Results tagged “CJ Fahey” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.




I have a ready answer whenever someone asks me the quintessential travel question, "What's your dream vacation?" - Brazil! My attraction to Brazil started with the music, but the added bonus of beautiful beaches, small bathing suits, and cultural diversity - African, European, and indigenous American influences mixed together - sealed the deal.

Thanks to films like City of God, people outside Brazil have become more aware of the difficulties plaguing the country - poverty, corruption, and violence. But the stereotype of a vibrant tropical paradise still thrives and, from what I hear, is not undeserved. 

Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.


It's no surprise that one of the sexiest videos we've got at Nat Geo Music is a tango-electronic song from the French-Argentine group Gotan Project; after all, tango got its start as a dance performed in brothels in Buenos Aires in the late 19th century and today is synonymous with romance.

"Diferente" by Gotan Project shows how you might find tango danced today in a Buenos Aires milonga. This video highlights two dances: the obvious one on the dance floor, and the implicit dance of stolen glances and budding romance between the featured (gorgeous) couple.

Tango has inspired poets and artists for generations. Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges has noted the passionate, almost combative interaction between dancers: "The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration." And tango legend Enrique Santos Discépolo touches on tango's inherent melancholy: "The Argentine tango is a sad thought that you can dance."

A trip to Buenos Aires is a trip to the heart of tango. If you go to Argentina, or for that matter Uruguay, pick up some records by contemporary tango groups like Gotan Project and Bajofondo, or legends like Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel. And don't forget your dancing shoes.

[Video, Free Buenos Aires]

Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.



In two years working for Nat Geo Music I've seen thousands of music videos from all over the world and "Azania" by South African rapper Zoro stands out as one of my favorites. "Azania" is an alternative name for South Africa used by African nationalists beginning in the late 1970s. The catchy beat and colorful imagery belie lyrics that speak to the struggle of people living in townships in a country with a history of racial oppression:

"Hunger, crime, AIDS is finishing us / We're diminishing / They're laughing at us ... Azania / We grew up hard / We grew up hard."

Zoro himself grew up in the township of Guguletu outside Cape Town and from an early age identified with resistance to the apartheid regime. In 1989 he was shot by a policeman while trying to stop a fight and was paralyzed from the waist down. Through determination and faith he regained the ability to walk after one year in a wheelchair. 

South Africa is hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010. If any of you are lucky enough to travel there, you'll probably hear some great music along the way. Just don't assume that every song with a catchy beat is a lighthearted dance tune.

[Video link]