The Sound Of Your Country!

[Anarky]

So, I've been thinking: The Drome has members from all corners of the world and we all hang out at the same spot. And yet we don't really show each other what our countries do all day long. Not on a political basis or who shot whom how and when, but on a cultural level. Ask "What makes the people of country XY tick?"

So here's my idea. In this thread, we'll collect musical pieces of our countries, which are rather unknown to the outside world, in the language we speak every day. So if you live in France, you'd have to post a French song by a French band that was or is popular. Just to show everyone what the language sounds like and add some insight as to what the lyrics mean, because obviously, not everyone speaks French here.

And as habit has it, I'll start. Now, Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and the dying Rumantsch. Therefore, I'll post three songs, because the swiss/italian musicscene is practically nonexistant. Feel free to add comments and questions to every video.

At the moment, the whole country makes its own kind of HipHop.

The most spoken language, and the one I usually speak is Swiss German. IT has little in common with Germany's German and it has a huge number of dialects. The song below is heavily Grischa-Swiss-German, from the canton of Graubünden or Grischa, as its called in Rumantsch.


The song is called "Superschwizer" by Gimma. Translated, the title means "Super swiss guy" and it's a satirical take on swiss pop culture at the moment, cleverly mixed with common swiss stereotypes. Things like "Pimp my Tractor" are probably the best examples of that. The song was popular enough to become the official Football World Cup song in 2006.

Now a french one. Hip Hop Romandais is heavily influenced by french hiphop, so it's no surprise that it sounds different from Gimma's piece.


The song's called "Libéré" by famous romand rapper "Stress." It's basically about how the week's over and how you don't have to work anymore. A song that tells everyone to just not give a crap about the week anymore.

The fourth language my country has is called Rumantsch. It's a dying language. Nobody speaks it anymore in everyday life and there's about 35000 people, mostly elderly folk, left who speak the language. It used to be spoken in the canton of Graubünden aka. Grischa. The canton has had numerous attempts at saving the language, but nothing helped. Then, in 2006, a swiss hiphop band put their second album out. Their name: Liricas Analas, their rap: Rumantsch. I don't know if that helped, but I certainly like the effort.


So here we go. "Siemis" by Liricas Analas. The title translates to "Dreams" and it's about that: What the 7 Liricas Analas Rappers dream of. What they imagine the world to be like should we be able to rewrite the script of reality.

And now it's up to you. What are your country's sounds? What do your countries sound like? And if there are questions or comments about my post, fire away! And enjoy the music!