Best ethnic & international music books according to redditors

We found 77 Reddit comments discussing the best ethnic & international music books. We ranked the 46 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

Next page

Subcategories:

Ethnomusicology books
Books about international music
Books about salsa music
Books about world beat music
Books about ethnic music

Top Reddit comments about Ethnic & International Music:

u/Xenoceratops · 42 pointsr/musictheory

>Just because it doesn't fit in with the classical paradigm of being virtuoso or 'gifted' doesn't make it any less valuable.

Hold on now, this is not just a classical music thing. Thomas Turino links what he calls "presentational performance" with cosmopolitanism and capitalism. When music is treated as a product and listeners as consumers, music-making becomes the preserve of specialists.

At my last job, I was the only person who could be considered a professional musician. My boss organized some of the music at his church, but few people in the building knew how to play an instrument. 200 years ago, things were different: more of my coworkers would have had musical experience, simply because most people did not hear music unless they performed it. We might all have been involved in my boss' church music group. Music would have been consumed for enjoyment (among other things), but most listeners were also performers. "Participatory performance," which presupposes lack of specialization and centers around the social act of music-making, was the norm. Recording technology and the changing socioeconomic landscape of the western world in the 20th century completely changed that paradigm.

Look at shows like American Idol or The Voice: these are programs that winnow a huge number of contestants down to a select few. Value is placed on the 'gifts,' abilities, personalities, and marketability of contestants. They are specialists producing a product or being featured as a product themselves. Rockstardom is a condition of the presentational model, not the participatory. These shows sell the narrative of magical voluntarism and the romantic notion of the individual as hero, which promotes the illusion that class is not a barrier to fame and success. Classical music is often demonized due to its past associations with class, but I don't know man. Not a single composer or performer who I know comes from old money. Orchestras and large music organizations may be funded by wealthy individuals. Is that so different from a media mogul funding a television show?

u/zakgalifimackis · 11 pointsr/hiphopheads

I imagine a lot of these kids already listen to a bunch of hip hop. They'll have their own tastes and preferences and opinions, which you can definitely use to your advantage.

For some stuff they're probably not familiar with:

Scratch is a really great film about DJing. It's rated R for language so you might need parental permission. It goes over the significance of the four elements and includes a fair bit of history. Not to mention the dopest shit you've ever seen on turntables.

Black Noise is a great book. It will definitely be over their heads, but it could be great background for you and there are parts you could photocopy to put a lesson plan together about the modern cultural impact of hip hop. You can really challenge the cognitive dissonance of listening to music that seems to preach values you don't share.

Here are a bunch of NPR interviews with important people discussing hip hop.

I think a great exercise would be to assign one of the essential albums from HHH for them to listen to. Give them a 1-2 sentence description of each MC/album and let them pick one they haven't heard to listen to. Have them write 1-2 pages on what they think and then discuss them as a group. It would be a really cool place to start and it would be some guaranteed expanding of horizons. Of course, if your school has strict regulations about profanity etc, this might be a problem. I'd emphasize that this is not going to expose them to anything they haven't seen before...

Good luck!

u/frajen · 9 pointsr/aves

Originally posted in https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/58ikxy/can_someone_define_rave/d90p5io/

The definition is different depending on who you talk to.

Personally I think of a rave as a recontextualized space in a Temporary Autonomous Zone spirit with a sound system playing electronic music

*****
Over the years I have grown to appreciate "freedom" as a very important aspect for ravers especially in the underground scene.

Going back out to a macro scale - with electronic dance music culture having grown and spread over the last 30ish years, there now exist differing layers of "rave culture" or as academia likes to call it "EDMC" (electronic dance music culture)

If you take people who have only gone to top 40 night clubs with stringent dress codes/discriminatory entry policies, then you plop them into something like EDC, they might think "wow this is so much freedom, I love raves"

But if you take those people and plop them into a free tekno rave, they might not even know what to do with themselves. "it's just a sound system in the woods, what am I supposed to do?!?" In the perfect case, the answer is: "whatever you want" - but not everyone gets this point of view, or is even interested. People make tradeoffs between music styles, sound system/visual production quality, personal freedom, personal opportunity costs (price of event/time to get there), feelings of safety, level of acceptance, etc. when deciding what to do with their lives.

Everything from the most basic of club nights to the most farout bunker rave, people will call "rave" - I think it's good to ask what people think the term means, but I personally wouldn't get too hung up about anyone's individual definition. It's been re-used for different purposes by people/groups that want to market a specific element of "original rave" (e.g. the sound system/electronic dance music) without including the freedom/friendly anarchy/TAZ aspects. I don't blame people for using the term in various ways, especially people who haven't studied or researched the culture, or haven't been to a free party themselves.

If anyone is interested in reading about EDMC on a global scale and its sociological/cultural impact, I highly recommend checking out Weekend Societies and Technomad by Graham St John and also the authors who contribute to Dancecult

you may also enjoy these threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/4k4b9e/at_what_point_is_something_no_longer_a_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/58ikxy/can_someone_define_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/1ip9pb/what_do_you_think_a_rave_is/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/1hizh0/we_all_have_different_opinions_so_what_is_your/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/71b8w7/iheartravesunicorn_stuff_what_kind_of_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/x5a7w/rave_culture/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/9dphqj/how_do_you_define_a_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/9g8b4z/whats_a_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/8i7kgp/sub_dedicated_to_more_traditional_raving/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/814nx9/what_do_you_guys_class_as_a_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/7qgy8i/looking_for_something_that_can_illustrate/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/50nd49/who_here_has_actually_been_going_to_real_raves/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/1ae3yj/the_meaning_of_a_rave/

https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/9s41d1/what_is_a_rave/

u/TheSinglesJukebox · 6 pointsr/popheads

[Joshua Minsoo Kim] It depends on how we're defining obscure. I'll break it down based on genre/country and time period for what I specifically do for myself. Some of these are more elaborate than others and that's just a result of how much time I'm willing to invest based off my taste/interests.

For contemporary Japanese music I often go on OTOTOY, Mora, RecoChoku, or HMV Japan if I want to just browse for stuff. Otherwise it's mostly through YouTube subscriptions. Patrick St. Michel (former frequent contributor to TSJ) has a great blog that's relatively comprehensive for an English-language blog. I also look to TSJ writer Ryo Miyauchi for idol pop recommendations too. He has written stuff on his Medium page on the topic.

For contemporary Korean music I primarily use Melon (basically Korea's Spotify and Hot 100 all in one) and r/kpop. On Melon they allow you to look at recent singles that were released in a respective genre (updated way more frequently than Spotify) and I devour the rap charts daily just to keep up with that. Otherwise, a bunch of YouTube subscriptions (too many labels to name), Soundcloud subscriptions (mostly rap, r&b, and remixes), Bandcamp pages (dance music, indie), and adding musicians/producers/industry people on Facebook (yes, I know, lol).

For contemporary Southeast Asian pop I visit Music Weekly and look through the charts there every week. That usually then leads to me subscribing to YouTube channels and going off YouTube recommendations there. Some countries have different charts too that are helpful.

For contemporary African music I mostly just use various playlists on Spotify or YouTube and visit OkayAfrica from time to time.

For contemporary dance music (not dance pop) it's really just a matter of keeping up with retailers (e.g. Juno, Bleep, Clone, Deejay) and record labels you're interested in. Obviously mixes on Soundcloud and MixCloud are crucial to the scene and there are way too many to name. Resident Advisor is always handy too, of course. I think it's sometimes helpful to see who's DJing at various clubs, be it big name ones like Berghain or local ones near you, and help that guide your discovery.

For contemporary rap music it's a mix of the bigger name sites (Complex, HNHH, Fader) and the lesser-known ones (Passion of the Weiss, Warm & Easy for UK stuff) but honestly, Pitchfork's The Ones has proven to have such a larger scope than I ever expected (mainly because it's by Alphonse Pierre, one of the very best rap writers right now) that it's surely one of the best resources right now. Otherwise, YouTube and Twitter (much to my chagrin).

For any contemporary indie, experimental, non-pop stuff the easiest way is to just subscribe to record label and artist newsletters and Facebook pages. And obviously there's Pitchfork and Quietus and Tiny Mix Tapes and The Wire etc to help you navigate that more easily.

For any old music that isn't canonical, it's tough. Every canon list that's out on the internet right now by a major publication is filled with obvious (and Western) music. The easiest way to find stuff is to look through RYM (sort by year/decade and genre), discogs (see what releases that producers/engineers/artists have worked on besides stuff you know, sort by country or genre, etc), and download blogs that feature stuff you're interested in. Books on various topics are sometimes astronomically insightful and seem underutilized as a tool for music discovery by younger music fans (currently going through Rumba on the River right now and the amount of information it has that I wouldn't be able to readily find on the internet is large). I also think it's good to look at various record stores around the world given that have their stuff is online. Otherwise, I sometimes browse Mercado Livre for Brazilian music and Yahoo Auctions for Japanese music. Before private music torrent tracker what.cd was shut down, it had so much music to look through that proved irrefutably useful. Easily the best resource along with Soulseek (though since what shut down, I've noticed more users "locking" their files). The sites that have replaced what are in no way comparable in terms of having a comprehensive database (granted, they're still relatively new but it's still a huge bummer).

That covers most of it. Though I should mention that I also use TSJ a lot to keep up with pop music. I had followed the site for years before joining and it is definitely covering music that most sites aren't.

If anything was unclear or you want specific examples of certain things I mention, feel free to ask questions.

u/StringJunky · 4 pointsr/Learnmusic

It looks like you're into artists that fall broadly into what we might call Egyptian pop and others who are more West African (Mali) styles. I'm not up on my Egyptian pop, but if you're into Moctar and Anivolla, you should definitely check out Tinariwen and Ali Farka, if you haven't already.

The most important melodic theme all of the you mentioned share is that their sound is based on maqamat, which are simply Arabic scales and modes. If you're looking for literature, I recommend starting with The Maqam Book, by David Mu'Allem. Beware: maqamat are similar in some ways to scales in Western Music, but there are also significant differences. For instance: Western scales are cyclical. They repeat the same intervals in any octave. maqamat are not cyclical, and their intervals may change based on the octave. In modern music, this non-cyclical aspect of maqamat often exchanged for a cyclical approac, as Western music continues to influence modern Arab and Turkish music. Also, maqamat are quartertonal; some (not all) of their intervals are quartertones and 3-quartertones. maqamat on fretted instruments can be tricky. They work great on cellos.

If you just want to get your toe wet for now, you can try noodling around in Phrygian and Phrygian Dominant.

Good luck!

u/Murglewurms · 3 pointsr/psytranceproduction

There's one I know of:

The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance: Edited by Grahan St John

2010 Taylor & Francis

Routledge Studies in Ethomusicology

u/Jongtr · 3 pointsr/musictheory

I think every theory book I've ever read has opened up my mind in some way - while always being unsatisfactory in other ways (incomplete, too dense, too little on some forms of music, etc). My experience and interest is largely in popular music of all kinds, less in classical, so that has biased my reading somewhat; but I can recommend all the following (not 100%, but worth reading):

Eric Taylor: The AB Guide to Music Theory, pts I and II - good review of the basics, aimed at pupils studying for grades. Not deep in any way but good if you're just starting out. Solidly classical, which could be a downside for some. The concepts up to grade 5 are shrunk to useful pocket size in [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Music-Theory-Grades/dp/1860960901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150641&sr=1-1&keywords=theory+of+music+grades+1-5) - 100% recommended for any absolute beginner.

George Heussenstamm : [Harmony and Theory, pts 1 & 2 (Hal Leonard)] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hal-Leonard-Harmony-Theory-Diatonic/dp/1423498879/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150878&sr=1-2&keywords=Hal+Leonard+Harmony+%26+Theory) Usefully split into Diatonic and Chromatic. I've read a few texts on standard classical theory, and this is the most approachable, IMO.

William Russo: [Jazz Composition and Orchestration] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Composition-Orchestration-William-Russo/dp/0226732150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151290&sr=1-1&keywords=russo+jazz+composition) Taught me more than I thought I wanted to know about counterpoint. Most of which I've now forgotten (not much call for it in the bands I played in...). But if you're not into big band jazz (at all), maybe not worth it.

William Russo: [Composing for the Jazz Orchestra] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Composing-Jazz-Orchestra-William-Russo-ebook/dp/B01EZ8OKQW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466149432&sr=1-1&keywords=william+russo) Neat little guide book on jazz arranging (NOT composition).

Mark Levine: [The Jazz Theory Book] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151006&sr=1-1&keywords=levine+jazz+theory) 50% recommended. Well written and presented, eye-opening in many ways, but beware - chord-scale theory! (controversial stuff, in ways he doesn't admit.)

Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha: [Jazzology] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41YkvVcCfEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=ZR730GKYPSZYA2THNXGT) The somewhat dry antidote to the above. 50% recommended. Should have been good, but somehow hard to read, easy to put down. Unlike Levine, no quotes from jazz standards or recordings - all music examples are written by the authors.

Dominic Pedler: [The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songwriting-Secrets-%2522Beatles%2522-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151087&sr=1-1&keywords=pedler+beatles) Outlines the vast number of theoretical concepts that the fab four would be astonished to learn they employed. Includes a useful appendix on basic concepts of tonal harmony. If you like pop and rock (and theory) but don't like the Beatles, still worth reading.

But then if you like the Beatles AND theory... [Alan Pollack's site] (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml) is essential reading. (Pedler is deep, but doesn't examine EVERY song. Pollack is briefer, but does.

Allan F Moore: [Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Popular Song] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Means-Analysing-Interpreting-Recorded/dp/1409438023/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151140&sr=1-1&keywords=allan+moore+song+means) Does what it says in the title - and goes deep! (way beyond the plain old superficial harmony concepts peddled - sorry - by Pedler :-))

Walter Everett: [Rock's Tonal Systems] (http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html) More stuff to raise the eyebrows of any rock musician. "Wow - we really do all that?"

Paul F Berliner: [Thinking in Jazz] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Jazz-Infinite-Improvisation-Ethnomusicology/dp/0226043819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151218&sr=1-1&keywords=thinking+in+jazz) Not a music theory book in the usual sense, but discusses how jazz musicians think about improvisation.


u/MrMichaelz · 3 pointsr/musictheory

Have you read "On Repeat"?
It deals with that specific topic.

https://www.amazon.com/Repeat-How-Music-Plays-Mind/dp/0199990824

u/mladjiraf · 2 pointsr/musictheory

Folk music:

This music is not based on chord progressions and such type of accompaniment was introduced like last century in arrangements. If anything, they used drones for tonic and dominant pitches and that's it.

Get a book with folklore songs and learn some music.

(Stravinsky used such anthology sourcing the melodies in some of his works, despite denying this, but musicologists later found all of his sources, wow.)

After you learn enough songs, you will start spotting common melodic motives and motions.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Song-Book-Dover-Collections/dp/0486261182/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=russian+folk+songs&qid=1565505024&s=books&sr=1-1

​

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Folk-Songs-Musical-History-ebook/dp/B00FF9PWTK/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=russian+folk+songs&qid=1565505024&s=books&sr=1-4

​

Art music: anything goes, copy the style of some Russian composer you like...

u/crustinXbeiber · 2 pointsr/Guitar

If you actually want to learn it, I have this book on the subject and it's very informative.

If you want to strictly stick within western tonality, try the Minor Harmonic, Major Locrian and Double Harmonic scales. Though to be completely honest, you could probably achieve the same effect to western ears by using basically any "exotic" scale, like the Gypsy scale, Egyptian, etc. etc.

u/Astrixtc · 2 pointsr/Bass

you need lessons for both.

In the mean time, start with this for walking jazz lines, and this for latin lines and styles.

As stated, this takes a lot of time and practice. I have been playing jazz bass since I started 6 years ago, and I consider myself an average jazz bassist. The only reason I'm even that good is because I studied jazz trombone all through high school and college before that.

u/RogueWolf64 · 2 pointsr/rutgers

This is the textbook. You doing absolutely need it, but if you want to do well just read the chapters that the professor stresses you to read. You also need it to write the papers.

u/OnyxRaizel · 2 pointsr/kpophelp

Thank you! I tend to look at history as a whole picture, as events tend to not occur in a vacuum. I started doing that with researching what led to genocide and the long term consequences of it, but it also applies to stuff like K-Pop.

I don't know how much you're interested in K-Pop history, but if you want to do research, here are some resources that I use:

  • Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea: Sounding Out K-Pop by Michael Fuhr
    • If you’re interested in learning about K-Pop from more of an academic view, this is a great book for that. This book even goes as far back as the late-1800s to explain how music in Korea changed after westerners started hanging around. It’s primarily written from a cultural anthropology view, but also goes into music theory. The only problem I had with it is the inaccurate information it states about H.O.T basics (that could easily have been checked on Wikipedia). Amazon is pretty much the only place you can get this book.
  • Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music, and Internet Culture (2nd Edition) by Mark Russell
    • Informative book primarily about the history of movies and Chaebol companies in Korea. There are also interesting chapters about television and comics. Not the best source for learning about K-Pop, as the small section mainly just talked about Lee Soo-man. I also got this book from Amazon.
  • KOFICE
    • Short for “Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange”, this site has a wealth of information about the Hallyu Wave. Most notably, it produces Global Hallyu Reports about how the Hallyu Wave effects Korea’s politics, economy, and cultural outreach.
u/IAmElizabethGould · 2 pointsr/Sikh

Hey!

I think it would be heavily dependant on who's available within your local area. In my old city of Newcastle there were a few teachers for pretty much any instrument you could care to imagine. It might be worth speaking with some of the people at your gurdwara and see if they either know an instrument and can teach you or can recommend you a teacher. It is also worth seeing if your gurdwara itself offers lessons. In Newcastle there also existed a lot of community centres focused around different countries, including a Pakistani and a Turkish centre. It might be worth seeing if there exist similar groups in your area and then asking there if anyone could help you.

I must admit that's not been going so well. I was too late to join the group class at the gurdwara, but that's likely to change now, as I'm hoping to join in August when the class restarts. I'm choosing to play the taus, if anything because it's rare and so it needs all the attention it can get! Trust me to pick one of the biggest instruments though...

Found these links for learning dilruba too:

  • Har Sangeet offers a few free online lessons as well as an online learning program (which you'll have to pay for but the prices seem decently low. Plus you can submit your own playing for feedback as part of the lessons). Here's the link.

  • There's also a book in English which if you can't find a teacher might be worth a look. It teaches esraj, dilruba and taus and is divided between beginner, intermediate and advanced books. Here's the link to the beginner's book. It has the advantage of being written by a native English speaker who is expert in teaching world music. It might serve to be useful as a starting point, and you could, once you'v got the basics sorted, then get some experience with another musician accompanying you who can offer help/advice/practice tips and the like.
u/Luminusflx · 1 pointr/hiphop101

Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Music/Culture) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0819562750/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_s3aLybES3S24T

Really, you should go to the "Customers also bought" section for this one or for Can't Stop Won't Stop and see what jumps out at you.

u/dyviness · 1 pointr/Cello

I understood maybe like 5% of that. Honestly have not a clue. I got interested in the oud because a friend of mine found it at a flea market and gave ot to me, and there are some traditional players that play at restaurants near where I live. Most of what I know is from watching youtube, and the music is BEAUTIFUL. I just have a really hard time hearing the scale. I do hear the semitones in the music, but when I try to play it myself I find myself squeezing it back into a western scale. I don't know much more than tha. Someone did recommend this book to me though: https://www.amazon.com/Arabic-Musical-Scales-Teachings-without/dp/0974588245/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481437545&sr=1-5&keywords=makam+music

u/el_andy_barr · 1 pointr/Iraq

A great book on this topic is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Maqam-Book-Doorway-Scales-Modes/dp/965505053X

It was written by an Iraqi Jew who has promoted Maqam music in Israel and preserved Iraqi music.

u/Lzbobcat · 1 pointr/musictheory

As far as I understand it, studies have shown that children who have learned "tonal" languages, have a better chance of reproducing or recognizing pitch when they receive music training. A book I read by a "music psychologist" says that some part of your brain deciphers all of this at a huge degree when you are young but is never lost! I think it was this book. I got it from the library.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Why-You-Love-Music-Metallica-ebook/dp/B0169ATKWI&ved=2ahUKEwj3_vOL9PneAhWMCHwKHTFoDI4QFjAAegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw26nzbuAcMFlh49mpFUeydO

u/spoonopoulos · 0 pointsr/musictheory

They're certainly not all the same, not sure what that would mean. There's overlap in books that cover the same fundamental rudiments, sure, but that's the tiniest tip of the iceberg anyway (and even so, there is a lot to be said for differing pedagogical approaches).

How could this be at all the same as this, for example? Or this and this?

u/dillonflynn · 0 pointsr/Music

Fela Kuti was a complicated dude.

Cultural hero, Pan-Africanist, enemy of the state, lived in a barbed wire compound with what basically amounted to a standing personal army, had dozens of wives some of whom remain devoted advocates of his cult and many who later denounced him as a tyrant.

This book is an interesting resource on a pretty interesting dude.

Oh, and for those who are too ingrained in the world of pop music and can't take all the instrumental jamming, you can always skip to here and get to the bit with the singing. It's a pretty catchy tune.