CUBAN TRANSITIONS

In my presentation for our class, I talked about the musical identity crisis that many young Cubans are facing due to the influx of American and European music to the island. But what does that mean? What does this new wave of music identity bring the island and it’s people? What are the messages that are being sent and received by these “foreign” ideologies and what is the impact? As a part of ongoing reflections of my time in Cuba, I’ll try to decipher what I’ve seen and heard and how I feel it impacts the Cuban culture.

Day, or should I say night, one when we entered Cuba, I was extremely surprised to be greeted by Lady Gaga in the lobby of our hotel. I’m not sure if anyone else noticed her “Monster Ball” tour playing on the hotel lobby televisions, but I was immediately captivated by the sight and wrote it down in my journal as my first ‘foreign music’ experience. This would not be the last time I ran into Lady Gaga on our trip. It wasn’t long until I had my second experience – Dunielle’s mp3 player was blaring Alicia Keys, Jay Z and Rihanna as soon as we had free time on the road. I was amazed! Partially because I came to the island with the assumption that a lot of foreign music probably didn’t get around very much – boy was I wrong.

In retrospect, I wonder how much blinder I could’ve been. DUH SHANE, the rap consciousness in Cuba came to be because of foreign, American hip-hop and the struggles it represented! Knowing that, I should’ve surmised that American and European music did enter the island and DID have an effect on the Cuban people. It was still amazing to me, though, that throughout the trip I felt such a strong representation and response to American and European music – especially by the younger people. At the Beny More School, Emily & I got the chance to talk to some school children and ask them if they listened to music from the US – they all quickly nodded their heads and looked excited to talk about such matter.

“And who do you listen to the most?”

“LADY GAGA!” said multiple voices with excitement

Apparently, it seems that little monsters (the affectionate term Gaga has given to her fans) are truly spread across the world. When we asked what genre of music they listened to the most, many kids excitedly said “rock music”. I thought this was rather interesting and led to further thoughts on my part à was rock music popular in more educated and affluent places and hip-hop represented in more urban and working class environments?

Another strong moment from my recollections: when we had our hotel rooftop chat with Hermanasos and the female singer told us they were actively trying to incorporate more sounds into their music, specifically soul and R&B, two forms of music that were created through different movements in the US. Obviously they recognize that this is a US influence on their music and they still don’t mind mixing those genres.

I think by the end of the trip one thing was clear to me: the influence of American/European music on the younger generations was present – and strong. To me, these foreign sounds were becoming a normalized part of the culture just as salsa and sol were. And I think that’s fantastic! With Florida in such a prime location to Cuba, there was never any doubt that some influence would be felt on the island. I guess I just wasn’t expecting such a strong, and naturalized, one.