Music & Family
For this blog I decided to interview my dad. My dad’s name is Rafael and he is from Puerto Rico. Additionally, he speaks Spanish fluently. I decided to interview my dad because I know he is musically talented. Ever since I was a kid, I remember him playing either the guitar or the drums in our church’s worship band on Sunday mornings. Also, my dad had a drum set in our back shed, and about 4 guitars in the house.
A Picture of me and my dad for Reference:
From the interview of my dad, I learned so many cool things. Starting off, my father listened to hard rock, heavy metal, and thrash metal music growing up. These are all very aggressive music styles that involve electric guitars, drums, etc. This music genre was popular throughout his childhood and most of his friends listened to this music as well. His parents called this style of music “the devil’s music.” My father would mostly listen to music through MTV. Back in the day, MTV was a channel that played music videos. Additionally, my dad would also use cassette tapes to listen or listen to music in the car.
One of my dad’s favorite bands was “Styper” which is a Christian heavy metal band. He also liked the band “Imperials,” which my dad attended a concert of when he was 12 years old. My dad said his parents were more okay with him listening to Christian rock/metal rather than regular rock. My dad said he liked this music because it would pick him up when he was feeling down and because he could hear God speak to him through the music/lyrics.
Later on in life, around age 16 my dad started to learn how to play the guitar. It took him about 2 years to master the instrument and then also self taught himself how to play the drums and bass. My dad decided to learn these instruments since they are the main sounds in his favorite music genres. Today, my dad can play these instruments by hearing. Playing by ear is the ability to reproduce a piece of music they heard without having seen it notated in any form of sheet music. I find that so cool!! At one point my dad took saxophone lessons, but quickly realized he didn’t really care to learn how to play that instrument anymore. To this day his favorite instrument to play is the guitar.
Going back to where he is from: In Puerto Rico, the most popular music genre’s are Merengue, Salsa, and Reggaeton. These genres use trumpets, percussion, and the bass. Growing up and today my dad doesn’t really like this type of music, and for no particular reason. My dad mentioned how Salsa, and Merengue were mainstream music during his childhood; however, metal and rock music was most popular for minorities/lower class, where he lived, and the people he was around during this time. In Puerto Rico today, Reggaeton is the most popular music style. The lyrics are in Spanish, while the metal and rock music my dad listened to growing up were in English. For it is common to listen to music with English lyrics in Puerto Rico.
One of my dad’s favorite songs from his childhood is “To Hell With The Devil” and “Calling on You” by Stryper.
A song that my dad can remember from his first concert is “Let the Wind Blow” by the Imperials.
An example of Reggaeton music: “Quiero Bailar” by Ivy Queen.
Your Dad being able to play instruments by ear is very impressive. My Dad has a similar taste in music; he never picked up an instrument to play along. Instead of Devil Music, my Grandmother calls it "Cat Music" because of the screeching electric instruments.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog about your dad. A few things I found pretty cool was that he listened to music through MTV and that he could play different instruments. I never heard of Reggaeton but the example you have sounds pretty cool also.
ReplyDeleteHi Noa :) I loved your blog! I find it really cool how your dad likes Christian metal/rock - I can totally resonate with metal/rock being music that picks my mood up, like with your dad. My dad also plays guitar too, which he self-taught himself. Additionally, I love reggaeton - although your dad isn't interested in it, I love it - it never fails to make me happy.
ReplyDeleteIt's so cool that your dad can play so many instruments! And the fact that he can play by ear is so cool. Also, I love your dad’s music taste – I had never heard “Let the Wind Blow” and just added it to my playlist!
ReplyDeletei like reading this interview that you did with your and really enjoyed listing to Stryper i might add it to my chill play list
DeleteYour dad sounds very impressive! My dad was just telling me about Stryper the other day, I had never heard of them! As a big rock fan and Christian myself, though, I love the representation. I also think it's interesting that hard rock being popular with the lower classes is something that appears to be universal. I guess it has to do with the "stick-it-to-the-man" nature of the genre.
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