Tunes On Tuesday: World Music

World music is probably one of the most under appreciated genre's of music here in America. It encompasses everything from traditional types of music to contemporary and wraps it's way around the entire globe. Thanks to the expanded CD market before and now being able to download or listen to anything through sites like YouTube, you can experience the world at your finger tips. This is probably the biggest reason I love world music, besides the fact that it's amazing music, it's a chance to "travel" and be transported without having to spend the thousands of dollars.

I wanted to take today to share some of the songs I've encountered and are some of my favorite world music songs today. They aren't from one certain country or continent and range from the traditional to the modern. I hope you enjoy them!

** Tornero  by Mihai Traistariu 

When I visited Greece before my senior year at Valpo this song was all the rage because of the European version of American Idol. The TV would play this music video ALL the time and the music channel was one of the only channels where we could sort of understand it, you can understand the emotion of music no matter what language right? : )

**Punjabiyan Di Shaan by Hans Raj Hans
If you were a big fan of Bend it Like Beckham you would definitely know this song. It's one of the songs off the soundtrack and probably my favorite out of the entire album. This is a great energetic song to add to your workout playlist too.

**Rompi Rompi by Omar Faruk Tekbilek & Richard A. Hagopian
A number of years ago now I really got into the whole belly dancing trend and found that I really enjoy that type of Middle Eastern music as well. This song is one off my favorite album. Middle Eastern belly dance music is always a good one to get those hips moving and toes tapping. Just type in belly dance music into youtube and you'll come up with tons of great songs.

**Τενεδιό - Νησιώτικο παραδοσιακό Τενέδου (Greek folk music)
A growing love of mine is Greek traditional or folk music. There didn't seem to be as many good youtube videos as I was hoping but I really like this guy's play list. It seems the past few years I've become more interested in Greek culture as a whole, not just the classical Greek history. I wish I could tell you my learning of Greek was coming along enough to translate the title of the song but it's not there yet!

**Merry Sisters of Fate by Lúnasa
Celtic music was probably the first type of World Music I fell in love with. So much of it is just so mysterious, vibrant and just plain fun. This song is off Lúnasa's Merry Sisters of Fate album, which is an amazing album with some killer flute and violin parts. I highly recommend checking out all the songs on the play list.

**Aboriginal Music by Richard Walley
Australian Aboriginal is probably the type of music I listen to that Kevin thinks is the weirdest. I do not blame him because it is a bit odd when all of a sudden you have the didgeridoo blaring from your computer in a dead silent room. The didgeridoo is just like no instrument that we have here in the States and I just love the unique sound it makes. Richard Walley has a bunch of albums that are great, most of the songs are instrumental but there is some singing.

**Never Let You Go by Dima Bilan
Now to sort of bring everything full circle with another song I learned about on my trip to Greece and their wonderful version of Idol. I believe this guy won then entire thing that year which is totally obvious by this song. I mean come on wouldn't you pick the guy with the mullet? I mean come on?

Hopefully you've enjoyed some of the songs on this somewhat world tour of music. There are soooo many other songs and types of songs just sitting on my World Music playlist that I couldn't come close to sharing them all today! Do you listen to any types of World Music? What's your favorite?