Where 80s Music Enjoys a Second Life

In North America we have all sorts of specialties and focused markets for products and media. If you want classic rock you turn to one station, if you want R and B you go to another. Xm Radio and Sirius are taking "cable radio" and specialization to a new galaxy with the amount of choice you have to listen to...anything you want from conservative, gay chefs talking about entertainment to garden comedy shows hosted by nuns.

The same cannot be said for Slovak radio and indeed most of Central Europe. Instead of specialized boutiques it's more like an Uncle Willy's or Old Country Buffet...whatever you want is probably on the menu, especially a huge dose of 80s music. In fact Slovak radio is so eclectic you can hear early Cindi Lauper, Nirvana, The Spice Girls and the latest Slovak Superstar all within one 10 minute set. Radar Love is played more than you would care to imagine. This is where music from the 80s and 90s goes to get a new lease on life without being labeled "classic."

I like it because you don't have to keep up with the latest and greatest music fad...you have about 20s years here to know what's happening in music because that's about the spectrum of music they give you...and this is all radio stations.

I like the mishmash but sometimes things go a little too far. Like today for instance we were in a restaurant waiting for our take out pizza when I heard a familiar but unfamiliar song. The tone took me back to when I was in grade 2 and half off Africa was in a famine...the collective powers of Quincy Jones, pre-crazy Micheal Jackson, Kenny Rogers and other music stars came to save the day with "We are the world..." Well that was the tune playing but the words were not the same, in fact they were in Slovak. When I pointed this out Anna stopped and listened. Turns out the Slovaks had turned "We are the world" into a Christmas song that had nothing to do with Africa, famines or telethons and everything to do with the Christmas spirit and holiday cheer...seems reasonable and frankly it made me feel warm inside so I guess it wasn't a bad thing. The next song was a Czech version of John Lennon's Christmas protest/awareness song "So This is Christmas..." but as far as I know it was more in line with what Lennon intended.

We don't just give the 80s a second chance at life we reincarnate it into a happier more pleasant experience.

It's funny because everywhere I go I hear English music, we have Slovak Superstar (think American Idol with Slovaks) and everyone wants to be the next Rihanna (remarkable for a predominantly white population) and yet they dub over every single TV show so I can't understand a thing...CSI just isn't the same in deep Slavic voices.

Of course the final song was the very English version of "My Heart Will Go On" sung by the Vegas living, French Canadian Celine Dion, so in the end all things balanced out.

If you are living cross culturally what do you find to be the most remarkable thing about popular culture...is it just all Americanized or are there some uniqueness that mark your music and media? More or less here it's becoming Americanized (game shows, music, movies) but every once in awhile you can get a good old Czechoslovak folk story done as a movie (which of course is not subtitled or dubbed into English so I don't understand it anyways...more about language in a future blog).

We Are The World Video (Notice how many of them are holding sheet music...I didn't think most rock stars could read sheet music and I guarantee you that Bob Dylan didn't sing what was on the paper anyways...)



Or if you prefer the karaoke version...