Ohio, US

The thing I probably like the most about making this blog is when I find out that some country or area  where I didn't expect to find that much of anything, is actually full of great bands and artists. This is exactly what happened with this post about Ohio. I didn't really know anything about this state before and so I wasn't expecting to know or find that many bands from there. I guess I should've known better that a state that is relatively close to cities like Chicago, Detroit and New York must have a fairly decent music culture. I even found out that some of my all time favourite bands originate here. What also strikes me about this blog is the variety of the music. There's some excellent indie rock, beautiful alt-folk, hot funk and excellent punk music coming from this state. I was expecting a small playlist of maybe a couple of hours, but what I got was over a six hour playlist of more than a hundred different artists. And I could've gone further if I had wanted to. But here it is, the playlist for Ohio: Ohio.

Mexico

Writing this post has taken me a long time. The reason is not that it would be difficult to find good music from Mexico, the reason is that there is so much of great music coming from Mexico, but it's lost in a sea of crap music from Mexico. Weeding out the good music takes time. I probably missed lots of good artists and bands, but the playlist as it currently is, with almost 80 songs and 5 hours, is very good. There's lots of great guitar driven indie, americana folk, post rock and disco indie. Most of the music is sung in Spanish and that's probably why not many people outside the Spanish-speaking world have heard of these bands. If, like me, you don't really care about the lyrics that much, or you actually understand Spanish, there are some excellent bands and artists to be discovered on this list. Playlist: Mexico

Massachusetts, US

Massachusetts is a fairly small area geographically, but it's quite a big hub for music. Boston and the surrounding areas have hosted a number of legendary alternative and indie bands, as well as folk and country. There are also some excellent jazz musicians hailing from Boston. In the more recent years, Boston music scene has been thriving with small but excellent indie bands. The proximity of New York with all its bands has no doubt influenced the emergence of amazing bands. Again, this is one area where I could have just kept going with the bands and musicians, but I have to end the blog at some point, so here it is. Almost ten hours of music from over 150 bands or artists. The playlist can be found here: Massachusetts.

Denmark

Denmark's music history has many well-known crimes against music world, such as the eurodance bands Aqua and Daze. I'll not include any of that stuff here. Denmark has got quite a lot of excellent indie bands that sound very international. Usually you can't really hear the accent and that's probably why so many of them have received some recognition even in the English speaking countries. I was a bit surprised to see how many excellent jazz artists come from Denmark. Approximately one third of the playlist (the last part) is jazz. I did not include Faroe Islands or Greenland on this list leaving the door open for making their own respective lists later on. The whole playlist has over a hundred bands or artists and the playlist is over seven hours long. Enjoy: Denmark.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is not exactly known for its bands. There are a few names that most people have heard of, but there haven't been that many bands or artists that have had international fame. Politically unstable 1970's must have influenced the amount of first wave punk bands coming from Belfast. I selected this area for my next blog post, because I thought that was not going to be yet another huge list. Finding good bands from Northern Ireland proofed to be even more difficult than I anticipated. I must have left out some great underground names from this list, but it's not easy to find out about bands from this area for some reason. I'm still quite happy with this compact three and a half hour playlist of nearly 60 artists. Here's the playlist: Northern Ireland

Spain

This list has possibly surprised me more than any other list on this blog. I've been posting some huge lists lately and I thought it would be nice to post a smaller list for a change. How wrong was I. Spain's music scene is much more interesting than I had anticipated. It's true that most of their music is in Spanish and that's probably why their bands are not that well known outside of Spanish speaking countries, but they really do have some great bands and artists down there. There's a variety of excellent indie pop and rock, electro and folk, and even some post-rock and post-punk. The amount of excellent jazz artists also surprised me. This time it felt like I could've just gone on forever adding artists to this list and even if I'm sure I've missed some extraordinary artists from this list, I think this over 120 strong playlist of almost 8 hours is pretty good. Enjoy: Spain.

Washington, US

The state of Washington (and especially Seattle) is probably best known for grunge. In the first half of the 90's almost all of the big grunge bands were from this area. Washington has so much more to offer though. Some of the greatest 00's indie bands have come from here, along with some excellent folk, electro, country, garage and soul bands. Seattle has also been a home to numerous amazing singer-songwriters. I knew that this was going to be one of the biggest music states in the US, but I still wasn't prepared for the amount of great music. With more work I could've probably added a lot more bands, but with very little effort I already had these over 130 artists with an over 8 hour playlist, so I think I will proceed with publishing this list and if I'm missing something I will add those to the playlist later. Enjoy one of the best music scenes in the world: Washington.

Southern and Central Finland

As you probably know, I have already covered Helsinki (along with surrounding areas) in this blog. This is why those areas are not included in this post even if they are in Southern Finland. Neither are the West parts of Finland that I've dealt with in my post for Western Finland. This post covers roughly Kanta-Häme, Pirkanmaa, Päijät-Häme and Keski-Suomi. Tampere is known for its rock music, but many of the most well-known bands coming from there are not very cool and in my opinion, many of them are not worth listening at all. There are, however, some excellent small bands that have appeared into Tampere's indie scene during the last 20 years. Lahti has been a home to many rockabilly bands. Hämeenlinna and Riihimäki have quite surprisingly been a home to some of the best indie bands of 2000's. Jyväskylä has some quite good jazz bands. The problem with making these listings from Finland is the fact that very few bands actually mention where they're from anywhere, so many bands' origin says hidden to me and I can't find out where they are actually from. this may have resulted in some bands being left out and to some bands being located in a wrong section. Anyway, here's roughly 60 artists from Southern and Central Finland. Playlist: Southern and Central Finland.

Senegal

Now it's time to return to the birthplace of rhythm music, West Africa. Senegal is one of the most active music countries in Africa. There are interesting afrobeat bands, wild funk bands, melodic kora artists, experimental jazz groups, psychedelic tunes and latin style beats. I even included some hip hop and reggae artists on this list. I was surprised how many of the Senegalese bands had their music on Spotify. It was fairly easy to find at least some songs from all the artists I came across. I may have missed something essential as well, but that always happens. I'm still quite pleased with this almost four hour playlist containing almost 50 Senegalese artists or bands. Most of these come from Dakar, where there is a vibrant music scene. Enjoy, here's the playlist: Senegal.

Illinois, US

This is my first post about the midwest of US. This state has long roots in music, from early jazz and blues artists, through funk and disco to alternative rock and new folk movement. Most of the artists on this list are of course from Chicago, but there are some from other areas of the state as well. Back in the day Chicago was something of a hub for great jazz and blues artists, which meant that many musicians moved there to play music. In this blog, if they started their career in Chicago, I'll add them to this list, but if they had already started their career somewhere else, they do not appear here even though they may have been a seminal part of the Chicago scene. This five and a half hour playlist of more than 80 artists is a great mix of different styles and sounds. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it. The Playlist: Illinois.

South Korea

I have to admit straight away, that making this list was the most challenging list to make so far. South Korea's music scene is mostly known for cheesy and bubblegummy K-pop songs. It was difficult to even start finding any other musical genres. The fact that many of the bands are not on Spotify made it even more difficult and it doesn't help that most of the band names are only written in Hangul. I wrote the band names in European alphabet though. I know that I should not rely on Spotify so much in making these lists, but it's just easier than to link all the songs individually from youtube links. That's why Spotify was one of the determining factors on what ended up on this list. Anyway, about the music then. I was able to find a few really good post-rock bands, as you might expect from a far Asian country. There are also some excellent indie bands with catchy melodies that are not too cheesy. I also managed to find a few good rock bands, jazz bands and even some 60's psychedelia. This almost three and a half hour list of Korean music is a result of a long working process. Hope you like it: South Korea.

Norway

When people talk about music from Norway, I'm immediately thinking about death metal bands with their church burning fantasies and death masks. That's why I was a bit surprised to find so much good music from Norway that I had never heard of. Apparently they're not that good at marketing their songs, since with this kind of talent, I would think that I would definitely have heard of more great bands and artists. I ended up leaving all the church burning death metal bands out of this list, since I'm not a big fan of that. Norway's music scene is full of excellent dreamy folk artists, innovative post-rock and electro bands, and skilful jazz musicians. I think they say it about all the Nordic countries, but I think Norway's unique nature can be heard in these songs. This list is over six hours long with over 80 bands and artists. Enjoy! The Playlist: Norway.

Ontario, CAN

Ontario is the most populous province in Canada. This can be hear in the varied music scene as well. I wasn't able to find loads of great music from this province, but I could certainly find some in many different genres. There's everything from indie to folk, from electro to punk and jazz. This area has many of the most well-known bands and artists from Canada. I was a bit surprised, knowing so many good bands from there already, that it was a bit difficult to find many more of them. This is a great three hour playlist that I managed to get together: Ontario.

North West England

My blog has a new record in the length of a post and playlist. North West England has two excellent music cities, Manchester and Liverpool. In addition, some smaller towns within the area have gave rise to some amazing bands. There's a vast amount of classic master's of pop music. Liverpool is often linked to Merseybeat and Manchester to Madchester movement, but both of these towns offer much more than that. I think in most instances, you can hear the industrial past of these cities that manifests itself as cold and dark melodies and sounds that resemble machinery as well as the deep sentiments of the working class. Some of my absolute favourite bands are on this ten hour playlist of almost 160 artists. Playlist: North West England.

Victoria, AUS

Victoria is probably the state in Australia that has the most good bands and artists. I've never visited the country, but a lot of people seem to think that Melbourne is by far the most interesting city in Australia. The selection of good bands coming from there backs up that thinking. There are loads of indie rock bands, folk bands, country bands, post-rock bands etc. Australia, for a long time, had a kind of boring music scene, but recently something has happened and there are some fantastic new bands and artists emerging in their alternative music scene. Here's a four and a half hour playlist with descriptions. Enjoy! Playlist: Victoria.