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Proselyting among Spanish speakers in Jacksonville Florida and elsewhere, I became acquainted with a great deal of their music. One Mexican rock group, Maná, has become perhaps my favorite band. (I am also very fond of Shakira's Spanish work, but she's a bit more familiar to Americans.) I highly recommend Maná whether you speak Spanish or not, but if you speak Spanish and haven't heard them you're seriously missing out.
I was just wondering; anyone else here a Maná fan? Anyone know any other good Spanish rock I might like? I'm always on the lookout for good music, and would love suggestions.
Actually, as an incurable xenophile I'd love to hear recommendations for *any* good foreign music groups. I'm especially fond of Rock, but and I'm not fond of rap, but I'll listen to about any genre, assuming I like the particular song (no accounting for taste!) Stuff you can download on Napster or iTunes would be especially great.
I'd especially like Arabic and Chinese rock, as I'm studying those two languages.
Is Shakira better in English or Spanish? Discuss.
Posts: 1631 | Registered: Sep 2001
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I had an experience almost exactly like that. I was serving in a heavily hispanic area, and heard some Mana on the radio when I'd be in getting a taco or something. When I got home, Donde Jugaran Los Ninos was the first album I bought. I ended up getting several more, and I love them all. Excellent band.
Have you heard Santana's Supernatural album? Possibly the best track on the whole disc is a collaboration with Mana.
I like several other latin bands/artists, but I have never been able to understand Shakira's appeal. Just a matter of taste, though.
As far as other Spanish rock, there's a Columbian guy named Juanes that is very good. Also, if you don't mind straying from the rock genre a bit, Susana Baca (from Peru) is excellent, and the Buena Vista Social Club self-title album is traditional Cuban music, and it's one of the best things you'll ever hear in your life. There's more I could recommend, but those would be at the top of my list right now.
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I've heard of the Maná collaboration track; I'll have to look it up on iTunes.
Shakira's stuff is definitely a matter of taste. Pop is very hit-and-miss for me; some I like, some I don't. I don't really care for Shakira's stuff that's aimed at a US audience, but I really like her early Latin music.
I'll look at Juanes and Baca, and the Cuban music (I love Cubans, and met A LOT of them in Florida). I don't mind straying at all; actually, one of the things I love about Maná is their refusal to pin themselves down in any convenient cubbyhole. They would go psuedo-punk in "Nada Que Perder", ballad in "En los Muelles de San Blás" and the famous "Vivir sin Aire", folksy in "Cuando los Angeles Lloran" and hard rock in "Ana". One could disagree on the genres I've pinned to these songs, but you can't deny they're all very different styles.
They are the undisputed kings of Latin rock; I don't think we really have any equivalent in the Anglosphere.
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I'll be watching this thread closely for Chinese suggestions, as I have also studied some Chinese.
I have a few foreign bands that I like, that aren't commonly heard in the United States.
England: Skyclad. One of my favorite bands, they play mostly metal.
Australia: Dirty Three. All instrumental, with drums, guitar, and violin. You wouldn't believe the emotion Warren Ellis can wring from that violin. Really good stuff, and oddly enough they came to Tucson right after I discovered them, so I was able to see them live. They have also done work with Nick Cave and Low.
Finland: Finntroll. I can't understand a word they sing, but I like them. More metal. From this article: "This highly entertaining sextet has brought forth a unique style, taking a black metal base and mixing in Finnish humppa influences (humppa is a variety of polka), resulting in a sound that simply must be heard."
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"I'd especially like Arabic and Chinese rock, as I'm studying those two languages."
How about Hebrew rock? And Hebrew rap? You could always listen to the Hebrew and see if you could pick out any words that you recognize in Arabic (alot of the words are very close). For Hebrew rap listen to a group called Subliminal and the Shadow. For Hebrew rock there's a song called Tutim that I like.
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quote:How about Hebrew rock? And Hebrew rap? You could always listen to the Hebrew and see if you could pick out any words that you recognize in Arabic (alot of the words are very close). For Hebrew rap listen to a group called Subliminal and the Shadow. For Hebrew rock there's a song called Tutim that I like.
Any language would be great. Hebrew fascinates me; my father had some Israeli graduate students whom we got to know very well, and they often spoke Hebrew amongst themselves. Some of the children spoke it exclusively as they had little or no English.
Ancient Hebrew is fascinating for all the obvious historical and religious reasons; modern Hebrew is fascinating from a linguistic stand point because it was resurrected (and much of it created out of whole cloth) almost overnight, an astonishing achievement. It does indeed bear a lot of relation to Arabic in the older words but not in the modern, since the Israelis had to make them up. Also, Arabic has seen almost two thousand years of linguistic development that Hebrew has not, since it was a dead language a la Latin, used only by scholars for so many years.
Those Scandinavian bands sound interesting as well, I'll look them up.
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For some nice Italian music, I recommend Nek (pop), and Lunapop (rockish pop). I'm always looking for more bands though. =)
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I think I've been playing too much World of Warcraft... Band name is certainly not the first thing that came to mind.
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quote:Originally posted by Yank: They are the undisputed kings of Latin rock; I don't think we really have any equivalent in the Anglosphere.
I'll dispute that. I like Mana, but they're definitely not the kings of Latin Rock.
I personally like Cafe Tacuba (from Mexico City), they have no one style but almost always incorporate some traditional Mexican rhythms into their music. Cuatro Caminos is probably their most accesible album, but Re is unquestionably their best. Los Tacubos are also the best live band I have ever seen.
I also like Los Jaguares. I think they're probably comparable in popularity to Mana, but their style is a little more discordant, but very good.
For those who are willing to brave extremely offensive but fun rap-rock, I'd recommend Molotov. But they're definitely not for everyone.
Juanes, who was mentioned earlier is very good. I also like La Ley, who have a more atmospheric sound than any of the other mentioned artists.
Other groups that I'm not as familiar with who are always mentioned in conversations about rock en español are Soda Stereo, Aterciopelados, and Los Enanitos Verdes. I'm not sure any of those groups are still together, but they're probably worth a look.
For Brazilian music, you might want to check out Caetano Veloso, who does everything from guitar ballads to tropicalia to rock and rap. Legiao Urbana might be worth a look, but they're definitely defunct and will provide flashbacks to early 90's rock.
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I also forgot to bring up Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. They're a little old now, but they're undeniably groovy.
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I really like Carlos Vives. Despite the fact that he's such a pretty-boy, he's really fun and good, I think. It's hard to listen to him without feeling happy. Oh, and he's Colombian.
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Another one I really like that I've heard lately, although he's old, is Ruben Blades from Panama. He writes these really sad, ironic, intriguing songs in a great latin style.
BunnV is the one who is introducing me to all these. I should totally get him to post in this thread with his encyclopedic knowledge of latin music.
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You can also go to Allmusic. If you register, you can look up their recommendations of artists and albums by nationality. Also by genre or chosen instrument. It's not flawless, but it's definitely an interesting feature.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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I first heard Mana in Honduras in 1992. Rayando El Sol was the first Spanish-language song, after five full months of living in Honduras, that I actually liked. And I really, really liked it.
I came home with two Mana albums, and I love to listen to them. They are one of my favorite bands, too. I really haven't heard anything they've done since 1993, though. That's a pretty long time.
After I decided I like Mana, there were other Latin pop singers/groups I liked, also. I liked Ricardo Montaner, Juan Luis Guerra, Luis Miguel, and even a little Magneto. (I also found that I really, really liked merengue and salsa bands, like Rana, Zona Roja, Cana Brava, Yossie Esteban y la Patrulla Quince, etc.)
Posts: 202 | Registered: Nov 2005
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If you are interested in Chinese rock, you might try Wu Bai and China Blue (one band not two). He's alright, they did a movie soundtrack for "Time and Tide" that was kind of cool.
My favorite Chinese artist is probably Wang Fei (or Faye Wong or similar variations). She would probably best be classified as alternative...sometimes her voice sounds a bit like the lead singer of the Cranberries. Anyways, I really her albums and she has a LOT of them.
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Luis Miguel may be sappy, at least sometimes, but he also has just about the smoothest, most stirring voice of any pop star I've ever heard in any language.
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He does have a very nice voice, and great vocal range and tone as well. You just gotta be in the mood to listen to it I guess. I actually don't mind listening to it on occassion, just don't let my wife know. Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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For some more good Italian, Subsonica is a rockish band, they've got some fun beats. Luca Dirisio is a pop singer, he's got a great voice and it's a lot of fun.
I checked out Mana, sounds pretty good. Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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My ex-wife loves Mana, so I'm pretty familiar with them. I like the group, but probably not enough to actually buy any of their stuff.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm woefully ignorant of Spanish-language popular music, but if we're talking Chinese music, I'm rather fond of Xu Wei and Sun Yanzi. (I don't know if Sun Yanzi is the sort of artist a 25-year-old male would admit to liking if he actually spoke Chinese. But in any case, I do like her.)
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