Music and Family

In this blog, I sat down with my dad and asked him about the music he listened to when he was my age. I share a lot of my music taste with my dad, but it's still very nice to sit down and talk to him about the importance of some of these songs at that time. Thanks to my dad, I learned about many bands and songs that now are a big part of my music taste.

 For a little context, my dad was born in 1972 in Colombia. He told me that he mostly listened to American rock early on. This is funny to me because my dad knows very little English. He told me that he never truly learned the words to his favorite rock songs, still, he tried to sing them. His favorite bands are Guns N' Roses, Van Halen, Pixies, and many more. He actually went to a Guns N' Roses concert in 1992. This was a big deal at the time since it was the biggest band to ever play a concert in Colombia. He told me the concert lasted about 30 minutes but felt like 3 hours. He remembers that it started raining right when Axel Rose started singing "November Rain," which added a lot of scenery to the song, creating a lot of feeling in the public. The concert also took place in November, so it was highly coincidental. The show had to be cut short due to the rain, but he said it didn't matter much; he went home extremely happy, knowing he'd remember that day for the rest of his life. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a live version played at the concert my dad went to, so I'll just leave the official video here. 

My dad also listened to various Hispanic rock groups. These groups originated from all over Latin America and Spain. These groups include Hombres G, Soda Stereo, Maná, Los Prisioneros, and many more. Hispanic rock surged during the 80s and 90s and became mainstream in all Hispanic nations. They were strongly influenced by American and English rock bands, but they also incorporated traditional South American sounds into many of their songs. My dad told me that some of these bands wanted to popularize their sound in Latin America by promoting the idea of supporting local Hispanic talent rather than maintaining support for American or English bands who often ignored their Latin American fans. His favorite band is Soda Stereo, an Argentinian band considered the best Latin-American Rock band ever. 

His favorite song, "De Musica Ligera," translates to "Of Light Music."