The Music of Babel

[staxxy]

Lately I have been pondering the music I listen to. Specifically, the *languages* I listen to music in.

I count 9 12 languages in the music I listen to

Comments

[hadaverde]

Aside from many of the languages already mentioned, I've found in my collection some Dutch, Greek, Icelandic, Romanian (aside from Dragostea Din Tei), Urdu, Punjabi, and probably a few others that aren't occurring to me at the moment.

Also, does Lisa Gerrard's work count as its own separate language? ;)

[staxxy]

Heh.

and WOOT on your list!!!

[wendolen]

I'm surprised nobody has spoken up with Portuguese -- I have several Brazilian CDs. I have some Tatar stuff... and the one Romanian single that lots of us have. ;) I have Icelandic, too, for sure.

I lack the focus to properly catalog right now. Maybe in a bit. ;)

[staxxy]

nice!!

My list

[wendolen]

English
German
Japanese
French
Spanish
Italian (If you count John Lennon's Italian-gibberish in Here Comes The Sun King)
Russian
Latin
Gaelic
Yiddish
Icelandic
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Tatar
Romanian
French (Canadian)
Arabic
Mandarin Chinese (I don't believe I have any Cantonese)

Also, various unidentified languages used by Dead Can Dance. And some unidentified African singers on Peter Gabriel songs.

Re: My list

[staxxy]

Most of the DCD is acutally just sounds. They avoid using acutal languages most of the time and just make up sounds instead. An odd tidbit I caught in an interview once upon a time, that stuck with me.

[treebyleaf]

Anything not on my list?

Hebrew, Yiddish, and there was a Ladino song on our missing "What the Chelm" album. ;)

[staxxy]

alas, I have *no* Hebrew, Yiddish, or Ladino.

[wendolen]

Have you heard the Hannukah songs included on last year's Barenaked For The Holidays? There are a couple, and they're really great recordings.

[culturalvacuum]

I have music in all of the languages on your list except (as far as I am aware) Korean. To it I would add:

- Norwegian
- Swedish
- Finnish
- Gaelic (Scottish and Irish)
- Breton
- Bulgarian
- Romany (Eastern European gypsies of several nationalities)
- Arabic
- Latin
- Portuguese (from Brazil and Portugal)
- French Creole (Haitian, Quebecois, Cajun, Antillean, etc.)
- Portuguese Creole (Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique)
- English Pidgin (Jamaica, Nigeria, Sierra Leone)
- Hawaiian
- Chinese (pretty much never listened to)
- Hindustani
- Urdu
- Punjabi
- Bangla/Bengali
- Afrikaans
- kwaZulu
- Tsotsitaal
- Malagasy
- Shona
- Lingala
- Kikongo
- Yoruba
- Fon
- Fula
- Mandinka
- Kono
- Malinke
- Wolof
- Bambara
- assorted other African languages I don't have the time or patience to track down

Um ..... yeah, I have a bit of a world music fetish, why do you ask?

[staxxy]

while I have music by Hawaiian bands, it is all in English.

And woot for a world music fetish.

What artists do *you* recommend most? And how would you describe their music?

World Music Recommendations, Part 1

[culturalvacuum]

Wow, that's a big question! A lot depends on people's individual tastes, and the types of other things they like. Given the other types of music that seem to be in your library, I'd start by recommending the following:

Gypsy Music
Definitely, deinitely, definitely. There are a lot of good compilations out there (The Gypsy Road is a good one) to choose from, and there's been some interesting merging of euro-dance-type techno with gypsy music, as well (see Electric Gypsyland). The particular artist I'd look for is named Vera Bila & Kale (Vera White & the Blacks, more or less), who are from the Czech Republic. Vera Bila is a short, round, troll-like woman with an absolutely amazing, strident singing voice, and the band do a great, up-tempo gypsy sound without ever getting cheezy or synthesized. I have two of their albums, and really enjoy them both.

Celtic/Scandinavian MusicI'm not sure there's such a thing as bad celtic music. My personal favorites are traditional (or at least mostly traditional) bands like Solas, but I like

Re: World Music Recommendations, Part 1

[die_kleine_rose]

You have good taste - yay!

[dangerous_beans]

I've got some Bulgarian music and some music from Basque... *grin* Most of the stuff I have and has already been listed by multiple players.