• Reggae MusicS of Jamaica •
Lost and found in translation: a bilingual coming-of-age journey
by Summerisle & perropampa™
Track list
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Paraíso: “Para ti” (7”, 1980)
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Veronica Falls: “Teenage” (Waiting for something to happen, 2013)
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Clem Snide: “Joan Jett of Arc” (The ghost of fashion, 2001)
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The Lovin’ Spoonful: “Younger generation” (7”, 1970)
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The Pains of Being Pure At Heart: “Young adult friction” (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, 2009)
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Rickie Lee Jones: “On Saturday afternoons in 1963” (Rickie Lee Jones, 1979)
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Ethel Cain: “American teenager” (Preacher’s daughter, 2025)
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The Bigger Lovers: “Summer (of our first hello)” (How I learned to stop worrying, 2001)
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Saturday Looks Good To Me: “All our summer songs” (All your summer songs, 2012)
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Dexys Midnight Runners: “Reminisce Part Two” (Don’t stand me down, 1985)
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The Go! Team: “Huddle formation” (Thunder, lightning, strike, 2004)
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Jane Siberry: “Hockey” (Bound by the beauty, 1989)
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Lacrosse: “We are kids” (Bandages for the heart, 2009)
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The Dreaming Spires: “We used to have parties” (Searching for the supertruth, 2015)
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Jonathan Richman: “Parties in the U.S.A.” (I, Jonathan, 1992)
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Baloncesto: “Coming of age” (Primavera tardía, 2024)
Cada quince años, volvemos a cumplir quince años.
Dicen que la adolescencia no es un hito del desarrollo, sino una invención cultural reciente. Si es más fruto de la cultura que de la naturaleza, no es de extrañar que uno de sus pilares fundamentales sea la música. La adolescencia es, entre otras cosas, una categoría musical que ha dado origen a un género autorreferencial, heterogéneo y transversal a todas las demás categorías genéricas con las que intentamos poner orden en la exuberante jungla de la música. La música es refugio, liberación, expresión de todo aquello que nos lleva a querer permanecer anclados el resto de nuestros días a los quince años, a nuestras primeras fiestas, descubriendo las complejidades del bien y del mal junto a los mejores amigos que creemos que jamás tendremos. Las canciones son, entonces, «sinfonías adolescentes a Dios», armonías confusas de abandono y despreocupación, de revelación, de deseo y náuseas, de entusiasmo y depresión, del impulso vital al que conduce el primer amor, que también es el primer desamor. La adolescencia es desear ser inmortal y a la vez no haber nacido. Una conciencia apenas inteligible de sentir fugazmente que estamos en nuestro mejor momento, con el verano como único horizonte. La adolescencia es ecdisis, mudarse de piel, y la música su sedante.
La adolescencia es una canción de tres minutos que dura toda la vida.
Every fifteen years, we celebrate our fifteenth anniversary again.
We’ve been told that coming-of-age is not a developmental milestone, but a cultural invention, and a recent one at that. Being more nurture that nature, it is no wonder that one of its main foundations is music. Coming-of-age is, among other things, a musical category, and one that has been able to give rise to a self-referential musical genre, heterogeneous and transversal to all the other generic categories with which we try to bring order to the lush jungle of music. Music is a refuge, a release, an expression of everything that leads some of us to wanting to remain anchored for the rest of our days at the age of fifteen, at our first parties, discovering the complexities of good and evil alongside the best friends we believe we will ever have. Coming-of-age songs are “teenage symphonies to God,” confusing harmonies of carefree abandon, of revelation, of desire and nausea, of enthusiasm and depression, of the life-and-death drive to which a first love, which is also a first heartbreak, leads. Coming-of-age is to wish for oneself to be immortal and unborn at the same time. A barely intelligible awareness of fleetingly sensing ourselves at our peak, with summer as the only horizon. Coming-of-age is ecdysis, a shedding of skin, and music its sedative.
Coming-of-age is a three-minute song that lasts a lifetime.
