How to Find Music

by Anala Rabari

Notes & disclaimers: I talk about several online and local stores. I mention those that I'm most familiar with and that are in my area. For instance, we just recently got a Borders in the area where I live so I tend to forget about mentioning it. You need to take the initiative to get familiar with all the music stores in your area from the large chains to the small mom and pop stores. I also mention some digital music stores. I have not conducted business with all of the places I discuss. Some of the places I have merely used as a source of information. Exercise caution when deciding to conduct business with these places or other places that you may find on the Internet. Try to ensure that these businesses follow copyright laws. Weather it’s a local store or an online store make sure you understand any guarantees, return policies or exchange policies. And conduct business at your own risk.

Know What to Look For

To find music you have to know what to look for. Given that, I'd like to discuss search terms that might help you find what you want.

The realm of possible search terms is too great for anyone to try to cover so I'm going to talk about what search terms have been most useful to me in my quest to find music. Aside from the obvious term "belly dance" there are a number of terms that might help you. For instance, country names or geographic regions, such as Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Mediterranean, etc. Try using these terms in conjunction with styles of music you like. For example, Turkey and Pop or Turkish Pop will probably get you a result of Tarkan who is a favorite artist among my troupe. You might want to try other terms such as gypsy, Rom, nomad, belly dance as one word and two words as well as belly dancing, Oriental Dance, Ghawazee, Raks Sharki, dance du ventre, bollywood, bhangra, etc. Also it will serve you well to learn the names of some common instruments used in belly dance music to aid you in searching. I look for doumbek, oud, duduk, setar, santur, ney, and zil, to name a few.

Also learn some Middle Eastern music terms to search for as well: taqsuim, chiffitelli, maqsoum, masmoudi, malfouf, and karsilama. Most of these are rhythm terms and will be explained in an article on Middle Eastern music structure another time.

Carry a small notepad and writing utensil with you as you never know when you will hear music you like, see a CD in a store that catches your eye, or have someone give you title recommendations, all of which you may want to research later.

Finding recommendations

1. Search troupe, dancer, and musician websites: This troupe website has a recommendation page of CDs, DVDs, and books and I'm sure other troupe websites do as well. Also check out if they have a repertoire list that gives you information to what music they are using. Again this site does and we've even managed to link to the previews of songs from online music store websites so you can hear 20 seconds or so. There is also Bellydance Radio on the Bellydance Superstars website. It looks like most of the music is songs from the various CDs that they have put out, but this is new feature on their website and they will be adding more music. Look for interviews from these artists that you respect because many times they will talk about the music and musicians they like to listen to and perform to.

2. Ask dancers and musicians in person: If you see someone perform and you like what you hear ask them who they were dancing to or even the album and song title. If it's a musician ask them if it was an original song and if they have CDs. Also if it's a fellow dancer or musician whose work you like ask them who their favorite musicians or CDs are. Ask people what's on their iPod. I've never had a dancer refuse to give me this information. If they ask why you are wanting to know explain that you don't want to dance to that specific song, but you are interested in hearing more from that CD title or the artist.

3. Online stores: Search the terms discussed earlier in online stores that have costumer reviews such as iTunes or Amazon.com. I often first look for a song or CD I'm familiar with and read the reviews for it. I then find the reviews of that song that I agree with and then I look for other reviews written by that person. Also look for the area that tells you that people who bought this CD also bought these other items. This is a pretty popular function in Amazon along with their automated recommendations.

4. In stores: At several stores in my area there is an employee recommendations area weather it’s for books, movies, or music. Take the time to look through this area and find an employee whose taste you seem to agree with. Hopefully they will review a CD that catches your eye. If they haven't in a month or so ask the store manager if they can ask the employee to review the CD for you.

5. Check the credits of DVDs and CDs: Wither it's your favorite exercise DVD, performance DVD, or a movie DVD they all have music credits at the end. Look for your favorite song in the credits. You can often find out the song title, the CD title, the artist or composer name, and even the record label. Armed with that information you can then search the internet or go to your local music store. On CDs look through the credits to find the names of musicians used and then see if they have their own CDs out. Also think about compilations. Now some compilations are terrible because they don't let you know who the artists are or what the original albums were that the songs came off of. However, those that include this information are awesome because you can get exposure to a number of different artists all at once. I've found CDs from the Putamayo World series and the Rough Guide series to be extremely informative.

6. Music charts and awards: Try looking at Billboard music charts, Grammy nominees and winners from various years, or other institutions that give out music awards. The Grammy website is really easy to use and you can search by genre such as World, New Age, or many other genres. The Billboard music site is harder to use as you have to pay a subscription fee to get access to many of their charts. However, you can access this information and radio play charts at the iTunes Music store. Or you can go with less well known charts and awards that may be easier to access. For instance, eMusic.com runs its own chart system based on downloads as does iTunes and other digital music retailers. You can search these charts by genre as well. Other lesser-known places are the New Age Reporter, Magnatune.com, and The Podsafe Music Network. These places are great because they offer independent artists so you can find music that not everyone is dancing to which helps make your performance look more unique. They also have their own awards, bestseller lists, and reviews to offer.

7. Magazines and books: Look for music commentary books and magazines. These are really useful resources, such as the book Rough Guide to World Music or NPR's Curious Listener’s Guide to World Music. These often explain to you about the structure of the music, instruments used, as well as notable record labels, musicians and their discographies, and notable albums in that field. To find these resources search for the term "listener's guide," "music appreciation," or "musicology" in your preferred search engine or online store. Magazines of this nature often review and advertise numerous CDs throughout their volumes. Try looking for a reoccurring "Editor's Picks" section in newspapers and magazines. If you don't think that actually owning these books or having a subscription to these periodicals will be feasible for you, go see if your local library has them or if you can get them through inter-library loan. If your library doesn't have them perhaps suggest to your library that they can add them to their collection.

8. Celebrity playlists and iMixes: These are two features offered by iTunes. Now iTunes has different music stores based on regions, such as North American, Australia, Japan, and Europe. From what I understand it’s either because of the differences in copyright laws between countries or in some cases it’s because the record companies have different subsidiaries for distribution in each region, and the music has to be licensed from the regional companies. So these features may be different based on your region. I was unable to find out how they may differ for this article and I'm sorry about that. So if anyone out there can write in to help fill in the gaps for this, I'd appreciate it.

First celebrity playlists. These are playlists that iTunes has that are put together by celebrities. They give information about why they like the song and what activities they like to do while listening to it. Perhaps Shakira has a playlist. My thought here was perhaps the iTunes music store in Turkey would probably have a playlist from Tarkan, a Turkish pop star. However, US costumers may not be able to access that information. So I think that this is where the bell dance community needs to step up and help each other out and post that information on message boards. I also was not able to find out how iTunes decides what celebrity playlists to publish. So you might be able to get a letter writing companion together to ask iTunes to get more World Music artists to do playlists. Or write letters to the Bellydance Superstars and ask them to post playlists on their websites.

iMixes: Now iMixes are playlists that regular people like you and I can publish on iTunes. You can only add music available in the iTunes Music Store to you list and they are only available for a year. Now this is another feature that I don't know if it will be available in other regional iTunes Stores. But I hope it will and I hope that you guys will take advantage of this and put your own lists up.

How to Find It

Well now that you know what to look for and how to look for it. How do you know if you should buy it? The best way to know if you should buy it is to listen to it first. But how do you get to listen to a CD with out buying it.

1. Online Stores: Use online music stores such as iTunes, Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, or magnatune.com to listen to music before you buy it. Most of these places offer at least 20 seconds of each track. Magnatune.com lets you listen to entire albums before you buy!!

2. Check your local library: You may be surprised to find out that many libraries now have CDs and DVDs available for check out. This is an excellent way to find CDs that you might want to add to your collection without hitting the pocket book too hard. You take the CD home listen to and if you like it, buy it, if not at least all you've wasted is your time and not your money. Also if there is a CD you are considering, but you haven't been able to listen to it, ask your library to buy it for their collection. You shouldn't feel like you may be wasting your library's money if you don't like it, because chances are that even if you don't like it others will.

3. Borrow from Friends: Ask your friends, particularly those with big collections, if you can look at their CDs and borrow any that peak your interest. Remember to offer to let them borrow your CDs as well. You should keep a list of the CDs you have listened to and make notes about what you did or didn't like.

4. Start a troupe borrow party. Have everyone bring in a CD one class and swap the CDs for a week. Then at the next class swap the CDs again until everyone has had a chance to listen to all the CDs in that round of borrowing. When everyone has had a chance to listen to those CDs, make sure they get back to the owner and the next week everyone should bring another CD from their collection. You might want to be sure to make a list of who owns each CD and who is borrowing it for that week. It will help keep your CD from getting lost and if you need your CD back before the week is up (say your new solo is on it and you need to rehearse) you will know who to call to get it back.

5. Have a listening party: Invite a small group of friends over to your house and host a listening party. You probably want to keep this narrowed to 5 people or so, any more and you might burn out of listening to so much music. Ask everyone to bring one CD and make note of 2-3 of their favorite songs off that CD. Have note pads and pencils for your guests. One by one listen to the 2-3 favorite songs off the owner’s CD. Have the guests write down the CD title, artists, and tracks that they listen to and suggest that they come up with their own rating system to write down as well. They can then take the list home with them and decide if they want to pursue listening to more of any of the CDs.

6. Your local store: More music stores are starting to feature listening stations and you should take advantage of this. I will note that your local store might not have every CD they stock available for preview and sometimes the previews are really too short. Well let me tell ya some hints. Ask if there is any way that you can listen to the CD. I've had luck with clerks being willing to open the CD and play it on the store's PA system, so again it doesn't hurt to ask. Also if you think the preview is too short go back to the internet to listen to it there; often the previews are different spots in the music so you get to essentially hear more of the song. Also in stores like Barnes & Noble and Hastings often the computer displays in the listening kiosks will include industry reviews of the CD.

Some Final Thoughts

1. Think out Side of the Box: Just because a song doesn't fall into the familiar preconceived notion of what is belly dance music, it doesn't mean that you can't dance to it. You should think about other dance forms and styles of music that you like. Don't be afraid to expand your horizons. Consider looking for music in the following genres:
Gypsy
Bossa Nova
Rhumba
Cha cha
Tango
Swing
Electronic
New Age
Flamenco
Spanish guitar
World flute
African tribal drums
Cuban, Brazilian, Myan, South American
Pop
Rap
dance forms and/or folk music from your own culture (i.e. dueling banjos)

2. I would also suggest you subscribe to the Raqs Radio podcast (raqsradio.blogspot.com). As Arabella has found some great music for that show and you should also try looking for other podcasts that might cover world music or more specific music that would be appropriate for dancing. I know Magnatune.com, where I get a lot of the music for my own belly dance podcast, has just started a world music podcast.

3. When picking out music for yourself trust your instinct. If you like the song than that is the best reason to dance to it. A song doesn't have to stand up to anyone else's opinion of what may or may not be appropriate for you to dance to. And the fact that we all have different tastes when it comes to music is one of the awesome things about this dance form. Just imagine how boring the art form would be if we all started dancing to the same song or the same style of song. Also if someone helps you find music, pass that help along. We were all beginners once confused by the vastness of the music selection out there. Do your part in the belly dance community. Try to remember to leave reviews at places like iTunes, Amazon, or dance message boards. Make your own iMix at iTunes. Be a part of the dance community; let your voice be heard. You never know when there might be a fellow dancer at the other end of a computer screen who could use some of your guidance.

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