Music around the Mediterranean

Musiki, musica and more music. No matter what the language, the lyrics going on in Greece, Italy and Spain are backed by both history and a common genre: techno.

When participating in Travel Study and the Education Abroad Program, UC students have the opportunity to experience firsthand many types of music that rarely make it into the United States. In the Mediterranean, trance, opera and pop are all easily accessible, and many of these genres contain European influences from neighboring countries, adding to the variety.

Jasmine Khoramian is a UCLA alumna who participated in the Greece Travel Study program.

“I feel like in the U.S. when you go to a club you hear all the songs you already listen to on the radio, but in Greece and all of Europe they play different types of French, Italian, a little bit of Greek, a little bit of Turkish. They mix it in more. I guess they’re more open to different types of music. … The night scenes are much more unique,” Khoramian said.

Because of the wide variety of cultures being intermixed, the lyrics to songs are often not understandable to visitors and people who aren’t fluent in many languages. The musicians seem to know their audience won’t necessarily be able to understand, however, and they adjust their music accordingly.

“Sometimes you couldn’t understand what the music is saying, but the beat is so nice you still like it,” Khoramian said.

While these influences may not have reached into American pop, American pop has certainly traveled to other countries.

“I actually watched MTV over there (almost) every morning, … and it was right after Michael Jackson died, so there was a lot of Michael Jackson music, obviously, and a lot of Lady Gaga and Kings of Leon,” said Chelsea Crow, fourth-year psychology student who also participated in the Greece Travel Study program.

Though trance and techno have slowly been becoming more popular in the U.S. rave scene, Greece is one step ahead ““ not to mention less damaging to the body ““ on this musical trend.

“Because they play (trance) over there more often, people appreciate the music more than they do (in the United States). A lot of people here only listen to trance and house if they’re on some sort of drug, which sucks. But you go over to Europe and everyone loves the music, but they’re drug free. It’s the coolest thing ever because they actually genuinely appreciate music,” said Justine De Peralta, fourth-year psychology student who also participated in the Greece Travel Study program.

While in the United States, trance is mostly limited to being played at parties and dances; in Greece it was far more pervasive.

“If you were in the taxis, they’d be playing house or trance music all day every day, and if you were in the clubs the majority of the time they played that kind of music,” De Peralta said. “You could just be walking down the street and there would be like a bakery playing house music.”

Spain, though also rife with techno, differs from other countries in the Mediterranean because, instead of adding in musical traditions from other cultures, the focus was on Spain’s own history ““ from flamenco to zarzuela, a form of Spanish opera music. In this case, one only needs to know one language, Spanish, in order to be able to comprehend.

“When you go to the opera, it’s usually in Italian or German, and you can’t really understand but you can feel the emotions they try to convey,” said Natasha Hakimi, a fourth-year English student who studied in Spain this year. “I speak Spanish and I could understand what they were saying at the same time their voices conveyed it.”

The Spanish music Hakimi listened to was overall much more emotional than music played in the United States. Flamenco, described by Hakimi as sounding like crying, usually accompanies Spanish dancers, while Spanish pop focuses on the sentimental value of a relationship.

“They’re a lot more into dramatic love songs than we are,” Hakimi said. “It’s either tragic or desperate love or once-in-a-lifetime love stories that happen. I think breakup songs can be a lot angrier here, but theirs are very desperate, very pleading, very “˜take me back.'”

Opera exists side-by-side with techno in Italy as well, where fourth”“year art student Eve Ganski is currently studying. Like Hakimi’s experience, knowledge of the language aided in the enjoyment.

“My favorite music-related experience since I’ve been here was actually going to the opera in Florence to see “˜Rigoletto,'” Ganski wrote in an e-mail. “It was really cool to be able to understand a lot of the opera. We also listen to a lot of Italian music in class and try to sing along with the lyrics, which is hard because Italians sing as fast as they talk.”

When enjoying the club experience, Ganski primarily listened to Italian bands and artists like Zero Assoluto, Jovanotti, Fabri Fibra, Laura Pausini and Tiromancino, though American music was arguably more popular with the locals.

“It’s strange that they actually listen primarily to American music in Italy. They seem to get more excited about songs in English than in Italian,” Ganski wrote. “The weirdest thing is that if Italians speak English, they have a thick accent, but when they sing, their English is perfect. I guess it’s something about exactly imitating the pronunciation of the artist.”

In Italy, there also exists a unique fusion of American and Italian music. Fourth-year history student Alan Enriquez participated in an Education Abroad Program in Italy last winter and spring quarter.

“In some of the (music) videos, there’d be an Italian guy singing … and then Kelly Rowland was in it. They definitely take after America,” Enriquez said.

Even with the American influences, the club experience still differs from that of the United States. According to Enriquez, at some points, the DJs at discotecas would yell in Italian and the crowd would respond by yelling back.

“I think music has a universal capacity, so that no matter what language it’s in it can appeal to human emotions just by the way it’s structured. It has a science behind it. Blues has a way of moving your body in a certain way, just like hip-hop. Classical music has a way of appealing to your senses too,” Enriquez said. “I think when I was in the clubs or the discoteca, it was pretty universal despite my not being able to speak French or Italian.”

When traveling and studying abroad, language differences can make for some awkward moments (try using “embarazada” to mean “embarrassed” in Spanish), but lack of understanding of la lingua franca can cause listeners to experience other parts of music in a way not possible in the United States.