2y ago

Which beloved artist of your country should I mention with your compatriots to warm up the atmosphere?

I've noticed that when meeting a foreign person, mentioning that you like a beloved artist from their country is one of the best way to create a good vibe.

Which revered artist/group (not necessarily musician) from your place should I learn about?

A few examples I'm thinking about (correct me if I'm wrong):

Country	Artist
Argentina	Carlos Gardel
Australia	Powderfinger
Austria	Mozart, Falco, Thomas Bernhard
Beligum	Jacques Brel, Stromae
Brazil	Raul Seixas, Zé Ramalho
Cabo Verde	Cesária Évora
Canada	Leonard Cohen, Céline Dion, Gordon Lightfoot
Egypt	Umm Kulthum
France	Daft Punk
Germany	Kraftwerk, Die Ärzte, Franz Kafka
Iceland	Björk
Italy	Elio e le Storie Tese
Malawai	Evison Matafale
Mali	Salif Keita
Scotland	The Proclaimers, Sean Connery
Sweden	Astrid Lindgren
USA	Dolly Parton

Edit: Spent my Saturday morning vibing, adding the "consensual" suggestions to the table.

58 comments

Daft Punk in France. They're national icons, and even Macron likes them.
- My first thought was De Funès/Bourvil, but that works too

Belgium , you can go for "Stromae" if you want to appeal to a younger public :-)

Scotland - probably the best chance of a good reaction is to mention The Proclaimers (they of the 500 Miles song)
Although personally I'm not a fan! So if you're in Dunfermline, mention The Skids and you'll probably be alright :-)
- How about Sean Connery?
  
  Billy Connolly would be a good shout too I think.
  
  Depends who you ask, I think. I'm not much of a fan, personally.
- +1 for proclaimers. However I’m from Kirkcaldy (Raith fan) so it feels tough to agree on something.

Gordon Lightfoot!
- You're not wrong but kind of surprised to see him over the Tragically Hip.
  
  My husband holds a Hip marathon every Sunday. But Gordon is the true test of time.
- Hey there fellow Canadian. Glad you got in before someone mentioned Anne Murray or Justin Bieber.
  
  I almost said Leonard Cohen but he wrote a depressing song about my name.
  
  If I were asked to mention a Canadian musician I'd think of Celine Dion long before Justin Bieber. Hell I'd think of Woods of Ypres.

I'm watching this thread with great interest 👀
For the US, maybe Dolly Parton?
- Unfortunately, Taylor Swift is probably the most traditionally american top 40 artist, given her genre inspirations, but the US is probably too large to pick just one artist. I bet it'd be far more interesting to find out what each state has contributed to our national artistry.
  
  I have a feeling that in 20 years time more people will know who Dolly Parton was than Taylor Swift

Sticking to popular, mainstream rock and pop options I'd say Bernard Fanning/Powderfinger is a good representation of Australian rock that doesn't really polarise as much as the more cultural cringe options like Darryl Braithwaite, John Farnham or Jimmy Barnes. There's also Kylie Minogue who might not be everyone's cup of tea, but is unlikely to be actively disliked by most.
Midnight oil, INXS would be good picks too.

Germany is big, but I think a good one that ruffles no feathers is Santiano (a sea-man shanty like band), though obviously Ramstein is bigger, but some people think that they are nazis (which they aren't, they are provocative)
- Santiano is not universally loved. They're too close to Schlager for that. And the issue with Rammstein isn't really alleged nazism (which only came up briefly when they used Leni Riefenstahl's footage) but rather their singer's alleged backstage raping.
  So far, I haven't met people who hated Herbert Grönemeyer, Marius-Müller Westernhagen, Jan Delay, Nina Hagen, die Ärzte, die fantastischen Vier or Reinhard Mey. A little more recent music that I have rarely seen associated negatively would be by Kraftklub, Peter Fox or Deichkind. None of this is particularly progressive, but it's decent stuff that is so universally liked that e.g. weddings often rely on them to get people to dance.
  
  Just realised that this isn't just about music. Those were all musicians or bands, but Germany of course has people from all trades.
  To universally loved artists I'd count
  Janosch, a children's books author. Love his work. Never met anyone who didn't.
  Franz Kafka. Like... Depressing stories? Dunno. It's just that, despite his work being quite dark, it's just pretty damn good.
  Peter Lustig moderated a kids' TV show, Löwenzahn. He eventually stopped due to his age and his successor does a good job, but he was just... Chef's kiss, you know?
  Michael Ende wrote what I guess would be some of the most famous German children's books for older kids. The Neverending Story, for example. All his books are considered modern classics.
  There are a lot of famous actresses and actors, but when it comes to being loved for their work without any attached drama, I guess Bjarne Mädel takes the cake. Tatortreiniger is brilliant and I haven't heard anything negative tied to him.
  Armin Maiwald und Christoph Biemann spearheaded the German kids show "Die Sendung mit der Maus" and are very much loved for their work.
  
  Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil.
  
  My personal suggestion list would be:
  Die Ärzte
  Peter Fox
  Nina Hagen
- Given that recent scandals and Lindemann, right wing connotations are the least of their worries.
  For the uninformed: he allegedly used the backstage area as a sex dungeon, including drugs, minors, rape, etc.
- What about Kraftwerk. They’re so influential and iconic.
- Another Idea I had is The Sandmännchen (A berry young kids show that runs every day since 1959) there almost no talking so you could say that "your kids love it" or something
- How about Kraftwerk?
- Santiano
  Interesting! I knew the French version of this song by Hugues Aufray, which happens to be the inspiration for this band's name. Although, Aufray's inspiration is the sea shanty Santianna referring to the Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, which has many variations.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=VQd1IOyhKS4
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

I'm American but when I visited Iceland everybody loved Björk and loved talking about Björk. She's like a national icon

Technotronic, from Belgium, had that 1989 techno anthem, Pump Up the Jam.

Chuck Tingle has some good literary art. I believe he's from the USA
- Chuck Tingle is a pseudonymous author, primarily of niche gay erotica. The stories mainly take the form of monster erotica, featuring romantic and sexual encounters with dinosaurs, imaginary creatures, anthropomorphized inanimate objects, and even abstract concepts.
  •̀ ͜ﻌ•́

Italy: Elio e le storie tese... They are somewhat of a "mainstream niche band"; Italians would be astonished that you know of them, you should mention the song Mio cugino (my cousin)
- Really cool instrumentation !
- Hmm I love them, I really love them, but I don't think everybody likes them, especially older people

Aotearoa. Suzy Cato is universally loved, but people could be suspicious about how you came to know about her.
- Suzanne Noreen Cato (born 20 June 1968) is an Australian-born New Zealand children's entertainer. She is best known as the host of several New Zealand children's television programmes, most notably Suzy's World and You and Me.
  Yeah, not really the kind of thing you would discover by immersing yourself in your hobby.

In Argentina it must be Carlos Gardel - the most prominent exponent of Tango. You can walk around a corner in Buenos Aires on a Sunday to find a bunch of people dancing tango .. all dressed up to the nines (sorry!). It's amazing. Beautiful country and such an elegant city.

For Austria, you can mention an old internationally known classic, falco
or e.a.v.
these will never have you out of place

When I spent a little time in Malawi, people always loved it if you recognised Evison Matafale's music.

Switzerland
DJ Bobo or Patent Ochsner.

Depends on the crowd, so here are a few options in the order of my preference:
The Kovenant (Not to be confused with Covenant. They're swedish and awful)
Dumdum Boys
Postgirobygget
Honorable mention: Circus Maximus. They'd be ranked on top of this list if I believed that the random norwegian you ran into had ever heard of them.
- Not Kaizers Orchestra for Norway?
  
  They'll work too. They skipped my mind as I'm not a big fan of theirs.

The only artist I would personally get excited about if someone foreign knew of them is the author Thomas Bernhard (Austria), but he was famous and infamous for hating Austrian culture and it wouldn‘t go over well with many others here I suppose.
So I posit some more widely liked people: Mozart, Falco or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Falco :
  Rollerblading in jeans while wearing sunglasses at night and also rapping in two languages and still not being caught by the polizei
  Yes

Australia - Powderfinger... Nice
Also, Something For Kate would be a good one.

[Double comment to avoid editing the other] This album (Kayah and Bregović) can be used for two countries, if you want - as the singer (Kayah) is from Poland, and the instrumental is from Goran Bregović, from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I usually have a hard time answering questions like this. For me, art is art; I don't really care if the artist in question pays or paid taxes to the same government as I do.
That said, I guess that either Zé Ramalho or Raul Seixas would be good bets. Other better known artists are a bit more divisive, or stuff that you'd only hear if you're into a specific style (often regional).
Another possibility would be literature, more specifically Machado de Assis. Because even people who hate him (due to his pedantic writing style - the guy is from late 1800s, but harder to parse than Shakespeare) usually admit that he's good.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=nL_QNpNOssI
  https://piped.video/watch?v=zlAXMIy81UY
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- I usually have a hard time answering questions like this. For me, art is art; I don’t really care if the artist in question pays or paid taxes to the same government as I do.
  I understand what you mean, but my question is about which artist you think your compatriots would be happy to hear about on average to show them that you have some interest in their culture.
  
  but my question is about which artist you think your compatriots would be happy to hear about
  I answered it, alongside the part that you're quoting: Zé Ramalho (singer), Raul Seixas (singer), Machado de Assis (writer).
  Raul Seixas in special would be my first bet.

Denmark: Troels Kløvedal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troels_Kl%C3%B8vedal

Germany: Boris Brejcha

- Carlos Brilhante Ustra was a man who put rats in women's vaginas. He shocked pregnant women until they miscarried. He was a torturer who is in the trash can of Brazilian history, not someone to joke about.

58 comments