Thursday, June 14, 2007

80s music in Santiago

If you flip through radio stations, you hear a lot of classic hits from the 1980s. I was on the metro, and a guy about undergraduate age had on headphones absolutely blasting Guns ‘n’ Roses.

The topper, though, is the muzak that, for reasons I can only guess about, is played on the various pedestrian-only streets downtown from speakers up on the buildings. Perhaps it is to discourage loitering. About 90% of said music is from the 1980s, like what you would hear in a cheap hotel lounge, on a tinny keyboard with light drum machines, without any singing. A sampling is Madonna, Phil Collins, and even Roxy Music. The only exception to the 1980s was hearing The Bee Gees (“How Deep Is Your Love”). If I am walking downtown, it is entertaining to guess which song is coming on.

But if you decide to play music in that setting, why not Chilean music?

3 comments:

Anonymous,  12:23 PM  

I am sitting in the Santiago airport, and a 60-ish year old Chilean guy's cell phone just rang. The ring tone was "Gloria" by Laura Branigan. I wonder if he has any idea what the song actually is.

Boli-Nica 11:02 AM  

a 60-ish year old Chilean guy's cell phone just rang. The ring tone was "Gloria" by Laura Branigan. I wonder if he has any idea what the song actually is.

"Gloria" was originally done by some Italian was a monster smash all over Latin America. Laura Branigan's song came after and was also a monster smash. So by roughly 80, we were "Gloria'd" out


radio stations in places like Costa Rica would put in heavy rotation songs when they hit the UK charts, AND again when they hit in the US.

Had to suffer thru the likes of "Karma Chameleon" and "Wake Me Up (Before you Go-Go") twice. And unfortunately the brit bands I did like such as Joy Division and The Clash were not played, tho they did play YAZ.

Anonymous,  1:18 PM  

"I wonder if he has any idea what the song actually is."

I wonder why do you think that that man is not able to know the song?

It is a shame that you didn't get really involve by the culture in your visit to Chile.

In Anglosaxon culture, we are so short-minded or blind or whatever, that we don't listen to nothing else that is not sung in english and we can't understand. In Chile people listen 50% of the time to music in other lenguages, gettin exited for the melody, some others try to translate it and understand it better.

The fact, that you don't have an idea of Latin music, doesn't mean that this man wasn't able to know who was singing it, and also, as bio-nica said, you are the one that doesn't have idea of who sings Gloria.

Axl

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