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March 22, 2007 1:07 PM   Subscribe

Uyghur goes pop! Fully downloadable album (with samples to try before you don't have to buy) of pop music from Xinjiang, aka East Turkestan, home to the Uyghur.
posted by Abiezer (15 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Video of dutar master Abdurehim Heyit, who is one of the artists on the album, giving it some in fine style, via the comments at the linked blog.
posted by Abiezer at 1:10 PM on March 22, 2007


Good stuff thanks. I know this American guy in Urumqi who was well into Uyghur hip hop, and the guys he knew weren't bad. It was weird going to clubs with them, traditional Uyghur pop in the back ground and them breaking out rhymes at random times.

what are you doing up at 4:00am Abiezer?
posted by afu at 1:35 PM on March 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Nearly five! Turned down a night out as if I was going to work, then sat here surfing instead and found this.
posted by Abiezer at 1:41 PM on March 22, 2007


Interesting stuff. And the player he uses on the page is dope. Thx for posting it.
posted by micayetoca at 2:26 PM on March 22, 2007


I downloaded the album, and I'm surprised how much I like it.
Good job. Thanks for the link.

Also, that video of the dutar is pretty damn cool. You'd have to be Wilt Chamberlain to play in first position on that neck - it looks like it's 5 feet long.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 3:12 PM on March 22, 2007


Yeesh!…. but okay…fair enough, and it’ll save me some bandwidth if you’re actually just snooping around for freebie top-40 mush .


Enh... this might as well be top-40, because it is certainly mush. Someone turn down the reverb! And get these people a better synth bass noise! Give me that dutar any day.
posted by rxrfrx at 3:14 PM on March 22, 2007


[!بو ياخشى] Yes, they write Uighur with Arabic letters. But you can read that Bu yakhshi!
posted by languagehat at 3:17 PM on March 22, 2007


Bu yaxshi! X 2
posted by k8t at 3:41 PM on March 22, 2007


Oooh, nifty, thanks!

*happydance*
posted by Smilla's Sense of Snark at 3:59 PM on March 22, 2007


[!بو ياخشى] Yes, they write Uighur with Arabic letters. But you can read that Bu yakhshi!

Hey, at least when they use it they bother to write the vowels.

Sorry, was that in my outside voice? I'm just grateful to be able to read something in it by sight. As a language dilettante, it's frustrating that Arabic is only readable for fluent speakers.

I'll have to give this a listen when I get home.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:08 PM on March 22, 2007


My partner went to Xinjiang to research a book (it's called Women of the Gobi - link here).

She wants to comment:

I was in a taxi in Turpan last year and I heard a local version of a Kylie Minogue song playing. I said 'Ooh, it's Chinese Kylie' and the Uyghur driver indignantly said 'No, this is a Uyghur song.' All the way from Dunhuang to Urumqi I heard cheesy, loud Uyghur pop. It was a nice change from the Muzak versions of easy-listening classics I heard everywhere else in China, especially the bloody 'My heart will go on' song from Titanic.
posted by chrisgregory at 5:02 PM on March 22, 2007


shouldn't that be "Pop Goes the Uyghur"?
posted by Quietgal at 8:34 PM on March 22, 2007


Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. So, uh, thanks?
posted by sleepy pete at 9:55 PM on March 22, 2007


Quietgal - I think I was channelling a cheesy TV show from my childhood called Cheggers Plays Pop
posted by Abiezer at 4:30 AM on March 23, 2007


Also, chrisgregory, tell your partner I recall that version of the Titanic song and share her pain.
posted by Abiezer at 7:43 AM on March 23, 2007


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