Thanks to alexbarton: Aldious, a Japanese Power Metal band of women. The only thing I know is that it is AWESOME.

Kaze no Machi He en español cantado por una fan latina. IMPRESIONANTE lo perfecto que le quedó.



*_*

ontd_feminism was discussing that Shakira's song for World Cup, and even if that discussion made me damn tired (seriously, what the fuck is this shit?), it also made me glad that song wasn't the official one (I heard it was going to be or something?) because I'm not going to hear it over and over again on TV (well, yes, I'm going to hear it over and over, but not that much at least). So I decided to google the lyrics of K'naan song, "Wavin' Flag," that I'm sure most of you have heard already. A lot, probably. So, even if of course the song talks about struggle and poverty, I loved this:

So many wars, settling scores,
Bringing us promises, leaving us poor,
I heard them say, 'Love is the way,'
'Love is the answer,' that's what they say

But look how they treat us, make us believers,
We fight their battles, then they deceive us,
Try to control us, they couldn't hold us,
'Cause we just move forward like Buffalo Soldiers.

So much for romanticism. I'm so not going to mind hearing that song all over this month.

I just found this via the_future_modernes:

Reactions to Ricky Martin coming out.

And the amazing (and most popular current Puerto Rican artist) René Pérez Joglar, also known as Calle 13’s “El Residente” who Tweeted “Ricky Martin: Being a man doesn’t have to do with your sexual preference, but with the honesty with which you sustain your words” and “Ricky Martin is much more of a man than many a man who says they are a man.”

Okay, yeah, I know, honesty = masculinity (we all know that femininity = cowardice), and "a man who says they are a man" is... a straight man? But still. There is also so many negative conceptions (a lot of them to do with race and class) about Reggaeton. And believe me, there is a lot of shit going on there, but not that different from other music genres. Here is the thing about Latin America: the "good music" for the whiter, richer people is always the white western music (a lot of it in English). Which just has the same shit that most music around here.

René Pérez Joglar, "El Residente" de Calle 13, sobre Ricky Martin:

@ricky_martin ser hombre no tiene que ver con tu preferencia sexual si no con la honestidad con la que sostienes tu palabra.

Sé que el tipo habla de masculinidad y ser hombre como si fuese equivalente a honestidad, y todos sabemos lo que "femineidad" quiere decir. Y un "hombre que dice ser hombre" es... un hombre que dice ser hetero? Pero bueno, hay demasiados conceptos negativos sobre Reggaeton, muchos de los cuales salen de ideas racistas y clasistas. Claro, hay mucha mierda en el Reggaeton, pero hay la misma cantidad de mierda en la mayoría de los géneros musicales que son comercializados por estos lares. Y el asunto de Latinoamérica es que la "buena música" para la gente de clase alta es siempre la música de Europa o USA, de gente blanca que canta en inglés que tiene la misma mierda que en cualquier parte.

(Tangential, but reading that article, seriously? I so didn't know "homosexual" has negative connotations in English. Now I know it and won't use it in English. But okay, blame people who translated that, not Ricky Martin since he said it in Spanish, and get over yourself.)

ETA: Para agregar, y el porqué yo hice está entrada: hasta la música más mierda, sin contenido e insultante en inglés que es importada por acá está relacionada con una mejor clase, un mejor status (que está ligado con los círculos "progresistas" de estos lares, la ironía, lo sé) y no tiene las connotaciones de "peor, clase baja, delincuencia" que tiene género como Reggaeton, tropical, y música latina. Eso es todo.

ETA 2: daniela_lynx linkea sobre el asqueroso racismo y otras cosas de Calle 13:

"Yo me llevo a la chinita con to' y sombrilla
La monto en la carretilla
Y la llevo a pasear por encima de los bonsái
Después paramos en Shangai a comer chicken-patai
(Estúpilo, eso es tailandés!)
No importa si es tailandés, chino o japonés
To's son iguales, to's hablan alrevés
To's son iguales, todos hablan enreda'o
Con los ojos achina'o y comen senta'o
Sin zapatos se sientan a comer asopao de gato
Y si no hay gato en el plato pues comen pincho 'e perro
(La carne de pelo tiene mucho-mucho hielo!)
¿Mucho hierro? (Mucho hielo!)

El tipo sigue siendo un cerdo. Para sorpresa de nadie.

And ETA 3: Something I was thinking about is that I took away Ricky Martin's great moment (because it was, specially for Latin American queers, because he is a Mega Star here), and talked about Calle 13 guy. Granted, I wanted to do the post about music in LA since a long time ago, but I should have looked who this guy was.

So meanwhile, let's talk about Ricky Martin. He came out, and even if it's something very personal, definitely not something he should have done, but something he chose to do; it even inspired people who are inside a very homophobic medium, like Reggaetoners, to go and congratulate him.

Coming out while being a public figure shouldn't be something that deserved congratulations. But in our homophobic society, it sure is.