Worldview Global Notes

South Korean pop star PSY has topped the YouTube charts with his video Gangam Style.  He’s taken over Just Bieber’s record with more than 810 million views.

Catalina Maria Johnson is just back from WOMEX 2012, one of the  most renowned World Music conferences.  This year it was held in Greece.

Though the Chicago band Zamin considers itself strictly an indie rock band, its conservatory-trained, classical music pedigree and global influences bely such a simple categorization. The band joins Worldview for this week’s installment of Global Notes.

The Argentinean duo Tonolec combins traditional Toba songs with electronic beats and the Chilean group Wechekeché Ñi Trawün are trying to keep the Mapuche mapundungun language alive through hip-hop and reggae. Worldview listens to some South American artists who are incorporating indigenous languages and sounds into their music.

With Jamaica celebrating 50 years of independence from Great Britain, it seems appropriate to take a look at a music that was born out of deep seated opposition to colonialism.

Atomic Forest was the only Indian psychedelic band to record an album in the 1970s. Their unique sound is showcased in the recently re-issued Obsession.