13 replies to this topic

[Dreams]

I like to listen to a lot of world music, and I'm always curious to see if others do too. I like Japanese music too, but it gets tiring talking about it because it's so popular now... so I want to find those music-lovers who've explored other countries/languages. :)

I especially love music from Estonia and Russia... artists like Тату, Юлия Савичева, Оскар, Света, Vanilla Ninja, Cherryland, Niki, Hannaliisa Uusmaa, Släm, etc. They mostly perform dance/pop.

Some of my other favorite groups include Kobojsarna (Sweden), L5 (France), Värttinä (Finland), O-Zone (Romania), Tarkan (Turkey), Milky (Italy), good ol' Blümchen (Germany), Kelly Chen (China), and Deep Forest - a duo who takes many languages (especially tribal ones) and turns them into music.

How about you? Anyone have any to share?

[Nemoide]

I have a love for polka and even though most of my favorite artists are American they usually sing in Polish so I think it counts? Jimmy Sturr is my favorite - he actually lives pretty close to my parent's house. When you enter the village of Florida, NY there are signs saying "Home of Jimmy Sturr - THE POLKA KING". He's won more Grammy awards than The Beatles and has preformed for the King and Queen of Poland. I also heard he's a total jerk in real life? But his music is great. The best thing about polka is that it is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to be depressed while listening to it.

French music is something I do not know a whole lot about but really like what I've heard. In particular I have a CD by a band called Astonvilla that has some really awesome rock kind of songs.

As for the groups you mentioned - I won't lie, I only know Vanilla Ninja from the fact that "Tough Enough" was featured in both In the Groove and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2. And I only know Blumchen from "Huet ist mein Tag" which became a YTMND fad. But they both sound like very fun artists.

Oh and I like Rammstein and Kraftwerk but they got so much fame in the US that I don't know if they really count as World Music?

EDIT: SOMEHOW I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT ONE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS! Sigur Ros, an Icelandic group which is usually described as "post-rock" and all of their releases are audio treats. The only band I know to compare them to is Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and really the two groups sound nothing alike. They sometimes sing in Icelandic but a lot of times they will also just sing in a gibberish made-up language? So cool.
And on the subject of Iceland, Bjork is awesome too.

[Noctourne Wonderland]

I like Ilona Mitrecy from France (I swear there's an accordion in her songs), and Urban Symphony from Estonia is quite good. Enya, an Irish muscican, uses many languages in her songs, such as Gaelic, French, Latin, and a host of others.

This probably doesn't count as World Music per say, but "Meglio Stasera" by Henry Mancini and performed by Fran Jefferies is one of my favourite songs, and it's in Italian.

[Dreams]

They sometimes sing in Icelandic but a lot of times they will also just sing in a gibberish made-up language? So cool.

That is cool. XD Are their gibberish songs on YouTube?

Why shouldn't bands that became popular in the US count too? The only song I knew by Rammstein was "Du Hast", but it was pretty fun techno-thrash. It's funny that you mentioned In The Groove... that's how I got into Vanilla Ninja, actually. I heard "Tough Enough" on there too, and before I knew it, I had all their songs. Once I heard their Estonian songs, I started getting other Estonian bands, and was suprised at how much good music came from that country. Then it progressed to fascination with the language... and so on.

Polka! You are uncommon.

I like Ilona Mitrecy from France

I love her song "Un Monde Parfait", but I haven't heard anything else by her.

And yeah, there are a lot of good performers who do new age music in different languages. Opera, too! Sarah Brightman is awesome in that genre.

[Nemoide]

Here's a video which I just learned existed. I had to check Wikipedia - since I don't know Icelandic, I don't know when they are using that or when they switch to their made up "Vonlenska" (aka Hopelandic - what the gibberish language is generally referred to as). It's off their album which is only titled "( )", there are no song names, and the booklet in the case is blank so that if fans want to write/draw their interpretations of the music they can. I assumed there were no music videos for it BUT APPARENTLY I WAS MISTAKEN.

[Kori]

Aah that vid was so beautiful and haunting and sad and did I say beautiful? X3 Gorgeous stuff!

There's a TON of world music out there that I've only heard snippets of, but would love to hear more. I became a Deep Forest fan thanks to wherethehellismatt.com - his 2005 viral video. XD I now own the album that Sweet Lullaby is on.. but in old-school cassette format.. LOL

I would kinda count the group Kwoon, a French "ethereal-rock" group. Many of their lyrics are in English tho. I just loooove "I Lived On The Moon"!

Oooh, some other music I adore - many songs from Cirque du Soleil! (Canada represent! XD) They seem to mix French with Spanish, Italian, and a whole host of other languages - maybe even their own made-up language? I'm not 100% sure, but it's definitely BEAUTIFUL. Thus far, Quidam and Varekai are my favorite shows. I'd love to see more, but I gotta FIND 'em is the problem! XD

Fave songs: Quidam, Diabolos, Aerial Hoops, and.. oh heck, just about every song from Varekai! :3

[Dreams]

Here's a video which I just learned existed.

That video was amazing! So tragic, and the music was so beautiful...

I would kinda count the group Kwoon, a French "ethereal-rock" group. Many of their lyrics are in English tho. I just loooove "I Lived On The Moon"!

I've heard of Kwoon, but never listened to their stuff... but, WOW. I just watched I Lived On The Moon. What an incredible video!

Speaking of gibberish songs... how 'bout Cyberbird? It's a song from the anime Ghost in the Shell, but it's quite beautiful, sung in a totally made-up language. (Even though every time I listen to it, I swear it sounds like some existing language and I try to figure it out.)

[DARiA]

Beside English and Japanese... I like listening to Deep Forest, I believe it is truly world music, since they collect tunes from around the world.
And since I'm Russian, I listen to Russian bands too, like Flёur or Мельница (it means "a mill"). Basically, folk, rock-folk or bard songs.

[Chao Freak 1]

Besides English and Japanese... Well I should say besides japanese 'cause I know no english bands or songs really. o.o
Um. Mainly French and Korean. Korean pop is absolutely amazing. K-techno too. I really like Lee Jung Hyun. Probably my favorite artist.
And there's also the fun VOCALOID songs in other languages when they pronounce everything wrong. Fun fun.
And yes. "Un Monde Parfait" is amazing~

[Rave]

I don't listen to a lot of World music, or at least nothing that qualifies for non-English or non-Japanese...

...but Azam Ali and her work as the vocalist for Niyaz is not only hypnotic, but can become very NiGHTS-y very quickly.

...and I'm not sure if it counts, but do songs that are sung in choir classes count, too? Because I've sung most definitely in Latin - lots and lots of Latin - another song that's based on a Russian folk-song, and one song in French about the spinning of a windmill (or something like that) in the 5th grade that has a very bad tendency to just get stuck in my head...

[Chime]

Non english and japanese.
My fave:


For french:
little:

also yelle sometimes, and ariane moffat.

German:
Peter fox:

also rammstein and die prinzen and herbert gromeneyer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f9xeoZlGIw

I really want to put down basshunter too , for this song particularly: http://www.youtube.c...feature=related
but a lot of his songs are in english.

Hebrew: I been so out of touch, but I still listen to tipex/teapacks sometimes.
and this song that was on the radio all the time, until i could play the tarbuka part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKZ2gOF7I64

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

Don't really like russian music nowadays =( they gone suck for me. except this band i cant remember the name of...

[SmashQueen]

Latin and French. Obviously got hooked via video games but having a history class disguised as an artistic appreciation course helped as well. Latin was played a lot. ^^

French Example: Odin Sphere's Main Theme (Bittersweet... ;_; )

Latin Example: Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Main Theme (You all saw that coming.)

I also dabble in German and Swedish music from time to time, but mainly when a cousin of mine brings them up for whatever reason. Otherwise it's Latin and French that's heard aside from Japanese and English.

[leox001]

I really like some bands from my country, that could be referred as "world music", though when people think about latin american music they think about salsa and whatnot. I'm not really into that but a mixture of genres like rock and ska.

I'll share my favorite songs from one of the best bands around here, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!

La Vela Puerca;
"Escobas"

"Sin Palabras"


Of course, the lyrics play an important role on these songs aswell!

[spinningcannon]

I listen to Japanese music obsessively, but there's a local Spanish radio channel that plays some stellar stuff.

Thanks to Last.fm, I also have a good deal of Russian, Korean, Chinese and Arabic music in my iTunes library.
I honestly love foreign music; I need to find more of it.