Vasco Rossi and a semester abroad

Study abroad gives its participants the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the culture of another country: its language, food and the familiar American hit songs typically blaring out of European radios. But for many Duke students, their cultural immersion in Europe also included exposure to local music they have brought back with them and shared with friends, creating a European invasion on Duke’s campus.

Many were often introduced to European music at clubs, later downloading the music they remember hearing. Some were introduced to more obscure songs by their roommates or host families in Europe. Still others simply began listening to local hit songs they heard on the radio, like Vasco Rossi’s “Un senso,” which junior Lauren Phillips-Thoryn, who was with NYU’s program in Florence, said was popular in Italy last fall, or Laura Pausini’s “Resta in ascolto,” the video for which Phillips-Thoryn first saw on MTV Europe.

Although Phillips-Thoryn and others began listening to local hit songs, she said it was difficult to get into the Italian music scene since many stores and clubs played American music. Moreover, she mentioned that most of the videos shown on MTV Europe consisted of American hip-hop, U2 and Duran Duran. Junior Stephanie Scott, who was with Duke in Madrid last fall, concurred, noting that American music was also popular in Spain, specifically “rap and pop songs from the U.S.”

Despite these difficulties, some students ventured out on their own, truly immersing themselves in the local music and occasionally discovering unique underground artists. Senior Natalie Centeno, who was with Duke in Spain’s summer program in Madrid, said that while members of her study abroad group were content to socialize amongst themselves, she met a group of people with whom she stays in contact, who introduced her to the “Gypsy Kings-esque folk” genre known as sevillanas.

Junior Megs Bridges, who was with Duke in Florence last fall, also had a unique musical experience abroad. She began listening to Velvet Score, a local band made up of the bartenders at a bar she and her friends would frequent. Bridges suggested it was the band’s underground nature that truly interested her. “I love listening to music—period—and just to witness this band that’s trying to make it, I loved seeing them perform,” Bridges said. “I guess it didn’t matter what type of music it was.”

While Bridges may have been indifferent to Velvet Score’s music, the appeal of other European imports ranged from the “cheesy” nature of the songs’ messages to simply liking a song’s beat. Junior Stephanie Scott also noted that the foreign nature of the music she discovered made it particularly appealing. “It’s different, unique and not many other students know about it,” Scott said.

Indeed, while many students brought back foreign music, no two students seem to share the same European mix. Several former Madrid residents, however, did cite Aventura and David Bisbal as favorite artists.

While interpreting the lyrics of the Spanish music she discovered helped Scott increase her mastery of the language, many study abroad students are now giving their fellow Duke students a cultural education in European music. Scott, for one, said she has shared her music with other students and that she and friends of hers who were abroad in London have exchanged music. She commented that this musical trading was “big among the study abroad students.”