Music & Rituals : Christmas in Colombia

 Hey, y'all. My name's Miguel Junco. I'm a freshman, and I'm majoring in History, minoring in Secondary Education and German. I'm originally from Bogota, Colombia. I've lived in the US for around 6 years. I graduated from Spartanburg High School, and I'm a commuter. I'm really into soccer and Formula 1, and I also like hiking and building Legos. 

1. One of the leading types of music I began to like after I moved to the US was R&B and hip-hop. This music represents the cultural changes I underwent in my early years after moving here. Most of my new American friends loved this music, so they influenced me to listen to artists like Frank Ocean, Drake, Tyler the Creator, Kanye West, Travis Scott, J Cole, and many more. This music puts me in a good mood and helps me lock in and finish my work. It's not my favorite genre, but it's still mainly at the top of what I listen to.

My favorite Kanye song.

Most played recently.

2. For some reason, my dad's side of the family really shaped and defined my musical taste. My grandparents REALLY got me into The Beatles when I was a kid. My grandfather is a retired professor, and he also knows English, so for me and my siblings to learn English, he would make us translate Beatles songs into Spanish and figure out their meaning. I also grew up around my older cousins. They would play the bands they liked while I stayed with them, and those bands really got stuck with me. (The Cure, The Smiths, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, and many more.). This kind of music holds a special place in my heart because it reminds me of my family and how important they were for me to become who I am and what I like. This music also helped me a lot to learn English when I was a kid. 

Favorite Beatles song

My cousins always played this song, and it became one of my favorites.

3) I really despise Electronic music. I get that it's supposed to be hyper and all, but I just can't get into it. I relate Electronic music to loudness, and I can't stand loud music. I get that it's only supposed to be played at parties, but seriously, you can't dance to it; you just jump up and down, and that's it. I remember how it used to be popular in the early 2010s, and I would have to listen to Electronic music at least multiple times a day. I'm glad it's slowly becoming outdated. The only techno artist I can stand is Avicci. 

I can't stand this song.

4) I felt obligated to add Colombian music to this blog post. This music represents my roots and reminds me of family gatherings and the good times I spent in Colombia. We have a lot of music genres, and I unfortunately can't cover all of them here, so I chose salsa. Salsa is a very representative music of Latin America, especially Colombia. It's uplifting and makes you want to dance even if you don't know how to. Salsa contains very different rhythms, and it has very energetic instruments. The cool thing about Salsa is that it can be both slow or fast, depending on the mood of the song. I would listen to Salsa often, especially when traveling throughout the country. It's an essential part of our culture, representing how colorful and dynamic Colombia can be.

One of my favorite salsa songs.