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.

Texas, US

Texas is not probably the first state that comes to mind when talking about great music hubs in the US. Texas, however, has one of the most throwing music scenes in the US. Of course there are so many people in that state that it's no wonder why so much music was born there, but I'm sure that long tradition in country music and general hipster coolness of Austin have their part to play as well. The music scene of Texas is quite varied and my playlist has everything from folk to country and from electro to noise and heavy, not forgetting different rock genres. This is one of the biggest playlists I have in this blog. Almost eight hours of excellent music from the state that is generally viewed only through its ridiculous conservative politics shows that there's much more in Texas than you might think. Here's the playlist: Texas

France

France isn't exactly known for it's great modern music. Still, there are more and more good underground artists in the country. They already have quite a long tradition in electro-pop and the old chanson classics are known to many. I was, however, able to find quite a lot of great guitar-driven indie bands as well along with some progressive rock, world music, psychedelia and of course, French rap, which even I like quite a bit, even though I usually couldn't care less about hip-hop or rap. More and more artists in France are also singing in English, which sometimes results in quite horrible accents. It's still refreshing to hear bands singing in French as well. Especially when the music and sound themselves are not that French. Here's the almost six hour playlist: France

Western Finland

After my post about Helsinki, I wasn't quite sure how to divide rest of Finland into areas. I came to the conclusion that I'm going divide it in Western Finland, Central Finland, Eastern Finland and Lapland (that will probably include the whole Lapland together with Swedish and Norwegian parts). In this Western Finland post I will include areas such as Varsinaissuomi, Satakunta and Pohjanmaa. This area includes towns such as Turku, Rauma, Pori, Seinäjoki, Vaasa, Kokkola and Oulu and obviously also smaller towns within the region. When it comes to Finland, I think I should know a whole lot of bands and artists, but the problem is that there just isn't enough lists online to find out where the bands are actually from. because of this I'm sure I have missed something and left even something crucial out of this list. Still, here's a bi more than two and a half hour playlist of music from Finland's western parts: Western Finland.

Southern California, US

California is probably the biggest music hub in the world, so I had to divide that state in two even though I usually present US one state at the time. Even with this division, Southern California is probably the biggest list in this blog. There's a staggering number of fantastic bands from Los Angeles alone. There are all kinds of genres on this list, but, like every time, I've ordered the playlist so that it makes perfect sense to listen to the songs in that order. you can hear the sun and closeness of the beach in these songs. It may seem odd that most of the most well-known bands are quite far down the list, but that's merely because it made sense in terms of the structure of the list. hopefully you'll have time and will to go all that way down. Enjoy this seven and a half hour playlist: Southern California

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's vibrant music scene is best known for mystical jazz tunes combining a bunch of horns and organ sounds. Also, it's no wonder that Ethiopia is a home to many reggae artists, since Jamaica's Rastafarians worshipped Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. This has undoubtedly effected Ethiopia's own music scene as well. The whole Rastafarian movement has its other official home in Ethiopia. There are also some excellent groovy funk bands in the country along with more modern piano-led jazz. The middle east style vocals are not always that pleasant for ears of a Westerner who is accustomed to certain kinds of melody structures, but Ethiopian musicians generally prefer pentatonic  scales more familiar to Western listeners. Here is an almost two hour playlist and blog post on Fantastic Ethiopian music. Playlist: Ethiopia.

Oregon, US

Oregon, and especially Portland, has been one of the epicentres of indie and folk music in the 2000's. A lot of bands from somewhere else have also moved to Portland for it's laid-back atmosphere. I only attempted to list bands and artists that originate from this state. Portland's music scene doesn't include any crazy musical genres, but there is a staggering amount of excellent indie-folk bands there. Some of my all time favourite artists have their roots here. The artistic environment and closeness of nature must effect the amount of great artists. For such as small population Oregon must be one of the areas that has produced most great musicians. The playlist is almost five hours long and has almost 80 artists or bands. Enjoy the greatness of Oregon! The playlist: Oregon

Japan

There's only one word to describe the Japanese music scene: Weird! The mainstream in the country seems to include quite a lot of bubblegum pop, Asian schlager and metal. I don't particularly like any of these genres, so there's not much of mainstream on this list. The Japanese also like to make noise  music. Unfortunately it's a bit too noisy for my taste. There simply are no melodies there. So what is my list about? There's some endearing indie pop, shoegaze, rock n' roll, punk, post-rock, electronic music, some classical koto music, jazz and psychedelic rock. This is one of the most versatile lists I have made so far, but I guess that reflects beautifully the true spectre of Japanese music. I suspect that there are quite a lot of great artists missing from this list due to a simple reason that many of the Japanese artists are not on Spotify, which was my main way to work on this list. I would be happy to hear from your further suggestions on what to include on this list: Japan

Stockholm & East Middle Sweden

Sweden is a peculiar country in a sense that Stockholm, as the capital and the biggest city in the country, does not actually contain the best selection of great artists and bands. Second biggest cities Gothenburg and Malmö have more vibrant music scenes. Even so, you can count on the Swedes to have great music in whatever area and Stockholm has its own fantastic artists. I also include in this blog post the whole East Middle Sweden with cities such as Västerås, Uppsala and Örebro. Some of these areas close to the capital have excellent additions to this list. This list has a wide selection of different genres from folk to indie rock and from jazz to skate punk. This list once again proofs that Sweden is one of the best countries in making popular music. Not many other countries have such vibrant music scenes when taken the size of the population into account. So enjoy this three hour playlist: Stockholm & East Middle Sweden

South East England

I am going to go through England by dividing it into nine regional areas. I have already covered London before, but this is the first regional area in England that is not centred around on specific city. South East England includes cities like Brighton, Oxford, Southampton and Winchester. The folk scene seems to be quite vibrant in this area. There are also many melancholic alternative rock bands in there. What surprised me, was the amount of really popular bands from this area, where there are no big cities. I guess the proximity of London has made an influence and many of these bands are currently situated in London. There's an almost five hour playlist included in this post and it can be found here: South East England

Nigeria

It's been a while since my last post on an African country. This time it's time to plunge into the music of Nigeria. This country is mostly known for the birth of Afrobeat and African funk. Most of the bands on this list actually can be described with these genres, but there's also some reggae, R&B and 
Jùjú. As a bass player, I have a weak spot for wild funk music where bass has a central role in both the rhythm and melody. I was first drawn to Nigerian music after being introduced to Fela Kuti's 70's albums, which even now are among the best albums in this kind of genre. My previous knowledge of Nigerian music wasn't great, but I'm quite happy with this two and a half hour playlist of mine. Enjoy the wild rhythm music of Nigeria. Here's the playlist: Nigeria