Discovering World Music

Submitted by t3rtius t3_10n85up in Music

Hi all,

I'm a European music lover, and I have quite some eclectic tastes. I noticed that most, if not all, the music streaming services are quite biased for European and American artists and it's not easy to find less popular Egyptian, Japanese, Turkish, Iranian, Ethiopian artists for example.

So what's your go-to source for discovering "world music"?

I noticed that KEXP has some less-popular shows that I really enjoyed and I also tried searching Spotify and Tidal for generic playlists with keywords such as "Iranian music" for example, but didn't get satisfactory results. I also know of SomaFM's Suburbs of Goa station.

Another option would be to just search online for some music-oriented radios from countries I'd like to explore the music of, but I'm also looking forward to your suggestions.

The genres I like are eclectic, as I said, from traditional (folk) to electronic, metal, (neo)classical, pop. So I'm just curious to discover more.

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weird-e-beans-at t1_j67ikht wrote

YouTube. The reason that Spotify and Tidal don't have much world music (other than them being primarily western companies with primarily western audiences) is that licensing music across different borders is kind of complicated and costly.

Most sites with user uploaded media will have a wider range to select from, but other than YouTube I can't think of any user uploaded music sites since Grooveshark was shut down.

It's just my opinion, but YouTube also has a better recommendation algorithm than Spotify. It definitely gives me a better range of recommendations.

You can also buy it, whether you import or go second hand. I buy vinyl from Asia all the time.

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t3rtius OP t1_j67ly33 wrote

Those are good points, thank you!

I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me earlier, user uploads are a great service to help circumvent some of the problems with labels and licensing. My Analog Journal from YouTube is a great example.

I would also consider Soundcloud, precisely for user-contributed content, it's a service I'm currently getting acquainted to, although it seems more electronic & remix focused.

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Torple42 t1_j67iqq3 wrote

Here are a few to check out:

Kikagaku Moyo

Goat

Fela Kuti

Khruangbin

Ali Farka Toure and his son Vieux Farka Toure (who did a album with Khruangbin)

Mdou Moctar

William Onyabor

Also, discogs.com is pretty good for searching for world music.

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t3rtius OP t1_j67lp9z wrote

Thank you, noted!

I already know Mdou Moctar from your list and I like his music.

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Torple42 t1_j67m8lx wrote

Mdou Moctar is a Nigerian artist, so I would suggest checking out more from there. Fela Kuti and William Onyabor are both Nigerian as well, plenty of great stuff out of Nigeria.

You might also be interested in Witch from Zambia who started a whole genre called "zamrock".

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Torple42 t1_j67mpoj wrote

I would also highly recommend checking out My Analog Journal on Youtube, it's basically DJ sessions of world music.

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t3rtius OP t1_j67vbth wrote

Thanks! As I noted I'm a previous comment, I know and follow My Analog Journal and I agree it has a ton of great content.

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Mexicola1984 t1_j67mw20 wrote

Boris

Japanese doom / metal band that wander into many genres from earth shatter riffs to drone, punk and have a discography that will take you a while to work through

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t3rtius OP t1_j689j4i wrote

Thank you all, duly noted!

Now to be honest, I started the thread looking more for platforms/stores/streaming services that abound in world music rather than individual recommendations.

I guess the conclusion is that YouTube is the primary source, so I'll be exploring it more, started a subscription for YouTube Premium today for that

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