In the future skateboarders will hum Indonesian ditties to an African beat mixed by a DJ in London…wearing clothes designed by a former grunge guitarist bought over a website based in Mexico.
from the Luaka Bop page at http://www.wbr.com/luakabop/cmp/home.html
Documents the songs of the Abayudaya people of Uganda, who converted to Judaism in the 1920s. You can download several audio files of songs, most of which are versions of American-Jewish songs. Also offers photos and information on the history and culture of the Abayudaya people.
There’s lots of information here on African and African-influenced music and musicians from all over the world, including South America and the Caribbean, in an organized format. It includes articles, artist profiles, and sound samples and offers links to home pages of the different countries. You can start by clicking the letter representing the country of your choice, or page down and browse through the contents. You’ll also find an alphabetized artist list, related African links, and African music sources. Along the way, look at some of the great photographs.
Yes, there’s reggae music here, but there’s also everything from Afro Funk to Ziglibithy to suit your musical tastes. Explore Africa and the Caribbean by artist, geographical location, and style. If you get tired exploring this site in English, you can exercise your French skills by using the site’s French version. You’ll also find a list of African/Caribbean night clubs and restaurants in Paris. This site is nicely organized, with colorful 3-D musical notes indicating the sections, and the graphics and layout are very clean and crisp. You’ll find an excellent page of links to other related Web resources, too.
This site gets “Best Title” in this category. It offers a collection of Irish, Scottish, and English traditional tunes played on the pennywhistle and ocarina. Each tune is presented in AU and AIFF formats. Note: AIFF takes two to three times longer to download.
A huge page of links for the many aspect’s of Thailand’s culture and history. Check out the links for traditional and contemporary Thai music in the “Music and Cinema” and “Thai Sound Files” sections.
Wow! Pages and pages of links to Celtic music sites, alphabetized by site title. If you’re interested in where to find Celtic music on the Web, this site should be your first stop.
Focuses on the klezmer musical blend of traditional Jewish folk music, blues, and jazz. You’ll find articles, artist profiles, CD reviews, concert and festival information, a guide to radio programs, and contact information for klezmer musicians. There are also links to sites where you can buy klezmer CDs and a great annotated section on other klezmer-related resources on the Web.
This goal of this site is to supply information about as many Australian musicians and musical organizations as possible. Currently, the site lists over 1,410 Australian musicians of all kinds, and 564 of them have links to Web pages. The Other Links section offers a wealth of music- and other media-related links in an alphabetized format.
This site claims to have the largest collection of Celtic music information that’s available online. Irish and Scottish music predominate, but the music of Wales and Brittany is also represented. You’ll find a guide to Celtic music resources, artist profiles, discographies, reviews, sound samples, and concert and festival schedules. Also featured are tune indexes, music software, a guide to musical instruments, and links to countless other sites.
Here’s an archive of Chinese and Taiwanese music from the pre- and post-liberation eras. The site has many audio samples of traditional instrumental and vocal forms, music from the folk, ceremonial, and military music genres, and a few related links to other Chinese music sites.
This site offers information on North and South Indian classical music, Indian classical dance forms, FAQs for rec.music.indian.classical, and an eclectic gallery of photos ranging from musicians to Hindu deities to Mahatma Gandhi. Also includes databases of song lyrics and great personalities of Carnatic (South Indian) music.
Music, pictures, and literature from the Andes mountains of South America; offerings in English, Spanish, and the Quechua Indian language. You can also see movie clips of dances. There are English translations of the lyrics, and most sound clips are available in both AU and WAV format.
You can search for folk music from around the world with a very cool search engine. I typed in “australian folk” and got a list of songs; on a whim, I picked “We’ll Rant and We’ll Roar” and got the lyrics, a brief but interesting history of the song, and a MIDI clip of the song. Now, here’s a coincidence for you: The song just happened to be a version of the tune Quint sang in the movie Jaws, which was one of my favorite scenes. You can also get info here about The Mudcat Cafe, an online magazine about blues and folk music.
Dirty Linen is an online magazine for folk and world music. At its home page, you can find a table of contents, a list of back issues, a “gig guide,” and more. Well worth checking out.
This site covers on the flamenco scene in Madrid. Tourists and flamenco aficionados can find useful information about where to see live flamenco performances. There are links to other flamenco sites on the Web, too. Some information is in Spanish.
More information on flamenco, with an introduction for beginners. There are discographies for both dancers and guitarists and MIDI sound files available. You’ll also find dozens and dozens of links to related sites.
Great site on Hawaiian music and culture! You need RealAudio to hear the clips and shows, however. Clean, clear graphics and organization; I liked the little pineapples scattered over the background. Each show is about an hour long and revolves around a particular theme, such as “Traditional Hawaiian Falsetto.” There’s a list of related sites, too.
This site focuses on Indian movie songs in the Hindi language, with song information and full lyrics. Includes categorized indexes of singers, music directors, lyricists, films, actors/actresses, as well as a searchable song title index.
Features information on different types of Balinese, Javanese, and Sundanese music and instruments, including the gamelan (Indonesian percussion orchestra) and angklung (a bamboo instrument). Also offers Indonesian song lyrics and links to North American gamelan orchestra pages.
CelticMusic.Com, an online magazine, focuses on Celtic music; check out the site’s magazine index for a helpful listing of back issues and links to the home pages of featured artists. The site also includes sheet music for traditional tunes, reviews of recent CDs, audio excerpts (for the titles with dancing musical notes next to them), and more in the Virtual Tunebook section. Lovely graphics, particularly the band of Celtic knots running along the left margin, and the site is easy to navigate around.
Fascinating information on kabuki and the instruments commonly used in kabuki, such as the taiko drum and the three-stringed shamisen. You can also hear samples of some of the instruments and examples of kabuki fans shouting out support for their favorite actors; these shouts are called kakegoe.
This site organizes a wealth of information about New Zealand folk and acoustic music. You’ll find upcoming events, festival news, bios of “kiwi” artists, and links to other related pages.
You’ll find a variety of information on Afro-pop music, particularly Soukous, a variety of pan-African dance music that originated in Zaire and the Congo. Features recommendations on bands, CDs, and other useful information, including related links with helpful annotations.
This page is an excellent introduction to mbira, the traditional music of Zimbabwe. It also covers Shona traditions, customs, and literature as they relate to mbira. For a site that the author warns is still under construction, there’s a lot of good information here. You can listen to a sampler of mbira music, and check out the calendar of events.
Here’s an eclectic collection of world music information and extensive links to other ethnomusicalogy-related sites. Includes discographies (with images from the CD covers), sound samples, reviews, and more. You’ll hear music from Asia, the French Antilles, and Africa, to name a few. (Note: Cool illustration of Calvin and Hobbes getting down on the welcome page!)
You’ll find all kinds of information on Nowegian music here—biographies on many, many composers; articles covering Norwegian music history, early and church music, and more recent pop, rock, and jazz; info on festivals and other events; and links to many other related sites.
This is an excellent place to start if you’re looking for Web resources on Hawaiian music. You’ll find lots of links to Hawaiian music sites and Web pages here.
http://www.wbr.com/luakabop/cmp/home.html
http://www.hnh.com/rahome/rampc.htm
You’ll find just about everything you wanted to know about mariachi music here, including a history of mariachi, recommended books and CDs, the lyrics to probably every Mexican song ever written (I’m not kidding!) alphabetized by first line of the song, and dozens and dozens of links to Mexican music and cultural sites. Cool background on the welcome page—it looks like a music notebook, with the spiral running along the lefthand side.
Offers a collection of sheet music of traditional tunes, primarily from the Celtic lands, Scandinavia, France, and the Balkans. You can access them by title, country, or type (jig, reel, waltz, and so on). This site offers lots of links, too, and I liked the author’s conversational writing style. He offers lots of tips on how to download and view the files.
An informative, well-organized site with an archive of Russian singers and their songs, including photos, discographies, song lyrics, and audio and video clips. Also offers recommended recordings and where to buy them, as well as links to other sites. Includes pop music, but check out the sections on Russian folk and romantic music, too.
Here’s a site for fans of Urdu and Hindi film music. Offers articles on singers, musical directors, and lyricists and gives you lists of songs indexed by singer, music director, and so forth. You can also find the notes and chords of songs and see many photos.
Their repertoire encompasses music from the Renaissance, traditional tango, and the modern tango of Astor Piazzolla. The members of the quartet are all students taught at the Carlevaro Guitar School based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Using Abel Carlevaro’s techniques, the four guitars create a miniature orchestra. Check out the 30-second sound clips available at this site.
At first, this site just looks like an advertisement for the music store and its new locations. However, if you go down to the links on traditional music and instruments, you’ll find some excellent information. I chose the shamisen section and found not only an AU file, but an informative description of the instrument, an illustration, the type of music it’s used for, and more. Fascinating stuff, but I’ll warn you; the background graphics on some of the pages makes the text a little hard to read.
This page from the World Wide Web Server of Peru—Red Cientifica Peruana—has sound files of Andean flute music as well as links to related Peruvian music topics.
This is an archive of Indonesian songs, divided into pop, traditional, and national songs, some in MIDI format. You’ll find links to related sites, too.
This site covers Australian folk music and even offers a search feature. You’ll also find interviews, news of local folk clubs in the Sydney area, and links to folk music sites in Australia, Ireland, the UK, and the USA. You’ll find short bios of Australian folk musicians, news of upcoming festivals and events, and “folksie” organizations, all in a clear, nicely organized format.
Offers a wide variety of Jewish music selections. You’ll find an online catalog and links to other Jewish music sites. There are a few articles, too, and an artists section with links to their home pages. Check out the RealAudio library.
Provides home site and online ordering for Temple Records, which specializes in Scottish traditional music. Includes an online catalog, artist descriptions, and ordering information.
Hosgeldiniz! This site has a Turkish music archive and an index to other Turkish music sites. Includes articles on Turkish music genres; audio files; discographies; and links to classical, folk, religious, and other music styles from Turkey and Cyprus.
Excellent site, organized into sections with a discography, lyrics, images, interviews, sound bytes, and information about the Irish band Clannad. You’ll also find links to other Clannad sites.
Bali & Beyond is a Los Angeles–based performing arts company inspired by the culture of Indonesia. The ensemble tours nationwide, featuring a variety of music, theater, and educational presentations. This colorful site is is their home page, with lots of information about upcoming concert schedules and events. However, check out the Kechat section for background on the Indonesian culture and music and Maria’s corner for all kinds of interesting gift items. There’s even a Fun and Gamelan section with yes, gamelan trivia questions! You can see audio and video clips of the performances; there are helpful tips on the plug-ins you need to view them.
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