Kyrgyz Music Friday

Kyrgyz Music Friday is a weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan. It could be catchy, annoying, funny, insightful, brilliant, awful, or anything in between. It’s what’s playing on the radio, what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Kyrgyz Music Friday is not trying to appeal to your musical taste (which I’m sure is awesome), but simply gives you a glimpse into how pop music is done on this side of the world. Feel free to share your thoughts on this week’s video in the comment section!

Did anybody catch the Non-Stop concert last night? If this video is any indication, then I bet the show was awesome (and colorful!).

I promise Kyrgyz Music Friday won’t turn into non-stop Non-Stop videos (zing!), but this week I’m featuring the video for their new song, “Kyzdar ay, Baldar ay”. I like the song; it’s high energy and perfectly danceable just like the last song I featured from them. From what I can tell (and with my super limited knowledge of Kyrgyz), the song is some sort of back-and-forth of guys versus girls with a sprinkling of Kyrgyz culture references (I heard kalpak and Ala-Too a few times).

So yes, it’s a good song and it’s stuck in my head, but what’s really noteworthy is the video.

So much color! So much attitude! So much synchronized dancing, slow motion shots, and morphing between traditional and modern motifs! While I am (yet again) disappointed by the overuse of effects, like neon-colored vignettes and weird, flashing lights, the thing about this video that bugged me the most is the mash-up of traditional Kyrgyz styles and instruments with over-the-top urban styles. I do think that Kyrgyz pop music can have it’s own style without constantly throwing on some kalpaks, swirly designs (I don’t know the proper name for them, if there is one), and looping some auto-tuned komuz (the small guitar-like instrument) chords in the background. I watch a lot of Kyrgyz music videos and it just strikes me that there are certain elements that are often included in songs and videos to make sure the viewer knows, “This is a Kyrgyz music video”, as if it wouldn’t be apparent or accepted otherwise.

This is not to say that all music videos produced in Kyrgyzstan do this, but it bums me out a bit when an otherwise original and catchy song puts out a video that includes too many unnecessary elements.

But that’s just one girl’s opinion. What do you guys think?