Tearjerker Music in Amsterdam

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May 18th, 2010 >> Travel

In cultures and countercultures, there are images that sometimes float freely back and forth, gaining traction in each geography, and sometimes for very simple reasons. In the case of certain kinds of music, it can get a little bit more complex, because there are elements that speak to deep sentiments that are not always visible on a surface, and some take many years to penetrate any kind of surface. In Amsterdam, there are a hundred things to consider at any given moment, when the culture starts to work its way in, and it can be challenging to negotiate one’s way around the cultures that exist here.

There are circles and concentric circles, and they each have ways of affecting each other that are not necessarily visible to outsiders, or even to travelers who have been here for awhile and think they know their way around. It’s certainly the case with smartlap music. Smartlap, or smartlappen , translates roughly as “tearjerk” or “tearjerker,” and there are many places where it can be heard. It’s a kind of folk music of Holland, and has a wide appeal, and like country music, there are places where it’s more welcome than others.

Frans Bauer, one of the country’s great folk artists, has won many awards of distinction, as well as others of not so great distinction, such as the most irritating song contest, for his ” Heb je even voor mij .” It’s not pure smartlap music, but it’s getting into the arena of what the music sounds like. Most of the city’s great hotels won’t have it playing in the elevators, but it’s actually well worth looking for.

Country, bluegrass, and other folk music styles make their way into counter cultures, usually through some kind of ironic back door, where the young people begin by making fun of it, until they realize that the cultures share many of the same sentiments. This is where it gets complex, because in sentiment, the real nostalgia of the songs start to live and come to life, and suddenly everyone is listening to the same thing, and feeling the same emotion, and the power of the music becomes inscribed in time despite time.

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