World Music Recommendations for Cultured People

Hi everyone! If you're reading this you're probably on freyathefrypan.blogspot.com. Either that or you're getting this in your email inbox if you subscribed or on Goodreads where my blog is synced with my author profile. Well if you have time, I'd really appreciate it if you could go on the main site as I want feedback on the new layout design. I put in a lot of work into giving it a sleek new modern layout so that it doesn't look like a website from the 90s... although I suppose the mere idea of running a blog is a 90s thing now. Ever since the rise of social media, who even keeps a personal blog anymore like I do? Feel free to comment if you have any design suggestions. I tried to keep the theme colour as brown since that's my favourite colour.

So moving on, in this post we're going to talk about music. I was inspired to write this when I found out that ancestry.com has teamed up with Spotify to create playlists with cultural music that represents their customer's ethnic background. I'm a huge fan of traditional music, so I thought I'd give some suggestions.

I've never had an AncestryDNA test before, although I really want to. Imagine how lit my Indian mixtape would be if I did. India is very diverse, so I hope they have different music for all the regions.

Okay so we'll start off with some indigenous music recommendations, since that's the theme of this blog. I think now is also a good moment to give my completely unqualified and unsolicited opinion on Native Americans and DNA testing. I'm not even indigenous, so please take this with a bucket of salt... but I think indigenous people should just be confident in their roots and not be so enthusiastic about DNA testing. It reinforces the colonial blood quantum ideas. On the other hand, if you know you are indigenous but not sure which tribes exactly... I suppose it would be really cool to find that out.

Americas

1: Jorge Reyes- Sazilakab

When I really want to listen to something that reminds me of the Aztecs, which is like always, especially when I'm drinking spicy hot chocolate or writing stories set in the Aztec empire... this is my go-to song. It's very calming and relaxing. For similar music you can search up other songs composed by Jorge Reyes. They make use of a lot of traditional instruments such as conch shell trumpets and ocarinas. Overall, they sound beautiful.

2: Waskar Amaru- Wawayki 

I love panflutes, don't you? They're my favourite musical instrument ever. I even have one that my friends bought for me although I'm terrible at playing it. Like most Andean music, this song contains panflutes. The lyrics are in Quechua/Runasimi, the language of the Incas.

Northern Europe

Okay so now I'm going to move on to other areas of the world that I think have fascinating music. Some of my favourites come from Northern Europe. There are lots of Scandinavian metal bands that are actually inspired by traditional melodies.

3: Trio Mediaeval- Rolandskvadet 

This one is EPIC. For historical context, it's about Roland, one of the Frankish military leaders of Charlemagne. This was originally a French ballad, but it has been translated into many languages. The Norwegian version below is my favourite. This video also contains translated lyrics. For another version of this song that is also incredible, search up "Gny- Rolandskvadet".

4: Garmarna- Herr Mannelig 

I usually listen to this one when I'm feeling really sad, especially for when love-melancholy pops up. The song is about rejection, so that makes sense. A brave handsome knight rejects a mountain troll for not being Christian. There is also a metal version of this song by In Extremo. 

Mongolia

5: Ene Say

I got into Mongolian music same way as I got into Scandinavian music... metal bands. There is Mongolian folk metal by groups like Nine Treasures and Tengger Cavalry that also include throat singing. 

The song below isn't metal though. In fact, I'm not sure what it is. Ene Say is apparently the name of the river. Oh well, whatever it is, it sounds good.

Other Random Songs I listen to

I love this one Lol... it's like generic stereotypical Middle Eastern music by Karavan Sarai. The video is also really good.

The Bollywood movie that this song is from is really historically inaccurate, but this song is one of the best things in existence:

So fam, what region of the world did I miss that has incredible music? Let me know what you listen to in the comments below.

The reason why I'm not really a fan of Kpop or whatever is because the music doesn't sound old/traditional enough... although if you have Kpop song suggestions I won't mind.