One side project I tool around with is taking hybrid classes from 3.5 Pathfinder. Now the skald is a barbarian and bard combo. I was thinking about what musical traditions on Athas might lend itself well to a skald.
Nibenay has a rich history of song and dance. A skald here would feel more like a dervish.
Elves also have a history of music, even going so far as to call some of their tribes Song Singers, etc.
Any thoughts?
Music seems to be generally universal, so while i suspect you’re looking for other specific musical traditions, you could probably easily juat pick a group and quickly make one up based on their traits.
i imagine dwarves use chants and maybe heavy drums.
kreen i could see using hollow percussive instruments - chimes, castanets, hollow bones/sticks/logs, etc to make click-like noises. The idea of a thri-kreen bard shaping part of its carapace to play as a washboard-like instrument seems particularly amusing…
Maori war dance
Sardaukar throat signing
I would think Mongolian throat singing, but point well taken.
Thri kreen zydeco… can’t unsee it.
For combat use, war chants would be very effective. A call and response chant could be very useful for setting up a moment of tension. The scene I was thinking of was from Infinity War with Black Panther yelling “Yibambe”, and the army repeating it. Oration and poetry are fun if one can work it out, like lines from Odyssey or Beowulf.
“And Grakin, son of Grakin, took his axe in hand!
He struck the beast across its head,
And drove it from the land.”
There is also the notion of a Gladiator and a performance as well. This would be an interesting perception, but at the same time could be a bit silly. The idea of blood sport for entertainment and the pageantry of the arena could lend itself well to the perform skill for a Barbarian/Bard idea. Professional Wrestlers and Luchadores are interesting if a bit curious examples, as I cannot deny that would be a good use of the perform skill. The analog to the gladiator would be a more serious and potentially lethal interpretation. However, a warrior to whom combat is a pageant and inspiring, calling for blood and victory, selling each moment would be an intense opportunity to give a player dramatic agency.
Oration again is an interesting one as with writing restricted, a Skald reciting lineages, news, or family tales could make the Skald a significant local figure. This along with how difficult life is on Athas, it would be appropriate for the mixture of something barbaric, if only to make sure they can potentially survive trips to other villages.
Dancing could be interesting as a use. A style of fighting similar Capoeira could be an effective way of picturing it. Imagining skalds “performing” while fighting I think would be a good of show for warrior centric societies, or something spread along slaves to help resist and escape.
This was a fun thought experiment! I’m glad I came across it. Great question.
Thanks so much for such a great reply. It means a great deal. 
Absolutely true.
Not necessarily. If they are passed down from before, they could be hauntingly beautiful. Imagine a scarred, vicious elf raider singing about a romance written in the stars…
In the real world, Roman arenas would have many different performances. Imagining musical accompaniment is not a big stretch. Though the gladiators themselves being musical might be going a little far.
Maybe not a musical gladiator, but a bard/brute who uses massive poisoned blades to go ape-$hit on his foes and then recites poetry in the drinking den afterwards to his adoring fans sounds about right…
Also, many people in Eldaarich are apparently brutes (barbarians; because of their mental issues and repressed rage) or bards - no reason they couldn’t be both. 
Edit:
And 3.5e gladiators do rely on the Perform skill… Barbarian/ Bard/Gladiator anyone?