Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with worldmusic

Where Da Good Wo'Pop, Citizen?

Lipstick Thespian — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:00:05 -0800

In Which LT Hits Up The Metaverse For More Musical Goodness.... Hey all - just got another show at the radio station and as such am doing the obligatory Askme - this time for quality world music sites on the net - gimme your fave sites, podcasts, artists, styles, etc.

For reference, I am already down with Afropop Worldwide, Smithsonian Global Sound, etc.

This is your chance to dazzle me with your exotic loves and hidden treasures.

Stuff I love: Vartina, Tinariwen, Habib Koite and Bamada, Cheb i Sabbah, DJ Dolores, Seu Jorge, Kuh Ledesma, Regine Velasquez, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, and on and on....

Help me find great world music for Peace Corp cousins

gudrun — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:25:34 -0800

Mr. gudrun's cousins are doing medical work in Africa with the Peace Corps. They love world music, esp. African, of course, but really they like pretty much everything. We would like to get them some recent world music as a gift for Christmas (we have a quick and secure way to mail it) so please pass on your favorites.

Music of The World, Not World Music

Rykey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:33:21 -0800

Are there any music magazines similar to Songlines, but with a slightly American bent? I'm trying to find a magazine (print, not electronic), intended for an American audience, that covers the music of the world, but not "world music" (a distinction articulated here). Kind of a "what Rolling Stone, Spin, and Vibe don't cover, all in one magazine, for Americans" kind of thing. Bonus points for broader appeal rather than narrower.

hip hop roun' da world

jammy — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:17:37 -0800

Being the ever-spreading global phenomenon that it is, it gets harder & harder to stay on top of all the amazing hiphop music that is coming out from all corners of the globe. Please to tell me about your recent favorite international hiphop acts. some qualifications

:: Here's some folks i'm already familiar with-- MC Solaar, IAM, K'naan, Control Machete, Tang Ren Ti, DJ Krush, Asian Dub Foundation, Nesian Mystik, La Mala Rodriguez, Telmary Diaz, Freedom, Zimbabwe Legit, Wakimbizi, ...

:: I'm particularly interested in acts that incorporate indigenous musical traditions into their hiphop, a la K'naan or Freedom.

:: I really don't care how hiphop they are... a little thrown in for some extra flava is fine, a full-blown purist is also good.

:: I'm mostly interested in stuff from places outside the US or UK.

:: Yah, I know that there's some good threads earlier (e.g. on French & Spanish hiphop, but they're a couple years old & I'm hoping to catch some fresh acts.

Thanks y'all!

Funeral Chants

naju — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:32:55 -0800

I'm looking for funeral chants, prayers and songs that are beautiful and mournful. I'm doing an experimental DJ set and I want to base it around all kinds of funeral chants, prayers, drones, etc. Vocal lines of any language. Should be aurally beautiful and mournful/emotional. Any ideas? Links to recordings/samples would be doubly appreciated. Thanks.

what are some excellent places on then internet to talk about music?

messiahwannabe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:43:51 -0800

i want to find some good music forums online. i'm a musician/dj, and i live in the 3rd world. thus, i dont get to hear a lot of new music in random places (clubs, stores, record shops, radio stations etc) like i would in a big city or college town. the best way i've found to keep up with various music scenes, as well as finding good random recommendations, is through music forums, such as this one:

forums.SOHH.com

however, i'm pretty dissapointed with the results i'm getting from google. the above forum seems ok, but none of the ones i've found seem as good as the few i used to hang out on (before they changed for various reasons)

i figure it's probably a word-of-keyboard thing, so i'm asking you guys if you can recommend some good ones. i'm specifically looking for a good forum for each of the following genres/concepts:

1. rap/r&b
2. dance music (house/electro/minimal/d&b etc)
3. indie/alternative
4. world music
5. professional musicians talking about their jobs

ideally they would cover both popular and obscure/edgy ends of the genre spectrum (though one for mainstream and one for edgy would be ok) and be populated by interesting, friendly, knowledgable people with better stuff to do than start flame wars or spam me with ads.

i'm sure they're out there! any ideas?

ps. i did google "genrename forum" for each genre, and wasn't too impressed after digging around in the sites towards the top of the results - i basically spent an entire evening googling, clicking and bookmarking, but didn't come up with any forums that really wowed me. though if i'm being too hasty to dismiss something obvious, feel free to let me know i'm not giving it enough of a chance.

The old, weird Uganda?

1f2frfbf — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:27:41 -0800

What is your country's equivalent of The Anthology of American Folk Music? I'm looking for traditional folk music (ie. vocal and instrumental indigenous music, preferably from the first half of the twentieth centry) from various countries with multiple artists in various genres all together on one disc or in one box.

I've bookmarked this thread, and I've consumed many of the Putumayo CDs, but I'm looking for new and specific recommendations to expand my musical horizons.

Phygrian Domination

EatTheWeak — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:03:02 -0800

There's probably a way to ask this question that doesn't expose my ignorance of world music, but I can't think of it. Please help me get my block-rocking culture on. Because I'm prone to picking English lyrics apart and missing the song which contains them entirely, I've come to really enjoy music in foreign languages. I'm keen to expand my collection of swinging songs from cultures other than my own, and would really appreciate some advice on where to start exploring. Now, asking "tell me about all the music in the world" is pretty broad, so let me narrow this a bit.

I've been listening to this song by Shakira about a dozen times a day for a week now. Maybe my mind is just clouded by the belly dancing, but I really enjoy the sound of this song and I'd like to hear more like it. I love the drums, the backing vocals, the way the lead vocals respond back, pretty much the whole of it.

I asked the internet about Ojos Asi a couple times. Turns out it's written in Phrygian dominant scale - a quality it shares with a lot of flamenco, Klezmer and Arabic music. I took note of this, as I've caught myself tapping my toes to music from every one of those genres when I've had occasion to hear it.

So in the main, I'm most curious about music similar to the song posted. I'm interested in finding out what genres to pursue, and especially interested in specific artists or songs. The Arabic elements are my favorite part of this song, so I would really like to discover some wonderful Middle Eastern music. But please don't hesitate to suggest music from anywhere in the world if it has the qualities I'm looking for.

Sweet Sounds for the Stressed and Cloistered

palmcorder_yajna — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:29:28 -0800

Music-for-studying-for-the-@#%#-bar-exam-filter: Please help me balm the pain of preparing for this miserable test by recommending excellent music that's either wholely instrumental or not in English. For the next week I will be doing nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, except studying for the Washington State Bar Exam. Music helps relieve the monotony, but English vocals are too distracting. I've dumped pretty much every track my husband and I own without same into a huge playlist, but I'd love to add to it. Any recommendations?

My tastes are pretty catholic, but to guide your recommendations, here are some random things I like:

* Rachind Taha
* Charlie Parker
* Warsaw Village Band
* The soundrack to Raumpatrouille (I like this to an insane degree, actually)
* Yma Sumac
* Serge Gainsbourg
* My Friend the Chocolate Cake
* Django Reinhardt
* Apocalyptica
* Dirty Three
* The kind of stuff they used to play on Kalvos and Damian's New Music Bazaar.

Here are some things I don't like or can't use right now:

* Joe Satriani
* Kid Koala (Actually I love Kid Koala, but alas, its choppiness tends to shock me out of what I'm doing)
* Sun Ra (Same deal as Kid Koala-- I love it, but it takes too much focus to listen to it right now.)
* Kenny G
* Any classical piece that sounds like it could be the score for an animated film about a small woodland animal who by turns frolicks, is frightened by storms, flees, and then is safely recovered by his adoring mum. (Yes, this makes me a bad person. I keep trying to change. It keeps failing to work.)

Mad bonus points for anything I can download from e-music. Slightly less-mad bonus points for stuff I can download from Itunes.

Thanks much!

Shine on you crazy dumbek.

jammer — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 06:50:50 -0800

I want more world-music covers of modern Western music. After having recently bought Yat-Kha's Re-Covers, I have become obsessed with finding more in the "covers of Western music in world style" genre. The only thing I have managed to think of which is similar is Iz's cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It's a Wonderful World.

Surely there's more out there? Can you suggest something? Bonus points for anything involving gamelan or didgeridoo.

spanish punk

Stynxno — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 06:37:47 -0800

What are some good punk/alternative/indie-esque groups that sing in Spanish? I'm currently trying to learn the language and feel that some sort of emmersion would help me out alot. I like to listen to punk/alternative/indie music so I was looking to see if anyone had any recommendations for spanish groups who match these genres.