Speaking about music on a global scale, it is important to understand that different nations develop their culture in different ways. This is largely influenced by their geographical position, their neighbors and proximity to the sea. If the country is in warm latitudes , the climate is mild, and the land is fertile, the residents will have time for the development of culture, including music. If people live in conditions harsh climate , them musical development will be slow as they have to survive in difficult conditions.
One of the famous Russian opera singers said that the more singers in the country, the better it is climate . Because you can speak loudly only in a mild climate. Agree, when you are cold, you even try to breathe briefly and every other time, what can we say about singing. By the way, he believed that the most musical countries the world are located in Europe , since there is a mild climate and good social conditions for recreational activities.
Same way big role play neighbours . If you have to live side by side with warlike countries or nomads who constantly attack other states, there will be no time for music or cultural development.
In addition to all of the above, the role in the development of music in the country, of course, plays government states. It can regulate both foreign relations and improve the lives of citizens. Of course, good life is a positive factor for the development of musical culture. However, in addition to improving life, the state can limit culture and give it a certain direction, which can slow down development or stop it altogether.
Despite all this, music still remains an important part of the life of any person at all times. It always influenced him and was created by him, although it was expressed in different ways.
So, sociologists and culturologists carried out several surveys concerning the most musical countries of the world. Here are their results:
1 place
… took by a small margin USA . The culture of this country is widely promoted everywhere, so the place in the ranking is not at all surprising. In the United States, music for many years absorbed the features of the most different styles. Popular among Americans are the violin, accordion and wind instruments, in particular the saxophone (think of jazz).
2nd place
… divided Great Britain and India , as strange as it may sound, but you can’t argue with the numbers. Let's see what professional sources tell us about them. When composing music, Indian musicians use special rhythmic and melodic schemes. Tabla drums are very popular here. stringed instruments- sitars. British music is closely related to maritime theme, which is not surprising, because Britain was once the queen of the seas.
3rd place
… received in the ranking Korea and Russia . We patriotically acknowledge that in Russia musical culture has always been highly developed, and even dancing and generally shirking work in the field is simply in our blood. Korea, on the other hand, has both its own stars and a very patriotic musical climate, unlike European countries literally infected by the onslaught of American culture.
Nobody in the world knows Soviet and Russian pop musicians. Especially in the West. Nevertheless, musicians from Russia different time hit the Western charts.
All attempts to promote and impose on the Western public our popular music failed. Russian pop music is very secondary and backward, both technologically and stylistically.
But it has become good tradition hang noodles to the Russian public about the successes of certain performers in the West. It comes down to the ridiculous.
Kirkorov traveled to Monte Carlo on The World Music Awards is a show of the best-selling artists in their countries, while it is quite difficult to find a person in Russia who has Kirkorov's album. Pugachev, as you know, in 1997 took only 15 place out of 25 at the useless Eurovision.
Sergey Lazarev sings in English for some reason, this is generally human brain unable to cope. Iosif Prigozhin, whose obsession was to push Valeria to the West, once stated in a paid article in a British newspaper that his wife had sold 100 million albums in Russia.
Most big success was at Timati's rapper when the Swiss DJ Antoine made a remix for Timati's song Welcome to St. Tropez. The song went around the top of the charts in the world, except for the UK and the US. In Switzerland, the song took sixth place at the end of the year. This is the peak for our variety performers per recent times.
Which of our musicians really achieved high places in the Western (and this, in the musical sense, primarily the USA and Great Britain) charts and is generally more or less known in the West.
1. Composer Aram Khachaturian - 1972
One of the recordings of the music of his ballet "Spartacus" called Spartacus, which Khachaturian made together with the London symphony orchestra, hit the UK Albums Chart in 1972, reached number 16 and stayed there for 15 weeks.
By the way, his music is so popular in the world that it was even used in such famous films like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, James Cameron's Aliens and Tinto Brass's Caligula.
2. Boris Grebenshchikov - 1989
His album Radio Silence, released in England and the US, reached #198 on the Billboard200, despite being recorded with the then super-popular Eurythmics. In the video - BG's performance on the popular TV show David Letterman.
3. Gorky Park-1990
The success of Gorky Park in the US cannot be overstated. They did not conquer America. One need only look at their achievements in the charts. In the Billboard Hot 100, they were noted only by the single Try To Find Me (81st place and 6 weeks on the chart), and on the Billboard 200 - the album Gorky Park (80th place and 21 weeks on the chart).
But Gorky Park sold well in general - 300 thousand copies sold in America alone - this is a very good result. The group achieved much more success in Scandinavia. Gorky Park in Norway took 9th place, and the single Bang - 5th. In Denmark, the album Moscow Calling even went platinum.
4. Alsu-2000
With the song Before You Love Me "under Britney Spears" she got to 27th place for only a week, during the period when they tried to promote it in Europe after 2nd place at Eurovision.
5. PPK-2001
The Rostov trance project PPK with the release of a separate single ResuRection (Eduard Artemiev's melody from the film "Siberiada" by Andrei Konchalovsky with the voice of Yuri Gagarin) debuted in the UK immediately in third place!
The song became the first track from Russia to get into the hot rotation of the BBC Radio One radio station. Then ResuRection was released in other countries, where it also charted successfully - 5th in the Netherlands, 9th in Belgium, and 15th in France and 36th in Australia.
6. Tattoo-2003
In 2002, the English version of their album "200 in the opposite direction" was released and "Tatu" became generally the most popular Russian group in the world. The girls did not become stars of the first magnitude, and their success was not so long, but they sold about 10 million of their records abroad. This is an unattainable result for Russian performers.
The English-language album is now gold in four countries and platinum in Europe as a whole, the song "All the Things She Said" occupied the first line of the British chart for several weeks, and the cover of The Smiths in 2009 sounded in the TV series "Gossip Girl".
7. Leonid Agutin - 2007
The author of The Barefoot Boy and husband of Anzhelika Varum graduated from the Moscow Jazz School and from his youth was fond of not only pop music, but also a variety of acoustic guitar music - from jazz to flamenco. In the early 2000s, Agutin began to play concerts, and then he recorded the album "Cosmopolitan Life" together with Al di Meola, an American virtuoso of the genre. In Germany, the album had more than good sales.
8. Eduard Khil - 2009
Famous, sad and beautiful story, as a result of which the great pop singer known in the world as "Mr. Trololo". On November 26, 2009, a RealPapaPit user uploaded the vocalization "I'm very happy because I'm finally returning home" to YouTube - today this video has 19 million 700 thousand views.
They say that the singer was even offered an international tour - but he refused. Both Gawker and The New York Times wrote about Khil's death.
9. Pussy Riot-2012
This is the only group here that has not been on the Western charts, but it is impossible not to mention it. Musically, it's a comical story. The group, not a single song of which no one really heard anywhere, became the most famous musical group from Russia recently. Suffice it to say that in the West the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is known as Pussy Riot Church.
Soon after the arrest of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, musicians around the world began to carry out actions in their support - ranging from Madonna and Paul McCartney to Mike Patton and The Knife and Die Antwoord.
10. Anna Netrebko - 2007-present
The opera singer was able to achieve real world fame, including the United States. She enjoys particular success in Austria, where she received citizenship. Also lives in New York. Her recordings are constantly on the classical music charts, but in some countries they also get into the general music charts. Especially in Austria and Germany. So 15 Netrebko albums got into the Austrian chart .
Bonus: The World's Most Famous Russian Music Video
Blood viral hit "Bad Motherfucker" from Russian group Biting Elbows, shot from a first-person perspective and therefore more like an action video game than music video. The clip was publicly noted by Samuel L. Jackson and Darren Aronofsky. 24.6 million views on Youtube.
, .The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is widely known for its careful selection of facilities world heritage. For travel lovers and real music, she also prepared a separate ranking of the most musical cities.
Among the selection criteria there is no area and popularity; cities with a special musical history that changed the national or world culture places where music has become part of the DNA.
These cities have managed to prove that musical art become part of their economy and public life in addition, travelers will appreciate the stunning sights from the Middle Ages to the postmodern.
9. Seville, Spain
And, of course, we open our list with the city that first staged two of the greatest operas of all time: " barber of seville Rossini and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
This city is covered with dozens of musical legends, it was here that flamenco originated, and it was Seville that managed to absorb the influence of other cultures that were part of the history of the entire region.
The most famous and extremely popular music festival in Seville is the Biennale de Flamenco, where you can hear how classic performance, and artistic variations of youth.
8. Mannheim, Germany
Mannheim is an incredibly dynamic multicultural center of creativity. Who hasn't heard of the American rock band Mannheim Steam roller? These guys borrowed their name from local composers of the 18th century. Mannheim Steam - became real revolution for large orchestras at the court of Charles III and influenced the work of Beethoven and Mozart.
UNESCO notes that no city can boast such a complete and deep musical pedigree, because it has been a leader and innovator for centuries, moreover, with a developed musical infrastructure.
But not only classical music flourishes in Mannheim. The local pop academy is considered the best in Germany. BUT annual festival Time Warp gathers connoisseurs of techno music from all over the world.
7. Hannover, Germany
Hannover is made for festivals and cabarets. The most famous European rock band Scorpion is from this city.
Residents of Hannover confidently declare that they are in the center musical planet, and their statement is not far from the truth.
The extremely influential Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media mass media attracts talented students from all over the world. They teach chamber music contemporary creativity, ancient music, jazz, rock and, of course, pop.
In addition, it was in Hannover that the first music cassette, the first CD and the first vinyl record were created.
6. Hamamatsu, Japan
Have you ever heard of Roland, Yamaha and Kawai? But the headquarters of these companies is not without reason located in Hamamatsu.
10 major music festivals, two of which have international status. This city is home to one of the most famous Shizuoka University of Arts and Culture in the world and a stunning museum. musical instruments with an extensive collection of ancient artifacts.
And most importantly - Hamamatsu is the leader in the production of musical instruments in Japan.
5. Ghent, Belgium
This city became famous due to the fact that it was within its walls that Great Britain and the United States signed an agreement to end the War of 1812. Now Ghent in an unusual way has managed to combine centuries-old heritage and modern trends.
There are many in the city interesting festivals. In 1843, when the "Feasts of Ghent" were held for the first time, the whole city was filled with numerous concert venues for all kinds of music.
It is in Ghent that the best like to gather jazz performers. So, for several decades, jazz performances turned into an international festival.
4. Glasgow, Scotland
Of course, it is Glasgow that will become home to the World Bagpipe - the main trophy of one music competition. But Glasgow is not just a city, it is part of the history of the Old World with its unique creativity.
For nearly a century, St. Andrew's Hall has been one of the most famous music venues in Europe. It burned down in 1962 due to the carelessness of one smoker, but, in spite of everything, continues to maintain its reputation.
Together with UNESCO, Scottish musicians have published the book "Dear Green Sounds", which tells musical history Glasgow, where they talk not only about the great past, but also about the concerts of Frank Sinatra and Freddie Mercury.
3. Brazzaville, Congo
Talking about the most significant and famous music cities Brazzaville must not be forgotten all over the world. Trying to escape from the terrible reality, the inhabitants of this city gave the world a bewitching rumba and incendiary movements soukous.
The city is home to the Pan-African Music Festival and the Festival of Lights, an annual explosion of African music and cultural expression.
2. Bologna, Italy
Italy became famous all over the world thanks to its opera. But, if we first think of Milan with its opera houses and melodic Venice, UNESCO placed Bologna in second place on its top list. And no wonder, because in Bologna there was a legendary university, which since 1088 raised the bar for musicians and artists.
And how many music festivals are held here. For example, on the streets of Bologna one can easily hear classical music, opera, batet, jazz blues and even Jewish jazz. Only the Congolese rumba festival gathers more than 50,000 fans.
1. Bogota, Colombia
Bogota is known to music lovers for its rich music scene. But new forms of creativity play important role in the life of the city.
It hosts 60 festivals every year, the most important of which is Festivales Al Parque, where everyone plays: from opera and jazz to hip-hop and salsa.
UNESCO believes that the city plays an important role in creating and maintaining new musical trends and trends. In addition, Bogota became a regional cultural center and represents the musical interests of all Latin America and the Caribbean.
