The natural choice for Russia is Back in the USSR by the Beatles, but I'm going to use that for all the ex-Soviet states, so instead my selection for Russia is 'Siberian Breaks' by MGMT.
I didn't embed it because I don't actually recommend that you watch the whole video. Like Siberia itself, this song is long and mostly boring. It's not really a great song, despite what hipster contrarians will tell you. The rest of their second album is masterful though.
Next stop Mongolia. This is a NOFX classic from my high school days - 'All Outta Angst'. It's not entirely about Mongolia, but there's a short verse about it. Close enough.
And then China. Good ol' China. I made a point to listen to 'China Girl' by David Bowie. Not really about China, but what the hell, it's a great song, and it beats 'Chinese Democracy' by Guns N Roses.
Rewinding a bit, I don't really know any songs about Korea. I was technically traveling in Korea, although I lived there long enough that I don't really consider it much of traveling any more. Regardless, I'll throw you all a great song that's about a certain neighborhood in Korea. I was going to go with the sublime majesty of Girl's Generation's 'Gee', but instead, you get 'Itaewon Freedom' by M/V, of which, for a long period of time, I just couldn't get enough.
Next installment: southeast Asia.
I was hoping for Korea you would pick Lee Hyori U-Go-Girl, just because its awesome k-pop and reflects real life Korea -- plastic surgery and crazy endless clubbing. But this M/V video... I'm speechless. How and what were they thinking when they made that video? Were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteGee is amazing! I still thank the heavens that you introduced that to me. Comcast has a KPop section that is sad compared to the buffet you provided us. I had to get my laptop and show people the beauty of Gee.
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