BRIC POP: The Blog

Well, the blog is called BRIC Pop, so I supposed a journey around the pop music charts of the BRICs would be in order.  While Michael Jackson continues to make death the ultimate career move, and Lady Gaga continues trying (successfully) to out-cheese Europop, the BRICs have some global, some local, and some inexplicable:

Brazil (from Hot100Brasil.com)

1. “I Gotta Feeling” — Black Eyed Peas
2. “Deus e Eu no Sertão” — Victor & Leo
3. “Sutilmente” — Skank
4. “Hush Hush” — The Pussycat Dolls
5. “Halo” — Beyoncé
6. “Paga Pau” — Fernando & Sorocaba
7. “Fly” — Wanessa Camargo & Ja Rule
8. “Love Sex Magic” — Ciara ft Justin Timberlake
9. “Cartas Pra Você” — NX Zero
10. “Pessoal Particular” — Seu Jorge

I’m a huge Skank fan (I know that comes out wrong, but I’ve liked their music for a long time now).  So let’s look at their video.  Of note with Brazilian music — they write well, and they play well.  Novel concept:

Russia (from Tophit.ru)

1. “Eva” — Vintaj
2. “Ne Otdam” — Maksim
3. “Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer)” — Freemasons
4. “Rumours (Digi, Digi) (Radio Mix)” — Whizzkids
5. “Hot” — Inna
6. “When Love Takes Over” — David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland
7. “Cry Cry” — Oceana
8. “Tak Je Kak Vse” — A’STUDIO
9. “Fairytale” — Aleksandr Rybak
10. “Pure Love” — Arash

Rybak won Eurovision (he’s from Belarus but sang for Norway), and he’s been hanging around in the Top 10 forever.  Arash is an interesting one.  He sings in Persian and is blowing up around Europe.  Here’s the video for the top song by Vintaj.  Nice enough:

India (I used Radio Mirchi, but see below.)

1. “Twist” — Love Aaj Kal
2. “Dhan Te Nan” — Kaminey
3. “Luck Aazma” — Luck
4. “Hai Junoon” — New York
5. “Om Mangalam” — Kambakkht Ishq
6. “Aaya Re” — Jashnn
7. “Dilli-6″ — Delhi-6
8. “Jai Ho” — Slumdog Millionaire
9. “Haule Haule Remix” — Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
10. “Dekh Bhai Dekh” — Dekh Bhai Dekh

This is a tricky one, English/International and Hindi are kept separately, and the Hindipop hits are by song and film.  (You can see “Jai Ho” still hanging around from Slumdog Millionaire.)  It could take you years to learn your Sonu Nigam from Himesh Reshammiya.  Suggestion: try Pakistan.  They do pop and rock better in more different ways (see: Ali Zafar,  Junoon) because it isn’t tied up in the film industry so much.

China (Baidu Top MP3 Searches)