Buenas tardes, ¿Cómo están?
Today I'm going to share with you a very interesting song.
Aterciopelados is a group that has been one of the most important in the alternative rock movement in Latin America. The band is formed by Andrea Echeverry and Héctor Buitrago. She is a singer/songwriter with a degree in Fine Arts and he is a bassist/producer/composer with a degree in Engineering.
They had been a very successful band since 1992, combining the sounds of rock, funk, and ska with traditional rhythms from the folkloric music of Colombia, like cumbia, vallenato, bambuco, and pasillo, and some other Latin American Rhythms like salsa, bolero, bosanova, etc. Aterciopelados has been nominated to the Grammy awards for best Latin Alternative Rock Album, a has won two Latin Grammy Awards among many others. They have been considered the first band to make Colombian rock well known internationally.
In 2006 Time magazine named them the 3rd best band in the world. It was the only Latin band included in their top 10. Andrea's voice is considered one of the best in Ibero America.
Andrea and Héctor are activists on behalf or Amnesty International promoting peace and the respect of human rights around the world. Their music is considered "protest music", a genre that has been present in Latin America since the middle of the last century to speak out against injustice and serve as a way of getting people to think about social issues. The music of this band has a high content of social criticism, they express their opinions about imperialism, consumerism, pollution, war, injustice, global warming, and other problems that affect society nowadays, capturing adepts around the world.
The song I am sharing is "El estuche". It was included in the soundtrack of the movie "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights". Many of the students were familiar with it when I played it.
The lyrics of the song have a very positive message that talks about looking at the essence of a person not their outward appearance. "El estuche" refers to only the carrying case that is the physical make-up of a person. The jewel is inside.
The format of the video is based on that of the old black and white movies and it provides an interesting way of presenting the concepts. It has simple images highlighting the main ideas, i.e., avoiding superficiality and looking for each person's intrinsic value.
The students really like the message of this song and are really surprised at the style of music ans its presence in the Hispanic World. They love to give me their feedback about it all. : )
There you go. I hope you find out this information useful and enjoy the song.
Gracias,
Paola
I wanted to thank you and tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation at SCOLT. I am from Alabama and look forward to giving my students a new look at culture through music. I appreciate your time and help. This site will be a big help with filling in the holes from the massive notes I took during your presentation. Thank you for sharing.
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