Musically diverse
“I’ve looked up lyrics. It’s the beat and chorus that you can remember even though you don’t know Korean.” Senior Monique Beaudouin describes as she talks about one of her music interests: K-pop. Some of the more widespread music interests at Aragon include hip-hop, rock, classical and jazz, but many Aragon students, like Beaudouin, have taken interests foreign music.
K-pop stands for Korean Pop and originates from South Korea.
“My friends first introduced me to K-pop,” says Beaudouin. “Quickly’s … play[s] Korean music videos and when I saw one, I got hooked. The songs are really catchy. They’re definitely something you remember.”
She describes K-pop as a genre anybody can be interested in, even though the Korean language is not as widespread as some other languages.
“It’d be fun to understand the lyrics because there’s an element that’s lost in translation and it’d be interesting to know what they’re saying. A lot of K-pop is a return of boy bands. The energy of five people is different from the individuality of pop singers.”
Not too far from the K-pop’s country of origin, another foreign genre is high in popularity: J-pop. Country of origin: Japan.
“I watched a lot of anime when I was a kid and when you watch anime, all you hear is J-pop,” says sophomore Derek Ngoon. “That’s how I got into it. It sounds cool; it’s a great positive feeling. When you listen to J-Pop, you think of action and anime fights. It’s awesome.”
He adds, “I’m not really sure what they’re saying. It’s just awesome listening to it, I just don’t know how to describe it, I just love listening to it.”
Foreign music can also bring pride to one’s homeland. Sophomore Igor Oliveira’s interest in Brazilian music connects him with his home country, Brazil.
“I lived in Brazil up until I was seven years old and all they had was Brazilian music,” says Oliveira. “When I came to America, I started listening to both [Brazilian and American music].”
Growing up listening to both, he points out few differences between Brazilian rap and rock.
“It’s just kind of the same as American music but it’s just in Portuguese and the music talks about situations that don’t happen in American but in Brazil,” he says.
“The songs are about the hardships Brazilians go through,” he says, “It makes me proud because it symbolizes all these hardships we go through and listening to these songs, I know that Brazil is the most successful country in South America.”
Sophomore Connie Ngirchemat’s discovered her interest in Hawaiian music on accident. “I was ‘Youtubing’ reggae on YouTube then some Hawaiian music popped up, started to like it from there,” explains Ngirchemat. “[Hawaiian music] is very soothing; it’s something you can sleep with. The songs are about love, getting out there and being happy. It’s very positive.”
“Reggae is in a lot of languages, I listen to the English version mainly, and I also listen to Tongan and Samoan. Hawaiian is more soothing and reggae is more upbeat,” she adds.
For some music lovers, experimenting with different types of music around the world creates feelings of wonder and curiosity.
“I listen to a lot of different kinds of music such as French, Indian, and South American because I was born in Argentina,” says senior Joseph Kwon.
Foreign music interests are more than just a hobby for the talented saxophonist.
“I’m a professional musician and music is a way people express themselves, and language is a way people express themselves. There’s so many nuances in language, and I really want to learn about certain cultures, [so] I do it by music,” he says.
“It’s the sweetest music I’ve ever heard. The language is just unique. For example, [take] French rap; French rappers are aggressive but don’t hurt your ears. I don’t what their saying, but it’s just beautiful,” Kwon adds.
The different foreign genres, J-pop, K-pop, Brazilian, Hawaiian, reggae, and French are only few out of many types of foreign genres in the world.
Foreign types of music allow individuals to gain both understanding of different languages and cultures worldwide and broaden their scope of interests.
