We all know that we are living in a time of mass globalisation, when different cultures are mixing, everyone can travel around the world easily, and try to see how other people live on this planet of ours.

Madonna, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, David Guetta - they can play huge concerts around the world. They are internationally famous, no matter where you may call home. You can buy a track of you favorite artist everywhere on iTunes.

So does this mean that globalisation has come and music is the same everywhere we go... or are there are still differences in music tastes in different countries?

Alla Ray

I was born in Russia, I work in the UK and am having a holiday in the US right now. Three different parts of the world, three different tastes in everything... and in MUSIC too?

My answer is still YES!

Let's look at the history:

UK was always about the rock music in many different forms: pop-rock, brit pop, indie rock, etc., based on such bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, U2, Coldplay, Muse. All amazing bands with great songs which had and still have a huge influence on radio programmers and music tastes in general!

Of course there are RnB and hip-hop artists in UK charts but not too much. 'Cause RnB & hip-hop - it’s more for US! I’ve been to several clubs in Miami this summer, and 90% of the music played there was hip-hop, rap and RnB! More than 50% of them I’ve even never heard before, and probably wont hear again.

But even with all these differences, UK & US are very close to each other in music tastes in comparison to Russia.

For example, I’m sure you have never heard of Russian music but it exists! There are a lot of great pop and rock artists and some are stylistically very different to the UK or US.

Russian rock music has been heavily influenced by such bands as Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode and David Bowie to name a few. It’s indie and a bit underground. Pop music in Russia is very light, with huge influence of ABBA. Maybe a bit cheesy. The most recent success for a Russian band was T.a.T.u. They were like a breath of fresh air and did a lot to promote Russian music across the world.

Russia is a country of dance music, especially house music. There are lots of huge dance festivals organized in Russia: Casantip, Sensation, Transmission. Massive audiences with massive Russian and international bands

So my message to you is this:

Travel a lot and try to see the differences, something new in every part of the world you go to. You will be surprised, how many absolutely amazing artists, actors, cuisines and traditions are still unknown to the millions of people.

Thanks for listening.

ALLA RAY
LOS ANGELES (CA)

Alla Ray's new single 'The Race' is out tomorrow - August 25 - on Hot Beat Records.