Middle East
The sound of Israel
Mizrahi music spent decades as the disreputable popular form before becoming the mainstream, and that argument is audible in the records.
349 artists in the catalog.
What Israel does that nowhere else does
Genres far more common here than across the rest of the catalog. The multiplier is how much more common, weighted by how many artists carry it.
Five records to start with
Not a canon — a way in. Each one links to what it is, who it's for and where to go next.
Israeli artists worth walking into
Ordered by how much we can tell you, not just by how well-known they are.
Itzhak Perlman
classical music
Where to start →Infected Mushroom
trance
Where to start →Borgore
dubstep
Where to start →Ofra Haza
Mizrahi music · folk rock
Where to start →Eyal Golan
Mizrahi music · pop music
Where to start →Mordechai Ben David
Hasidic music
Where to start →Morgenshtern
Russian hip-hop · hip-hop
Where to start →Chava Alberstein
folk music
Where to start →Arkadi Duchin
pop music
Where to start →Dana International
pop music
Where to start →Matti Caspi
jazz
Where to start →