non-American Oldies?

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I just stumbled across a German oldies internet radio station, and I've been listening to it for a long while (it's really great and new to me). It reminds me a little of French oldies like Edith Piaf and similar artists. But essentially I know nothing (except for hearing a few songs in old foreign films) about what I imagine to be an immensely rich and vast body of music: oldies from other countries. Help me! (Are there books? There's got to be some books/articles about specific countries' pop music from the pre-60s era, or even better box sets!)

Maybe It would involve going to that country and looking in their oldies/used section of records, but I'm not unwilling to do that. Just name a country! (Brazil, Sweden, Russia, Greece, New Zealand, etc???)

(specifications of what I mean by non-American Oldies: music from around the 20s-50s that imitates the pop music of America and other countries with a similar sound, and preferably not in English)

I'm doubting there is much knowledge about this on ILM, but discuss.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess this will be my next unfinished music research project. (I'll just shove it right behind my desire for knowlege of foreign synth pop, and someday... when I become the ethnomusicpoplogist I've always wanted to be...)

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, now that I think about it, seeing old foreign films, would be a good place to hear this kind music.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I hear a lot of references to western pop music in some of the Arab popular music from that time period, but it might not be close enough to satisfy you. Farid el Atrache often used what sound to me like tango rhythms. (I think this would have been in the 40's and 50's.) A lot of music was written for movies, and some of the soundtrack music sounds closer to western music than what is usually recorded (but the quality of the recordings is usually terrible). I have only seen one of these old Egyptian movies all the way through, but it was very obviously imitating Hollywood.

You might want to try the two Farid & Asmahan collections, but I have to warn you that some of it is still very Arab. Also, even though it's later than what you are asking for, some of the material on Fairouz's Ishar sounds very influenced by French music, to me.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, exactly: foreign films.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, a lot of early Bollywood has tons of that influence too.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's some inspiration: Asmahan movie stills.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 8 December 2003 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Look into Maria Tanase, and then tell me about her. I think she was Romanian. I've read descriptions comparing her to Edith Piaf, stylistically.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 8 December 2003 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, I just listened to a few of her songs. I like them a lot, and it's quite similar to Piaf. The same instrumentation, but the scales are more Slavic (minor sounding), and her voice & use of vibrato sounds even more tough-old-lady than Piaf's (that's a really good thing).

Also the delivery is less like the French way of holding it back a bit with lots of slack in the tempo, it's more like the strait on explaining-something-important way.

It's more influenced by art songs than pop songs, but still what I'm looking for.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 06:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Look into Maria Tanase, and then tell me about her. I think she was Romanian. I've read descriptions comparing her to Edith Piaf, stylistically.

funny, i just yesterday bought a 5lp set of her recordings for $15, having never heard her before... adding to above, ms tanase seems to make more surprising choices than piaf when throwing in ad lib notes -

[drop me a line if you're interested in hearing it]

i've always had a notion to look for prewar japanese recordings imitating western style crooning, as suggested in "the last emperor" manchuguo sequences.

― mig, Monday, 8 December 2003 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

which german oldies internet radio station?

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Monday, 8 December 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It's in the Itunes radio tuner under the top category, 50s/60s pop, called "Memory Radio 1: Deutsche Hits ..." and also 'Memory Radio 2"

All during the evening last night I heard many good songs, but later around 12:00 they started playing more 60s and 70s stuff which I didn't think was as good.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"prewar japanese recordings imitating western style crooning, as suggested in 'the last emperor' manchuguo sequences. "

Yeah, I remeber that part of the movie, that kind of music would be interesting to look into too.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

You don't want to hear Norwegian "schlagers" from the pre-rock era (or even from the early rock era) I can tell you.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 8 December 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, that sounds good. I'll look into it. what is "Schlagers?"

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 8 December 2003 22:38 (twenty-two years ago)

broadly, "Schlager" is continental European middle-of-the-road music. the term is usually used in a German context but I'm sure a similar style prevailed in Norway - indeed Schlager remained very influential on the German singles charts well into the 70s, to the extent that most of the big hits in Germany circa 1973 were either Schlager or glam-rock / pop-metal (The Sweet, T.Rex, Alice Cooper, Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" even), two utterly antithetical genres (not entirely dissimilar to the rise of hip-hop and country and the decline of the 80s idea of the Unifying Mainstream in American music from 1992 onwards). Certain British acts like Tony Christie and the self-explanatory Middle of the Road did better in Germany than in their home country because they fitted well into the Schlager format.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

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