Cool music

[Thanh Dang Nguyen <nguyet1@Eng.Auburn.EDU>]

Hi Vu,

> Khi to^i co`n nho? ra^'t thi'ch nha.c Y'. To^'i thu+' na(m ha`ng tua^`n
> ha'o hu+'c cho+` xem chu+o+ng tri`nh "Ca nha.c quo^'c te^'" ...

As a matter of fact, it was not too bad, though. Although there was always
a big delay, at least we could see some famous "Western" bands perform
live (i.e., lip-synched). If I remember correctly, supergroups (well, for
us they were) like Abba, Smokie etc. all made their appearance on our
mass media once in a while (my mother's favourite was Abba's "Happy New Year"
usually aired on TV right after the New Year's Eve -- man, it was a looooong
time ago!) About Italian music, we were exposed to this culture thanks to
the Russian again. And it's probably because dear Russian people like sweet
Italian disco music which was quite popular in some Eastern countries
in mid-80's. I think we were able to watch the coverage of the prestigious
San Remo festival every year at that time. Of course, it was copied from
the Russian TV, as was almost anything else. BTW, credit was also due to our
huge labor force in these countries, since it was them who brought home
this Western culture (mostly music) to young kids at home like us who
were drooling after cool stuffs.

> Lo+'n le^n ddu+o+.c may ma('n "xua^'t ngoa.i" mo+? mang dda^`u o'c mo+'i
> tha^'y ra(`ng nha.c Y', ngoa`i mo^t so^' ba`i ballads (da^n ca??),
> thu+.c ra nha.t phe`o.

I agree that most people associate Italian music with such great evergreens
like "O Sole Mio", "Santa Lucia", "Mama", "Come Back To Sorrento", or
"La Paloma". And I also agree that Italian disco music, including a few
bigger names like Toto Cutugno or the duo Al Bano-Romina Power, was not much
than simple entertainment music. Been there, done that, and gone forever.
But if you have time to dig into what's going on behind the scene, you
will be amazed by many, many delicate and sophisticated music that were
contributed by the highly-respected Italian musicians. And I still talk about
rock, let alone opera and other high-culture music. The same applies to
the French, the German, the Dutch, the Spanish, and so on. Don't be
overwhelmed by your own prejudice! Extend your horizon instead!

BTW, to a suprising number of Gary Moore fans on our list: do you like
him in general, or only a couple songs like "Still Got The Blues", or
"The Loner"? It was kind of unexpected to me, since he used to play
*real* noisy hard-rock, and has been into blues for about 10 years. Both
of these music sound like an ordeal for Vietnamese listeners.

Good listening,

-Thanh