WFMU (a radio station in New Jersey) has a weekly show on one of its web streams. It’s called Continental Subway, presented by an American called David Dichelle, who lives in Germany.
He plays all kinds of music in many different languages, as well as different versions of folk songs in English - he’s working through the Roud Folksong Index and has reached Roud 350, The Topman and the Afterguard / The Sailor and the Soldier. However, most of what he plays isn’t in English and as well as music from many different countries each week he will play 8 or 10 songs from a particular country chosen at random. This week it was Chad.
Very highly recommended, not least because all the shows back to 2017 are archived, so you can listen again when you want, and it’s listener supported so there are no adverts. Links to all the shows and playlists here: https://wfmu.org/playlists/CW
Some non-English music I enjoy, though not at the same time:
Lisa Ekdahl - Vem Vet (Swedish) Nice catchy Swedish tune, maybe jazz?
Samain et Shuait - Les Nomades (French and Anishinaabe) First Nations hip-hop
Gwenno - Chwyldro (Kernewek) Folky dreamscapes in a functionally extinct language (they’re bringing it back, though).
Moonchild Sanelly - Gwara Gwara (English and Xitsonga) Pop-funk-dance mixing international and indigenous traditions.
Majid Soula - Win Terram (Tamazight) Electronic beats from a Berber.
Jacques Dutronc - On nous Cache Tout, on nous Tout de Rein (French) A classic of French rock and roll.
Manu Negra - Mala Vida (Spanish) Punk styled music by folks who like their anarchist forebears.
San Salvador - Quau te Mena(Occitan) Occitanian folk traditions given new life.
TUDI-VOICE - 囡仔你甘知 (Hokkien) - Socially active Taiwanese band in Chinese folk tradition with a modern spin.
Beyond - Glorious Years (Hong Kong Cantonese) Cantopop legends.
Sorry for the YouTube links.
KMFDM
German: Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid aka No Majority For Compassion (No Pity for the Majority)
American: Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode
Loved them in the 90s through early 2000s when I was in my teens. Including the extended family like PIG, En Esch, and Skold. Last decade and a half have been meh.
Though I’m pretty sure everybody has fondness for the music they liked from teens through early 20s.
It’s better than the best.
The German version was #1 in America. The English version was #1 in Germany.
Guess the song?
99 Luftballoons?
checks link Yes!
LOL!
My short story about foeeign music
Wife and 6-year-old get back from dance class:
6yo: I want to add that song we heard in the car to my playlist
Wife: oh what was that song again
Me: do you remember any words, we can search for it
6yo: no Wife: no
Me: what station was it on?
Wife: satellite, TikTok radio
Me: ohh ok, I guess we just need to wait or maybe if you find it on TikTok…
Days go by
Wife: It came on in the car but the title of the song was all weird characters
Me: was it like little stick figures or big slashes or just weird drawn characters?
Wife: just wierd
Me: Google: Russian songs on tik Tok
Moreart
Ohh!
I listen to it. It absolutely slaps
Google then mentions controversy
Then I translate the song’s name.
LMAO. 'I will fuck"
Then I go to look for lyric translations
It’s so fucking cringe and not in a naughty or dirty way, it’s just lame cringe.
The beat of the music still slap though.
Reminds me of this funny commercial (nsfw language).
Rofl, That’s awesome.
Another short story: My GF (now wife) was doing event planning. This was an outdoor dog event. Everything was very rural, very unsanctioned. The company they were dealing with brought in all of the stages and equipment. One of her tasks was to provide the music.
I helped her make a nice lengthy playlist that would easily last the entire event. I did however have all of my mp3s with us.
About 30 minutes into the all day event, someone came up and made a request for a song. We were just using winamp, She didn’t see the harm in it so she just grabbed whatever they requested and shoved it in the playlist a couple of songs down. All of a sudden there was a line to make requests.
I already had a lot of the low hanging fruit like who let the dogs out in the queue.
Well apparently, five or six request later they asked for Nine Inch Nails - closer, oh yeah great dog themed song…
I didn’t have my phone with me. I was all the way at the other side of the event. I hear that familiar synth bassline queue up. Buum Dom Bop be boom boom de dibidibi.
I start running toward the stage. Trying to grab her attention to stop the song.
Buum Dom Bop be boom boom de dibidibi, you let me violate you
I’m running some more but I’m out of shape. The music is quite loud there’s no way I could scream loud enough for her to hear me.
Buum Dom Bop be boom boom de dibidibi, you let me desecrate you
I get a stitch in my side and shin splits at the same time… I have to slow down.
A couple more lines go by, I’m not going to make it in time
Buum Dom Bop be boom boom de dibidibi, you let me complicate you
Oh we’re almost through the precourse now
Boo dooo booodooo booOOODOOdeedee help me I broke apart my insides
I’m about 30 ft away but I am desperately out of breath.
Boo dooo booodooo booOOODOOdeedee. Help me get away from myself
A lot of the guys in the crowd around me are laughing their asses off because they know what’s coming
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
Volume off
Scandalous! Mother’s holding their children’s ears, hundreds of bros sitting around thumbs up in the whole event.
We learned a few valuable lessons that day. Don’t take requests for Media that you’re not ultimately familiar with, Don’t bring any media with you that you don’t want the public to hear.
Zappa’s Bobby Brown topped the charts in several European countries, with most people oblivious to the lyrics, people thought it was just some pop song :)
Zappa remains great.
But also at least half of his songs are absolute smut, and we love him for it.
OMG you’re right. Was guilty of that too :)
It’s such a catchy tune.
I prefer J-pop but K-pop isn’t all that bad.
I love some random foreign artists that I don’t speak the language of and can’t understand at all - Saian Supa Cru, Dengue Fever, Kent, Sigur Ros, Vicentico.
On a side note, I saw BTS on UK TV once and thought it was some kind of comedy pastiche act. What I heard and saw was really terrible, yet the panel on the show were lauding them when it was over, and I just didn’t understand. K-pop is likely not for me, I figure.
K-Pop is for eight-year-olds. It absolutely seems like a joke the first time you see it.
I’m not a fan either, though in terms of musicianship and songwriting quality most of it is far above contemporary american pop. I completely understand why kids would prefer that to the endless “three chords and autotune without a hook” slop.
Yes, that’s probably true. I assume somebody is still making good music, but it doesn’t seem to be reaching me.
K and J pop is absolutely grating to my ears, but they’re billion dollar industries for a reason. They took the west’s version of boy and girl bands from 30 years ago and turned it up to 11.
They certainly did.
I’m curious what you saw. Was it their Graham Norton show appearance? I didn’t like that performance either. Afaik they were at their worst.
One of them couldn’t be there and another had a hurt foot, and they’ve said how self conscious the rest of them were to be missing those two.
I dunno, I’m not a fan of this sentiment. Music tastes are personal, it’s okay to think, “nah, music of this country isn’t really for me,” because music of a given country will often have certain elements that won’t appeal to everyone. It’s not like you’re uncultured or being unfair for it. And you don’t necessarily have to give it a good try first because you’re probably exposed to it anyways. Any stranger on the street can probably think of an example (though not necessarily a whole song) if you bring up Spanish music, Indian music, K-pop, etc…
The language bit I get, but some people prefer songs where they can understand the lyrics, and that’s also okay. I’m sort of one of those people, though in my case it’s more “I want to have a general idea what’s being said because if it’s a good song I’ll want to sing along and I don’t want to unknowingly say something obscene,” so it doesn’t stop me from listening to foreign songs as long as I can screen the lyrics.
It’s very unlikely that you dislike ALL other countries’ music. One is fine. Five is understandable. But 200??
Plus countries generally make more than one kind of music. Like I don’t like j pop but there are plenty of Japanese people doing rock or metal or ska or whatever.
Listened to the Beatles and they sucked. Now I hate all British music. /s
God, I can hear this gif so well. One of my favorite songs/music videos.
For those of us less culturally educated, could you share the artist and title?
Oh, my moment! This song has some nice lore, here’s the Wikipedia article.
The song was released in 1998 and was a big hit in India, reaching the West in the 2000s where it quickly became one of the OG memes.
Even back then, at least by the time the song reached the West, the CG graphics were already considered awful, and still the song was so catchy that it didn’t matter.
It turns out that this was the whole point. Mehndi was already a big name in India, but was criticized for always using “an overabundance” of beautiful dancing women in his videos, and that this was the only reason he was popular.
He then recorded this video, featuring only himself, and grabbed another Indian #1 hit…
If you are in the US, the National Arab Orchestra is technically domestic. Maybe this will trick someone into listening to this Arabic song
Can somebody hook me up with some good Japanese alternative music?
No buses band
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by alternative music (I’m not at all versed in musical styles). But in case you’re looking for music made by individuals (indie music?), may I interest you in vocaloid music (music made with a voice synthesizer)? It’s has quite much variety. And by snowballing (look e.g. at recommendations, other works by the producer, covers (usually by a so-called “utaite” (tried-to-sing-er)), other songs covered by a person, and various other ways) you can find more and more small-ish and small musicians. It all forms a network.
Here’s a little (quite arbitrary) start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWOvhZBS9IA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLxB_3ReL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODKIyzSVLTY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2qPxLlOFI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m10mNB8L9KwTricot and Toe are great math rock, Tricot is a bit more energetic and Toe a bit more chilled, but both are amazing.
Hmm do you just mean not pop/boy/girl band type of stuff?
Shiina Ringo was pretty popular back when I was listening to a lot of Japanese stuff. She can do a lot of styles but I remember her being punk rock jazzy. In the other direction, I was also into Pizzicato Five who are more retro 60s French vibes.
Moksori’s playlists on YouTube, really great collections
Wow! That’s great! Thank you very much
Till The End by ReoNa is an absolute BANGER that I will die on a hill for. Its Japanese, but you really dont need to know the language to get the vibe.
French hip hop fucking slaps. Do people still say that? I don’t know. Anyway, here’s Keny Arkana.
There is some really, really cool non-English music out there.
Jaan Pehchan Ho - I imagine this is what it was like for non-English speakers discovering Elvis for the first time.
Prisencolinensinainciusol - Artist wanted to make a song that sounds like English to people who don’t speak English. It doesn’t make sense in any language but still sounds amazing.
Ievan Polkka - Finnish song from 1928. Used in the gag site “leekspin”.
The lyrics are unintentionally hilarious.
https://genius.com/Eino-kettunen-ievan-polkka-english-translation-lyrics
Absolute banger. Love Bloodywood
