Global / Regional
Music rooted in regions and traditions worldwide — African, Middle Eastern, South/East/Southeast Asian, European-regional, Caribbean, Oceanian, Indigenous, and global-fusion. A portal that gathers from Latin, Reggae, Folk, Pop and Electronic.
West African
Highlife, Afrobeat and the Sahel — guitar bands, brass and griot tradition.
Central & Southern African
Congolese rumba, South African choral and township sounds.
East African
Swahili coast and Horn of Africa traditions.
North African / Maghreb
Berber, Arab-Andalusian and trance traditions of the Maghreb.
Middle Eastern / Arabic
Mashriq, Gulf, Levant, Persian and Turkish popular and classical music.
South Asian / Indian
Film music, classical traditions and the diaspora dancefloor.
East Asian
Chinese, Korean and Japanese popular, traditional and regional forms.
Southeast Asian
The pop and folk traditions of maritime and mainland SE Asia.
Caribbean (non-Reggae)
Soca, calypso and the French/Spanish Caribbean — Reggae has its own tree.
Andean & Indigenous Americas
Highland and Indigenous traditions distinct from the Latin-pop tree.
European Regional & Folk
Celtic, Nordic, Balkan, Mediterranean and Slavic regional traditions.
Oceanian & Pacific
Aboriginal, Māori, Pacific Islander and Hawaiian musics.
Global Fusion & Worldbeat
Cross-cultural hybrids and the global-bass dancefloor.
Diaspora & Crossover
Immigrant-scene hybrids that reshaped Western charts.
Egyptian / Nile & Arabic Street
Egypt and Sudan — from the tarab legacy to shaabi street pop and mahraganat electro-chaabi.
Levant / Gulf & Arabian Peninsula
Beirut pop divas, Iraqi maqam, Gulf sawt and the new Arabic alternative wave.
Islamic & Sufi Devotional
Devotional music of the Muslim world — nasheed, Sufi ritual and its rock offspring.
Persian / Iranian
Iran's classical dastgah system, its pop diaspora and its underground rock and rap.
Turkish / Anatolian
Istanbul's pop machine, arabesk melodrama, Ottoman classical and Anatolian folk.
Caucasus & Kurdish
Mugham's modal fire, ashiq bards, Kurdish dengbêj, Armenian duduk and Georgian polyphony.
Central Asian / Steppe
Throat-singing, epic bards and maqam suites from the steppe to the Silk Road.
Jewish / Hebrew & Israeli
From cantorial and Ladino song to klezmer, Hasidic pop and modern Israeli rock.
South Asian Classical & Devotional
The deep systems — dhrupad to thumri — and the devotional song of temple, gurdwara and shrine.
South Asian Pop & Screen
Beyond Bollywood — Tamil and Telugu film music, Pakistani pop, desi hip-hop and the Indian indie wave.
South Asian Folk & Regional
The subcontinent's folk galaxy — Baul mystics, Tagore song, lavani and garba.
Japanese Music
Gagaku court music to kayōkyoku, Okinawan song, taiko and Shibuya-kei's record-store cool.
Chinese / Korean & Sinophone
Opera traditions, yaogun rock, Hokkien pop, pansori epic song and Korea beyond K-pop.
Maritime Southeast Asia
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines — koplo dangdut, kroncong, kundiman and Pinoy rock.
Mainland Southeast Asia
Thailand's country soul, Vietnam's vinahouse, Khmer romvong and the songs-for-life tradition.
French / Francophone
Chanson's lineage — yé-yé, musette, variété and the Celtic west of France.
Italian / Iberian
Sanremo's canzone, Naples' song tradition, Spanish copla, fado and flamenco's orbit.
Alpine / Nordic / Germanic
Yodeling and oom-pah to dansband, Finnish tango and Neue Deutsche Welle.
Balkan & Eastern European
Brass-band fire, manele and chalga's club-folk, sevdalinka's ache and Romani virtuosity.
Greek
Rebetiko's underworld blues and its children — laïko, éntekhno and island nisiotika.
Russian / Slavic
Estrada's stage pop, bard song, Russian chanson and the rock underground.
Indigenous North America & Arctic
Powwow drums, Inuit throat games, waila dance bands and the Native flute.
North American Regional & Créole
Louisiana's Cajun and zydeco créole dance music and the Franco-Canadian fiddle line.