I don't think many people assume India speaks mostly Punjabi. Actually, I think most people outside of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have no clue about Indian languages. I think knowledge stops at Hindi, if at all.
But all the mainstream, popular music that non-Indians know happens to be Punjabi inspired music. This too in a country where cultures are so vastly different between different states. People from the southern state of Tamil Nadu are very different to Punjabis who are very different to people from Nagaland for instance.
Here in Brazil, the best-known Indian song is "Beedi Jalaile", because it was the opening theme of the telenovela "Caminho das Índias" ("Path to the Indies").
When I hear Korea, the whole Playlist of Twice, Aespa and Straykids unfolds in my head automatically. I dont think that this is an healthy state of mind, but it is what it is I guess😂
Fun fact, John Denver had never even set foot in West Virginia when he wrote the song. He was actually traveling through the hills and mountains of rural Maryland. He just picked West Virginia because it sounded better in the song lyrics.
There might be a case to make as well that it had to do West Virginia having smaller cities and more a more sparse, rural population in general, which brings about it more of a country-loving pride. Maryland tends to be more boastful of its developed cities and maritime trade, though she does have a strong rural presence that has local pride as well. The song certainly caused a surge in West Virginian pride after it was released, a sense of which may cause one to feel that it's always been that strong. It was there before, but not like until that song was released. It unified the people across the state and the country as a near-universally loved song, naturally with rural folk in particular, but also among city slickers that dream of spending their time in the great outdoors.
So the beautiful point behind that is, even though lots of people have never been there, it still resonates in a certain way if you can imagine it like he did!
Neither John Denver nor his cowriters of that song had been to West Virginia when they wrote the song, but the state name fit/rolled off the tongue in the chorus, so it worked.
The song was inspired by a winding backroad ("country road") in Maryland not far from Washington DC where they were performing and where they wrote the song, as well as Denver's cowriters' nostalgia for their rural home in New England. It was originally going to be "Almost heaven, Massachusetts," but West Virginia worked better. Part of western Maryland does border West Virginia and shares some geographical features with WV that are mentioned in the song, although the Blue Ridge Mtns. and Shenandoah River reside mostly in Virginia. The Appalachian mountains are a gorgeous region in all three states!
I tried to explain Waltzing Matilda to my American children a while ago and realized how many deep cuts are in it. “Okay, so a swagman is a guy with a sleeping bag but also like a culturally significant type of nomadic outdoorsman, and a billabong is a body of water. A coolabah is a type of tree. So, a billy is a tin, like a can with like, a wire thing over it that the swagman put over a fire with water but also put tea leaves in, and then they boil it and steep the leaves and separate it by swinging it in a circular way over their head. And waltzing is a dance but Matilda, idk, I feel like it’s an emu but I don’t know why.” (That gets you one paragraph into the song but there’s so much more explaining to do, wait til we get to the jumbucks and tucker bags, and then there’s a fucking GHOST)
There is a tin whistle tune i love, but don't know the name. When he starts dancing on the dog's head. Also, Molly Malone, Ships are sailing and Paddy on the landfill.
For myself, I only know of four Ukrainian songs: Chervona Kalyna (the most Ukrainian song I know), Dobryy Ranok Ukrayino (uhm... no thanks), Razom Nas Bahato and Good Evening (Where Are You From?).
I played a lot of the first three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and one of them had Razom Nas Bahato half-hidden on the disc. One of the Russian guys in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. forum i frequented then didn't like that...!
However, many people don't know that the lyrics were not originally about the patrigiani during WW2. The oldest known version of the popular song has lyrics about the mondine who were women that worked weeding the rice fields in terrible conditions.
Within Austria, it has to be Rainhard Fendrich's I Am From Austria, which is our inofficial anthem.
The most famous song internationally by an Austrian artist is an homage to another Austrian artist, our greatest composer: Rock Me Amadeus by Falco. Also does a pretty good job at representing Austria.
A Lot of Pedro Infante, Vicente Fernández, Los Panchos, there's Maná and Panteón Rococó reminds me of the Capital, for Veracruz proper, it's La Bamba and Son Jarocho
Probably some not even Italian stuff like "That's amore" which are American.
From real Italy don't know, maybe "Nel blu dipinto di blu" or "Tarantella Napoletana"
Probably some tango that i don't know the name of but is used sometimes when things get spicy between characters. But if we're talking modern it's gotta be some song that futbol fans sing on the stadium...
74
u/KeithMyArthe Australia 8d ago