Modern International Pop Music

February 18, 2016 4:31 PM

I'm looking for current international pop music. Details inside

I want current (within the past ten years, but the new the better) music from different regions of the world. The ideal format would be on soundcloud, but spotify will do. I'm looking for mixes or mixtapes, but just playlists of songs would work also. I would like to listen to modern popular music from different regions of the globe including but not limited to Africa (I know it's broad, but I know nothing about modern African pop music and really want to learn), Eastern Europe, and the middle east.

posted by R.F.Simpson to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

The question is really pretty broad and I'm not sure I've seen any "intro to Africa" playlists. However, I'd offer the advice that I think both Ghana and Nigeria have some really exciting things happening in music right now, so you might have some luck searching on Spotify for playlists from those regions.

I also like a lot of the Kwaito artists from South Africa, so again a search might do you.

This isn't a very good answer to your question, but the playlists I listen to are all more specific than that-- it almost feels as though you want a youtube mix more than a spotify list.
posted by frumiousb at 8:02 PM on February 18, 2016

I'm not familiar with Spotify or Soundcloud but I can give you a brief but varied selection of modern International pop artists you might enjoy.

Christine and the Queens

Stromae

tricot

Cheikh Lo
posted by little eiffel at 10:52 PM on February 18, 2016

Best answer: If you have Spotify, the playlists created by The Sounds Of Spotify might be of assistance. There's more about how they're created at the blog of Glenn McDonald, who works as a music data scientist at Spotify and who cooked up the science behind them.
posted by maura at 11:04 AM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd second Youtube as a good source of practically any genre of international music. It takes a bit of work to tune into the right sort of links and search terms, but I've found that more satisfying and educational than just absorbing a playlist.

My last adventures started with "Music from Saharan Cellphones" (an album created from tracks that people from the area made for themselves and distributed by copying between their phones) and led to Moroccan electronica and some gratifyingly earbleed Pakistani techno. There's an awful lot of rubbish out there - lots of young people at every point on the globe want to be mainstream pop stars and someone's given them all a copy of Autotune - but only you know what sort of international pop you're after.
posted by Devonian at 8:11 AM on February 20, 2016 [1 favorite]