If you ever feel the need to hear any of the following songs, just come to Latin America. They love this shit here and listen to it over and over. Why? Who the hell knows.
I Will Always Love You Whitney Houston
All That She Wants Is Another Baby Ace of Base
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You Bryan Adams
Dancing Queen ABBA
The guy sitting next to me in the computer lab was just blasting “I Want It That Way” (by the Backstreet Boys [I had to look it up]) on his headphones. The whole time I kept thinking to myself 1: Please Turn That Shit Off, followed by 2: What Is This, 1999? and finally 3: You Must Not Have A Girlfriend.
Whenever I play some good music for people here, most of them have one of the following responses.
“Wow, these guys are good!”
“That’s… very… interesting.”
“Let me play something for you.” (followed by some crap adult contemporary song)
Last week, I played some Soda Stereo [an immensely popular Argentinian rock band] for one of my friends here. She had never heard them (?), and wasn’t impressed (?). Here’s a sample that I posted a while back.
Some things I just don’t understand.
Hey, where in Latin America did this happen, exactly? Because I think you’ve been running into all the wrong people. No one listens to the Backstreet Boys anymore, at least not in Argentina. And we DO appreciate good music.
I don’t doubt that Argentinians listen to good music — it’s the home of Soda Stereo!
For what it’s worth, I’ve heard terrible music in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. And they play it everywhere. On the buses, in the restaurants, during public performances, etc. It literally is where old groups like Ace of Base go to die. They seem to love it here.
If you know any other good Latin American music that I should hear besides Soda Stereo, give me the details!