Rec me music, part 2!

[oyceter]

I still haven't decided what music to get yet! I'm trying to listen to everything and pick what I like.

So... Does anyone have more recs for happy, bouncy music by women of color? I looked at my music library, and it is embarrassingly white.

Comments

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Happy and bouncy? Well, hmm. I'm not sure if this qualifies exactly as that, but, M.I.A. has a new album out that is interesting.

I guess Thalia is happy and bouncy and poppy, and so is Shakira (both are Spanish language).

And Zuco 103 has a Brazillian front woman, and they are pretty good.

Have you heard of Zap Mama? They have great harmonies.

That should be a good start.

[the_willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

I second Zap Mamma and mention also Angelique Kudjo. Some of her albums are peppier than others however.

Oh and for pop music there's Samantha Mumba.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about North African/Middle Eastern Dance Music?

[oyceter]

I haven't heard any, but I'm excited to try ^_^.

[gwynnega]

Joan Armatrading, especially the Show Some Emotion album. (It's not all happy and bouncy, but a lot of it is...)

[littlebutfierce]

Emm Gryner's "Symphonic" is a really bouncy, happy song. I love everything of hers that I've heard, but a lot of the other stuff is more somber. And she's Filipina Canadian, woo!

[rilina.livejournal.com]

My current favorite female Jpop and Kpop artists are YUKI and Younha. And, of course, Ikimono gakari has a female lead singer.

Classic Motown?

I have cds by Lauryn Hill and Corinne Bailey Rae on my to-buy list, but I don't think they particularly fit your happy, bouncy requirement.

[ah-chan.livejournal.com]

Younha seconded!

Also recommend J-pop duo RYTHEM, who are always pleasingly bouncy and harmonized - ha, they sang the second Naruto ending, Harmonia if that helps as a reference.

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My limited music library is also pretty white, and the stuff that I can identify as being definitely by women of color is not exactly bouncy. (I mean, I suppose I could check the lyrics for the Cambodian CD, but I know at least some of those songs are about the Khmer Rouge so I'm thinking no.)

I am very fond of the Dixie Cups' version of Iko Iko, which I have on a CD of music from New Orleans.

[heresluck]

Seconding the Zap Mama recommendation -- they're wonderful! Oh, and also Joan Armatrading; she has a Best Of that is a very good introduction to her music. Other possibilities: Angelique Kidjo (all her CDs are good, but I especially like Oremi), Gigi (wonderful self-titled CD), Walela (okay, their CD is not actually happy/bouncy, but it's so lovely), Laura Love (especially Octoroon and Shum Ticky), Kinnie Star (not always happy, but mostly energetic), and... hmm. Most of the rest of the artists I can think of are hip-hop or neo-soul, which I don't know whether you listen to. Oh! Lisa Hunter, but her CDs were always pretty hard to find and may now be impossible.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Walela run a bit more towards the soulful side, but so so pretty...and some of their stuff is a bit more energetic, like "Wash Your Spirit Clean" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HoyO7DloxU) or "I'll Turn My Radio On"; and they're all over Robbie Robertson's Music for the Native Americans and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy (along with Ulali!), and some of that stuff is a bit more energetic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCduNTDky4U) -- that's Walela off on the right. Mohawk sister Joanne Shenandoah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csY3_jyNMuI) is another one whose music is more on the pretty-and-mellow (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq1Sw35mYzc) sound, even when she's being political (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Imj7dkOpl4), but well worth checking out. (She's also in that Robbie Robertson Nammy clip with Walela, off on the left in the white gown.)

OK, now without the html snafu!

[vonnie-k.livejournal.com]

The Noisettes, What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?. The Noisettes are a new British band and the lead singer, Shingai Shoniwa, is of Zimbabwean descent. She's awesome: here is the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C91iV8gQb1U) for the lead-single, "Dont Give Up".

Cibo Matto, Viva La Woman. A Japanese duo whose all consuming passion, next to music, seems to be food. (All of the songs on the album is about one food item or another.) Their songs are more languid and slinky than energetic though. I like them a lot. You might be familiar with "Sugar Water", which was featured in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

I have sadly very little contemporary R&B stuff. Some Lauren Hill & Macy Gray -- I guess Macy Gray is bouncy. Depends on how much you like funk. I have tons of jazz with African-America female artists, but I suspect that might not be up your alley.

Then there is Nina Simone, who is the opposite of happy & bouncy but my, her stuff is good. ANGRY, but good.

Re: OK, now without the html snafu!

[seaya.livejournal.com]

I was going to recommend Cibo Matto, but I thought maybe that would be too cliched.

But I will add that their second album is much more bouncy.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I would go to French-language African music for some really fantastic stuff, although the only group that I'm really really familiar with is Les Nubians.

[octopedingenue]

IIRC this month's UTNE magazine has a spread (taken from another magazine?) of Africans who rock in various ways, and there were quite a few musicians.

[snarp]

Megababe's Speak Japanese or Die is quite cheerful!

I think? I don't know if this is the sort of thing you're looking for.

[seajules]

Imani Coppola. She's not always happy, but most of her stuff is undeniably bouncy, and there are bonus sfnal references in a lot of her songs.

This is the video to her song that was getting a fair amount of play several years back, "Legend of a Cowgirl." I love the skewering of some famous sexist tropes in the course of it, starting with the setup of most ZZ Topp videos.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

That is fabulous.

[chr0me-kitten.livejournal.com]

Ditto to NOISEttes, Cibo Matto, & M.I.A.

Also, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Res, Missy Elliot, Jill Scott

[oyceter]

!! I didn't realize Karen O was biracial! (ok, well, I didn't even know the how many people were in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs prior to five seconds ago, much less what their names were, yay Wikipedia.)

[octopedingenue]

Wow, aside from J/K-pop and soundtracks, my music is embarrassingly white too. I will steal from your recs!

Here are a few (non-Jpop) I have that I love:
Mary J. Blige featuring U2 as her glorified backup band - One
Tracy Chapman - Telling Stories I will never not want to marry and grow old with this song.
Tracy Chapman - She's Got Her Ticket relatively bouncy?
Tracy Chapman - For My Lover slow and deep and bittersweet, I am not worthy
Alana Davis - Turtle socute!
Morcheeba - The Sea I love female-fronted electronica so much and Morcheeba is some of the best.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Do you like gospel? Sweet Honey In the Rock is awesome, a cappella women of color. I find gospel cheering and bouncy, but lots of people disagree.

Zap Mama is bouncy and cheerful.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

And if coed choirs are close enough to rec here -- the Soweto Gospel Choir (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE-Xx3o_PQE) have some amazing music.

Also, I don't know of any solo albums, but Savuka's Mandisa Dlanga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGS7SpI7obY), oh, her voice just gives me chills. (She comes in at 2:50 on that video on Nelson Mandela's arm...but listen to the whole thing, it's lovely. When that song was first released it was a protest dirge, calling out the names of the imprisoned and the dead, so seeing it redone as a celebration with Mandela himself exhorting the audience to dance is just...words fail me to describe the rightness of it all.)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I hope someone has mentioned Joan Armatrading to you. "Walk Under Ladders" for preference!

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

me'shell n'degeocello, i'm digging you like an old soul record. i love the entire album that's from (even though i've forgotten the name of it!) but other tracks, such as "if that's your boyfriend (he wasn't last night)" are not precisely happy and bouncy.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Shonen Knife. Insane Japanese girlpunk that I can't really describe, except to say that I do think it would fit your bouncy requirement. There's an album out there that is a soundtrack album for the Powerpuff Girls cartoon show that is somehow one of the finest rock anthologies I have heard, and Shonen Knife's contribution is particularly impressive (though the whole thing is good). Upon looking on Amazon, I find there are about six Powerpuff albums; this (http://www.amazon.com/Powerpuff-Girls-Heroes-Villains/dp/B00004TZZO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-6004366-6075662?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1188266740&sr=8-1) is the one I mean.

Also Lush, whose song 'Ladykiller' is an feminist smackdown. Miki Berenyi is Japanese/Hungarian.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

I second the Shonen Knife ("Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)", yay!), and throw in Puffy Amiyumi, who also are responsible for the Teen Titans theme song.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

The Main Hoon Na soundtrack is pretty darn boppy. Not all female voices, though. I walked into an Indian grocery, and the video of Chale Jaise (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NayYxeRXj7Q) was playing on the TV. I bought the soundtrack then, and later rented the movie.

[red-eft.livejournal.com]

I second Sweet Honey in the Rock- it's not quite bouncy in the same way pop is, but it's good, and energizing.
J-pop, on the other hand, is as pop-happy-bouncy as it gets. I'm really fond of Morning Musume, but I don't know if they're on iTunes... I know Puffy Ami Yumi is, though- they do the 'Teen Titans' themesong, and are also very hipper.

[red-eft.livejournal.com]

Also! Bollywood soundtracks might work- I like the 'Devdas' soundtrack. Not all female, but a good portion.

[jesse_the_k]

Aretha in Paris (1969) saved my sanity many a time. I'd drop that record on the spindle and boogie round the living room 'til the cows came home. I wore out the cassette I'd made, but darn! there's a remastered CD I think I'll rush right out and get.

[amai-kaminari.livejournal.com]

I love anything by Vienna Teng (http://viennateng.com/)

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

How about an Irish singer?

Samantha Mumba: Gotta Tell You (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKH_689ld2E); Body II Body (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubKoTyuGWI0) are my favourites of hers, though Baby Come on Over (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_7ZRXES_M) is also pretty good.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Nthing Zap Mama, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Angelique Kidjo, Shakira, Shonen Knife, Sweet Honey...lots of good recs here!

And I would add a very very enthusiastic vote for Mahotella Queens (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhjUmZaaGO8), super bouncy and infectious like so much wonderful South African music! Also Ulali (http://www.myspace.com/ulalisofficialpage), a Native American a capella trio with utterly gorgeous harmonies. (They also have solo works in more a blues/folk/rock vein -- Pura Fe (http://www.myspace.com/purafe) does the best version of "Summertime" I've ever heard since Billie's, bar none. Oh, and if you have no Billie Holiday, you need some! She's not all about sad gloomy wrist-sliting blues numbers, I can totally hook you up with samples of Billie in her happier swinging mode.) There's also all sorts of really bouncy, cheerful, lovely pop and slack key from Hawai'i, but it's harder to find good samples of that online that are more than tiny clips...but if you're interested I can certainly put together a little sampler from my collection.

[estara.livejournal.com]

A Capella I could also recommend - if not female - then two POC groups

Vocal Sampling from Cuba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErGEWff0jt8
Vocal Sampling Website
http://ccgi.kapaprod.plus.com/main.php?qmnu=4&qnav=3&qpath=artists/artist4/&qpg=armain

and Take 6 - I L.O.V.E. You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c7jkmIQb6Y
Take 6 - Spread Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfHohRpcjo0

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

And I forgot to add...Shubha Mudgal's Mann Ke Manjeere is catchy, although perhaps not in the insanely-bouncy mode of some of the recs her; and the video (loosely based on the life of Shameem Pathan (http://mannkemanjeere.calabashmusic.com/)) is one of the most moving, inspirational bits of short film I've ever seen.

Also, while it's more crunchy-energetic than bouncy, Bif Naked (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bif_Naked)'s "I Love Myself Today" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdpJh_zc6k8) is on heavy, heavy rotation here whenever I need a serious kick-in-the-pants dose of fierce, fabulous self-esteem. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsFha77l3RY)

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Can I be yeah retro and suggest Tamla Motown? in particular the Velvelettes, the Marvellettes, and Martha and the Vandellas for real upbeat boogying-down type music. The Supremes, esp in the earlier days, also had their moments.