Satisfy both your wallet and wanderlust by exploring the world from the comfort of your home with this cultural play-list, giving a taste of each region through the art of music.
“Batonga” (1991) by Angélique Kidjo
The cheerful tune of “Batonga,” which includes the upbeat sounds of bongo drums and the balafon, a West African percussion instrument, makes listeners want to dance. The chorus features “Batonga,” a word Kidjo made up as a child to defy those who taunted her for going to school in Benin, which was not socially acceptable for girls. Kidjo’s powerful voice really stands out as she sings in Egun, a dialect of the Yoruba, to a cheery girl, “you are poor, but you dance like a princess and do as you please.”
“Long Quan” (2002) by Jay Chou
Jay Chou manages to blend the sounds of the East and the West through his “zhong guo feng” style, when he incorporates Chinese instruments into an energetic rock song. The steady rhythm of Chinese drums kicks the song off with a traditional introduction until it is joined by a contemporary beat and the sound of scratching records. It is then interrupted by the fusion of an electric guitar and a Chinese zither as Chou starts to rap about landmarks like the Great Wall and the Yangtze River. The wistful tune of a flute can be heard in the background of the dynamic refrain where Chou sings the Mandarin lyrics of “my right fist opens the sky/incarnates into a dragon.”
“Corazón sin Cara” (2010) by Prince Royce
The beat of bongo drums, the melody of the maraca-sounding instrument “guira” and the steady plucking of the bachata guitar make up the beautiful instrumental that never leaves the listener’s ears. This is the typical style of Prince Royce, who incorporates “bachata,” a type of music from the Dominican Republic, into his Latin Pop songs. His soft voice compliments the pleasant tempo as he assures his lover in Spanish that “if you’re fat or thin, none of that matters to me.” The crescendo of violins and cellos in between the lyrics give the song a romantic flare. The song sends the message that “love is blind” and a person’s heart is more important than his or her looks.