National Geographic’s world music website
National Geographic is known around the world for educating people about our planet’s natural resources, history, and culture. About a year ago, they launched the world music part of their website, and Germany is one of the featured countries. On this interactive website, you can learn a bit about the history of Germany, their culture, and of course their music. Currently, there are seven German musicians that you learn about and listen to, in a variety of styles. Aziza A, the famous hip-hop and R&B singer has an article, as does the modern klezmer band Di Grine Kuzine. There’s even information about a German tango group, the Tango Five.
The National Geographic’s focus seems to be on more ethnic varieties of music, and that’s fine with me, but ideally I’d like to see more from Germany. (Take a look at South Africa or Congo, they have dozens of musicians listed) Hopefully in time, their database of world musicians will be built up with more variety. All of the musicians on their site, whether German or from any other country, are worth checking out, so take a look if you have a few minutes.
