Monday, October 02, 2006
Musical Differences
Time for a letter to the Editor from "Angry of Tooting"
One might think that it would be all Salsa and Reggaeton, but musical tastes across the continent seem to vary wildly, and although it doesn't take much digging to get to the local or more traditional music, the standard fair is a mish mash of styles, even in club sets. And off course pan pipes are all over the more touristic Andean areas, and no artist is spared, but believe me My Way and Like A Virgin just don't work.
In some countries there is a frighteningly high level of bad 80's music on virtually all playlists - in fact, as I write Come On Eileen is playing on the radio. In Chile I heard A-ha's Take On Me virtually everyday, and one day heard it 3 times and saw the video once. In Paraguay it was Alphaville "Big In Japan". It can only be a matter of time until I get Wang Chunged.
In San Pedro de Atacama, I sat in a restaurant while dinner was accompanied by a three piece comprised of drums, double base and ukalele, playing a right mix of stuff. However, having seen the Ukalele Orchestra of Great Britain perform Apache, with their tongues firmly in cheeks, it was impossible for me to keep a straight face when these guys attempted it. At the end of their set the ukalele player came round with their CD for sale. He put it on our table, but immediately picked it up, and said tersly "I don't think you really enjoyed it, so there's not much point is there?".
In Ecuador, when the bus drivers aren't playing local music, they revert to dodgy 80's American MOR, but in bars and on the street it's never long until before you hear Shakira's Hips Don't Lie ...I know love, I know.
In Argentina there is a horrific new wave of muzak that has infiltrated many bars in which classic songs have been recorded with dinner jazz arrangements and syruppy female vocals. There are some songs that you can guess are just too popular to escape this treatment (Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, Hotel California, et al) but somehow the Cure's Boys Don't Cry has not only been ravaged in this way but also appears to be the track on most frequent rotation. I recently heard, in a French restaurant in Cusco, Peru, of one the very few vaguely decent cover versions, with sugary little girl lost vocals, of an indie classic: Australian band Frente's version of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle. It wouldn't be completely out of place in the Sarah Records catalogue, but the deliberate pronounciation the word "every" as "elvery" jars.
Meanwhile, I have been chased across the continent, and driven to utter distraction, by that whimpering fop James Blunt.
...Rant over...
One might think that it would be all Salsa and Reggaeton, but musical tastes across the continent seem to vary wildly, and although it doesn't take much digging to get to the local or more traditional music, the standard fair is a mish mash of styles, even in club sets. And off course pan pipes are all over the more touristic Andean areas, and no artist is spared, but believe me My Way and Like A Virgin just don't work.
In some countries there is a frighteningly high level of bad 80's music on virtually all playlists - in fact, as I write Come On Eileen is playing on the radio. In Chile I heard A-ha's Take On Me virtually everyday, and one day heard it 3 times and saw the video once. In Paraguay it was Alphaville "Big In Japan". It can only be a matter of time until I get Wang Chunged.
In San Pedro de Atacama, I sat in a restaurant while dinner was accompanied by a three piece comprised of drums, double base and ukalele, playing a right mix of stuff. However, having seen the Ukalele Orchestra of Great Britain perform Apache, with their tongues firmly in cheeks, it was impossible for me to keep a straight face when these guys attempted it. At the end of their set the ukalele player came round with their CD for sale. He put it on our table, but immediately picked it up, and said tersly "I don't think you really enjoyed it, so there's not much point is there?".
In Ecuador, when the bus drivers aren't playing local music, they revert to dodgy 80's American MOR, but in bars and on the street it's never long until before you hear Shakira's Hips Don't Lie ...I know love, I know.
In Argentina there is a horrific new wave of muzak that has infiltrated many bars in which classic songs have been recorded with dinner jazz arrangements and syruppy female vocals. There are some songs that you can guess are just too popular to escape this treatment (Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, Hotel California, et al) but somehow the Cure's Boys Don't Cry has not only been ravaged in this way but also appears to be the track on most frequent rotation. I recently heard, in a French restaurant in Cusco, Peru, of one the very few vaguely decent cover versions, with sugary little girl lost vocals, of an indie classic: Australian band Frente's version of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle. It wouldn't be completely out of place in the Sarah Records catalogue, but the deliberate pronounciation the word "every" as "elvery" jars.
Meanwhile, I have been chased across the continent, and driven to utter distraction, by that whimpering fop James Blunt.
...Rant over...
# posted by Barney @ 10:39 pm 
Comments:
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bugger! i do like frente's version of B.L.T. [hah, see wot i did there] but had never notice her stoopid use of the word 'elvery' - thanks barneykins!
greg
:)
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greg
:)
# posted by 
: 1:56 pm
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