Growing up a weeb ripped that bandaid off pretty early. If I like it, I like it. 👍🏾
The German version was #1 in America. The English version was #1 in Germany.
Guess the song?
99 Luftballoons?
checks link Yes!
Here’s something from Canada with French(?) lyrics: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1pJGH1OGRZI
Real talk, there’s a lot of music from Quebec with French lyrics that slaps.
I remember Malajube touring in the US in the 2000s.
Recently I watched the Kneecap. A biopic of a north Irish hip hop / rap band, performing in Irish and English. Now they have entered my playlist.
Babymetal and The Hu are fantastic gateway artists.
I think you can find an awesome metal band in every major country or language.
Babymetal also did a song with Bloodywood which is pretty good.
Babymetal also did a song with Electric Callboy that’s awesome.
They also toured with Dethklok. Really disappointed I couldn’t go to that one
And bring me the horizon (kingslayer, it’s a BOP) and dragonforce.
THAT’S SO FUCKING COOL
I sometimes joke that BMTH is mid unless they have a feature. Kingslayer is probably my favorite overall.
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
Jaan Pehchan Ho - I imagine this is what it was like for non-English speakers discovering Elvis for the first time.
And here’s Indian rendition of Mozart’s Symphony no. 40.
Prisencolinensinainciusol
Paradichlorbenzene - A chemical.
Jaan Pehchan Ho
They used this in Ghost World, which was a great film early-ish in the careers of Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch.
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…
Thanks! Just saw the music video, and I can’t really say I get the hype, but the backstory makes this pretty amazing.
Il Rovescio Della Medaglia - Contaminazione. Italian lyrics, based on the life of Bach and is a rock album that incorporates his “Well Tempered Clavier” pieces as well.
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.
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
For me, the issue tends to be that while I don’t mind listening to music where I don’t understand the lyrics, I do mind listening to music that might be outright anti-LGBT, misogynist etc.; I mostly stopped listening to Jamaican music because of that - not saying that it’s all like that, but the chance of a given song being like that is higher than I’m comfortable with. Also, Rastafarian is whack.
Can somebody hook me up with some good Japanese alternative music?
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.
Thank you for your suggestions! They’re right up my alley
Tricot and Toe are great math rock, Tricot is a bit more energetic and Toe a bit more chilled, but both are amazing.
Thank you very much! Great artists!
I mainly listen to pop with YOASOBI coming to mind but commenting for anyone else’s reference’s
Sorry but I can’t help with recomendations
But I can link you this automatically playlist from YouTube for top 100 songs in Japan that might help you with finding them
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4fGSI1pDJn4-UIb6RKHdxam-oAUULIGB
I am deeply convinced that the music of Ado is the best music in the world.
Just listen to うっせぇわ. I’ve started listening to her after starting to learn Japanese, but now it’s pretty much my main motivation to continue learning the language (through there are quite a lot).
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=m10mNB8L9KwThank you for the reply, I will definitely check this out!
No buses band
This is SO good! Thank you!
Moksori’s playlists on YouTube, really great collections
Wow! That’s great! Thank you very much
French hip-hop and Norwegian doom metal are pretty good though.
Krav boca anyone?
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).
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.
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.
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
Hey thanks for this rec, I love 7 second delay and HTRG already (and The Blues x3 when I can catch it but there’s no RSS feed I can find), WFMU rules I’ll def check this out.
