:22 PM on May 27, 2008

In Munich, I've heard more Haindling (particularly "Bayern") than seems plausible; the appreciation for it seems to be half ironic, half Bayrisch pride... Metal is a lot more mainstream, and folk metal in particular is much less of a niche (In Extremo, Saltatio Mortis, or Subway to Sally all get very large shows, for example, though bands that aren't really metal like Corvus Corax get lumped in too). Unsurprisingly, many of the bands that are popular in the U.S. get a fair amount of play in Germany, but that's not quite what you're interested in, I suspect.
posted by ubersturm at 5:48 PM on May 27, 2008

I'm sorry, but the world mostly listens to Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion.
posted by b_thinky at 6:03 PM on May 27, 2008

The mad decent blog highlights a lot of really eclectic stuff from around the world. It's focused on electronica and party music but it gets all over the spectrum. For some reason it's like 20000 pixels wide at the moment, which is annoying, but the content is great.
posted by moift at 6:50 PM on May 27, 2008

Sorry, I meant to post this along with the last link: DJ \Rupture's blog, which covers a lot of the same territory with a more academic tone: negrophonic.com
posted by moift at 6:53 PM on May 27, 2008

You might like this interactive music map from this thread.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:00 PM on May 27, 2008

Top 10 Thai Music gets you, yes, the weekly top 10 charts on MTV Thailand, plus lyrics in Thai, romanised Thai and sometimes English. Click on the song title to get to the lyrics page, where you can also listen to the song. It's the sister site to the very popular eThaiMusic site.

You'll find that most Thai pop songs fall into the sappy love ballad category. I'm partial to the Sleepless Society series of albums, all produced by hit producer and composer, Narongvit.
posted by hellopanda at 7:11 PM on May 27, 2008

I know a little about Indonesia--it's a country big enough to have several pop music genres of its very own (as well as multiple classical music traditions and ethnic/regional styles, but those might not be answers to your question).

Two areas to bring your attention to:

Dangdut is a pretty popular mix. It's based on Arab or Indian styles usually, but with rock guitars and sometimes even reggae or latin rhythms thrown in. The best can be hard-driving and rockin', the less accomplished stuff sounds like something you'd hear in a falafel shop. It probably has the most "street cred" of any original Indonesian genre.

Keroncong may seem a little more "old fashioned" to some (I've played it for people who thought it was "Hawaiian music"), but it can have very complex rhythms and signatures borrowed from Indonesian classical music that can be fascinating, alongside guitars and flutes. "Sweet" is a pretty good adjective to describe most of it. The best is sublime, the pedestrian stuff sounds like Chinese restaurant (or Tiki Room!) muzak.

A longer description, including a mention of jaipongan, yet another style. There are straight-up rock musicians as well, probably rappers, who knows what else--I can only offer a small taste.

Lots of examples on YouTube for you to sample before you go shopping:

Typical Arab-style dangdut, maybe some Brazilian influence

Sweet, keroncong-style dangdut

Rhoma Irama, the king of dangdut from the 70s (he can be kind of moralizing, which I find to be a turn-off, but he's very influential)

Classic, Indonesian-style keroncong, nice stuff

Hetty Koes Endang, the traditional queen of keroncong

Start with these, search around, and you'll find tons more. The best part: this is so not museum music--the style are constantly evolving, borrowing from each other and the rest of the world, while maintaining their own identities.
posted by gimonca at 8:31 PM on May 27, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Another view on dangdut.
posted by gimonca at 8:47 PM on May 27, 2008

Yet another
posted by gimonca at 8:49 PM on May 27, 2008

This is an absurd question. The world listens to a ton of stuff... I could type for 20 minutes abount german music, and I don't even know that much about it.

Short answer is that most countries do listen to American pop to some degree. They also have their own pop, and then real local acts.

The Indian Music Show, streamed online, 8-10pm (EST) on thursdays is a very wide reaching overview of that country's music, from the classical to the insanely cheesy (disclaimer: I work at that station, but have no connection to the show other than adoring it).
posted by phrontist at 11:32 PM on May 27, 2008

Here in the Netherlands they like the same trash in the US and UK, along with a strong mix of Europop and lots and lots of dance music.

Smaak and Kraak are popular in the indie-dance scene at the moment.

I tend to listen to a lot of French music most of the time. Lots of excellent indie, noveau-chanson type bands and singers, mellow electronica. You probably already know Air, but I also like Sébastien Tellier, Keren Ann, Benjamin Biolay, Françoiz Breut, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Most of them sing in a mix of French and English.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:13 AM on May 28, 2008

Manu Chao?
posted by citron at 6:02 AM on May 28, 2008

Here's a list of links to top music charts from countries around the world.
posted by andrewraff at 7:53 AM on May 28, 2008

Phrontist, I know it'd be ridiculous to expect a complete survey - I was just hoping for some highlights. Thanks for pointing me to the radio show :)

Looks like I've got a lot of listening to do. Thanks all!

(keep em coming if you've got more...)
posted by dosterm at 8:23 AM on May 28, 2008

I've been listening to mostly Turkish psych-rock lately, highly recommended: Mogollar, Erkin Koray, Ersen
posted by soplerfo at 8:54 AM on May 28, 2008

you can learn a lot about music around the world (not world music) from listening to the programs on afropop.org
posted by billtron at 7:45 PM on May 28, 2008

Go to MTV International and click on the links on the left side of the page. Some of the pages (e.g., MTV Sweden) have charts.
posted by lukemeister at 10:51 PM on May 28, 2008

I know Mohammad Esfahani is pretty famous in iran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Esfahani

another one at the moment is Sami Yusuf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Yusuf
posted by clueless22 at 7:54 AM on May 29, 2008