Rocking in Costa Rica
Written by Caitlin Bell
The one essential item you really need on your travels is music, anyone will tell you this, it's a definite! But I also think listening to the local radio stations is an important part of the cultural immersion process, you really do learn so much about the people and their tastes. I'm in Costa Rica and on the radio here you have the expected 'musica tropical'; salsa, meringue, cumbia, and latin lover types wailing heart felt renditions of ballads which pretty much all sound the same to me...
Then there are the radio stations with a stronger Carribean feel (because the province of Limon is like a 'little Jamaica' with both the population and the ambience). They play dancehall and roots and ALL fanatically worship at the temple of Bob (Marley that is . . . of course).
The only region that's really got into my head is the cheesy Panamanian pop, which is sort of like a fusion of all things crap from the 90s, in a good way. It's the equivalent of Europop like Aqua, TATU (who are very popular here!!) or Los Ketchup. Essentially, all the songs are about fornication, like the catchy 'Coulea Papi Coulea' which literally translates as F*CK DADDY F*CK. My personal favourite is 'Papi Chulo' GIGOLO DADDY, which contains lots of really effective strategically placed grunts.
Then of course you have the standard Top 20 soft rock pop (Avril Lavigne) and RNB (Usher) pap, which is international property now, kind of like 'Friends'. For the most part, the music of choice for the Ticos' preferred listening pleasure is 80s music. It's like being in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, there's some inextricable link between developing nations and 80s music (I suppose the 80s was the 'Belle Epoque' of consumerism and capitalism).
The radio stations have all the usual suspects - Bryan Adams, Tina Turner, Kenny Loggins, Roxette, Simple Minds, U2, Tiffany, Belinda Carlisle, The Bangles, Culture Club, the list is endless!!!! Even New Kids on the Block get air time, who after 15 years of coventry from my ears I now sing along to unashamedly! Theme tunes from your favourite American programmes hit the play list like Miami Vice and Baywatch (when it comes on at the gym I slow down the tread mill and do my own little hommage to 'Pammy running').
They also love all the 'golden oldies' from the 60s and 70s. Did you know ABBA recorded songs in Spanish? Abba's Greatest Hits in español is a definite must have for any serious music enthusiast's collection! I swear sometimes it's as if my father has hand picked the playlist for a lot of these radio stations. Only in heaven would he have imagined that you could guarantee to hear Boney M on the radio daily!
It's nice to have the opportunity to listen to and openly enjoy such familiar and nostaglic music that at home you could only hum along to secretly because it had probably been written up in the NME as one of the worst 100 songs of all time. So while I'm here I shall unabashedly "keep on rocking in the free world" to quote Neil Young, or at least in Costa Rica....
