Where You're From....

SoundRoots has been around less than a year, but has attracted a diverse following from all over the planet. We know this from comments, emails, and from those handy site statistics. So who's interested in a blog about world music and global culture? The top 25 visiting nations are currently:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. Germany
5. France
6. Netherlands
7. Spain
8. Australia
9. Italy
10. Belgium
11. Sweden
12. Brazil
13. Turkey
14. Poland
15. Mexico
16. India
17. Japan
18. Morocco
19. South Africa
20. Switzerland
21. Singapore
22. Portugal
23. Peru
24. Norway
25. Hungary

It's great to have such a diverse following. Hope many of you will feel inspired to leave a comment now and then about what you enjoy, or what you'd like to hear or read about on SoundRoots.

A word on world maps: In recently reading about world maps, SoundRoots learned a dizzying amount about various two-dimensional projections of our three-dimensional world. You may know, as did we, that many world maps badly distort the relative sizes of lands. One of the classic examples is Greenland, which is often show as large or larger than Africa, when Africa is actually about 14 times the size of Greenland. There is no one "accurate" world map -- not in two dimensions, anyway. But we like the maps that correct for relative area (like the Winkel Tripel projection shown above), even if they have other flaws. We're also a fan of the "upside-down" world map, that shows the south pole on top. Good for shaking up those entrenched cartographical notions. For much, much more on world maps, check out Cartographical Map Projections.

And yes, we have some geography-related music for you. Magic Black Men are a Malian rap group formed in 1996 by Attino "Philo" Doumbia, Hamidou "Don Mizero" Cissé (aka Mizé), and Titi. They sing in both French and English (Mizé grew up in English-speaking Liberia) and released a couple cassettes on Mali's Invasion Records. Not sure what they've been up to lately. Bonus points if you can pin Bamako City on the world map.

[mp3] Magic Black Men: "Bamako City"

Oh, and check out a new blog in town, ...Nothing Else Matter! -- "dedicated to making the world a better place by providing free access to the best of international music, art, and culture." Only up a couple weeks, but shows promise.