น้ำชา (Namcha Chiranat) ft. Southside, “Fine Fine Fine” (2012)

Thai pop would seem to be the next frontier.

This is very much indebted to Western (and of course Japanese and Korean) pop of the past few years, what with the AutoTune, the guest rappers, and the dubstep breakdown, but little as I know about Thai music it seems very much of the region too: the high-pitched vocals, though they mostly follow the “rules” of Western pop, are very much a Southeast Asian pop sound. It’s the fact that Namcha sometimes slips “out of key” — in quotes because different cultures use different harmonic scales, obviously — that makes me think of pop naïfs like Rebecca Black or Kim Kardashian (or in early, inaccurate readings, Ke$ha), but she’s clearly a trained dancer and a strong enough comedian for the goofy video. A pop star, in other words.

I’m a sucker for bright colors and twisted-blurt productions, though, and this delivers on both counts.

(I’m going to be posting pop videos from around the world all night, probably, so be warned.)

Abby Lakew, “ሽኮሪና (Shekorina)” (2012)

Ethiopian R&B-inflected pop. AutoTune only adds to the generally gauzy effect.

Okyeame Kwame ft. Irene Logan, “Mr. Versatile” (2012)

Excellent Ghanian hip-hop/R&B. The rhythm, and the language, switches up every few minutes, as per the title.

But he had me at “I’m too old for swag.”

Taxi, “Eşti iubibilă” (2012)

Romanian kind-of turbo-folk, maybe on a lower setting than normal. The video feels like stealth marketing for Go On, but I think it’s probably funnier than any given episode. Google Translate refuses to do anything with “iubibilă,” so aside from wondering whether it shares a root with “jubilation,” I’m guessing it’s either nonsense or current slang. Any Romanians in the house?

Fi Fi Bloom, “Till the Sun Comes Up” (2012)

Gorgeous dreamy soca ballad from Barbados, a Crop Over (the Barbadian equivalent of Carnival elsewhere in the Caribbean) entry. It owes nothing to the most famous Barbadian singer, and there’s no reason it should — Rihanna hasn’t sounded this laid-back in years.

Tereza Kerndlová, “Tepe Srdce Mý” (2012)

Czech electropop, pretty and insubstantial in the best way.

Gis Maj Es, “Unreachable” (2012)

Serbian jazz combo. No, wait, come back! The song is about technology and communication. Sorry, let me try again. It takes as its starting point one of the most famous three-note figures in the world. Okay, there’s nothing I can say about it that won’t make it sound boring, except maybe: You like hair-metal guitar, right?

Toilolo Girls, “Island Beauty” (2012)

Last one (for now). Samoan girl-power R&B, sweet and lo-fi.

Becca ft. MI, “No Away” (2012)

One reason I don’t often keep doing research on a topic once I turn a roundup piece in is that it’s too heartbreaking when I find something better than the vast majority of what I’d included. Ghanian R&B is killing it right now.

D3 ft. Zigi, “Good Girls Gone Bad” (2012)

What if I posted nothing but Ghanian pop songs for the rest of my life?

RnM, “Call the Doctor” (2012)

WIYL Danity Kane.