TP BIS (Prof. Candela )

A continuación encontrarán el segundo TP. En la próxima clase analizaremos las dificultades que hayan podido encontrar en ambos TPs.

Pakistan’s youth put their faith in rock’n’roll
Country’s internal turmoil is feeding underground music scene and popular guitar school

Declan Walsh
1 September, 2009

Young people who want to be rock stars don’t have an easy time in Pakistan. Last month a new band, Poor Rich Boy, appeared on the stage of a small café in Islamabad for their first gig. On the first night, only one person came to listen. “It was the night of the world cricket finals. Bad timing,” said the group’s guitarist, Zain Ahsan. The second gig was better – 30 people came – but the musicians were still worried. “I asked the café owner, ‘What if a bomb goes off?’” said Ahsan. “She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be with you.’”
There has been a lot of Taliban violence this summer but young Pakistanis are continuing to enjoy rock music. An underground music scene is quietly growing in the country’s major cities, helped by the Internet and by the passion of a number of non-professional bands. In Lahore a pair of unemployed rockers have used that enthusiasm to found a new school for rock’n’roll. “We weren’t getting a lot of gigs, and we needed to survive,” said co-founder Hamza Jafri. “So we thought we’d try this.”
The Guitar School, as it is known, has been surprisingly successful. Around 40 students have signed up, from surly teenagers in jeans to more practised musicians such as Ahsan who want to improve their skills. Classes take place in a small room lined with egg boxes; the school’s teaching style can be seen in its motto: “Play it like you feel it.” Many come from rich families that might once have disapproved of music, Jafri said. “People associated it with sexual entertainment.” But a popular new television show called Coke Studio, which shows live performances, has helped to make more people accept rock music.
On a recent afternoon a woman brought in her two teenage daughters for lessons. “It will do them good to learn,” she said. But becoming a professional musician is difficult and sometimes dangerous. For the past six months almost all public performances in Lahore have stopped since extremist attacks on a performing arts festival and the Sri Lankan cricket team. The Pakistani music industry itself is disorganized and there is a lot of music piracy in Pakistan.
But the country’s internal chaos is also making people creative. Pakistanis have a rich musical tradition but modern musicians have generally avoided political issues. But the new single from Jafri’s band, co-VEN, is a parody of Pakistan’s controversial alliance with the US. “There’s a lot of foreign pressure on our government to attack people in the tribal areas,” he said.
Others make fun of the chaos. The Islamabad band Bumbu Sauce recently brought out Jiggernaut, a single that has references to kung fu, talking dogs and the Taliban. Guitarist Shehryar Mufti is not worried the insurgents might not like the joke. “Their argument is with the government, not the people,” he said. “I don’t think rock music is something important to them.”
Pakistani rock was helped by the arrival of satellite television in the 1990s. Today the musicians, many self-taught, publicize themselves through networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, and Pakistan’s growing number of FM radio stations. And despite the security situation, a new concert scene is appearing.
On a hot Saturday night hundreds of young people, mostly dressed in jeans and T-shirts, crowded into a new outdoor theatre on the edge of Islamabad called the Rock Musicarium. “People are hungry for music; they want to get out,” said the founder, Zeejah Fazli. When it opens officially in November 2009, the Rock Musicarium will have a recording studio and capacity for 600 people, said Fazli, who believes there are 20 rock bands in Islamabad alone. But, he said, the project depends on the six-month break in terrorist attacks on the capital continuing.
For some rich Pakistanis, rock music is an example of the cultural tensions of their life, which is divided between western influences andthe conservative direction their society is taking. “On one side kids feel like they are in England; on the other this strict Islamic thing is going on. It’s not good for people’s mental health,” said Jafri.
About five years ago Junaid Jamshed, the country’s most famous pop star, gave up musicand returned to religion. Now he appears on religious programmes with a long, curly beard. But most young people who want to become rock stars say they can live with the difference. At the Lahore guitar school, 17-year-old Danish Khwaja strummed his guitar. “It’s kind of cool doing stuff you love,” he said.

© Guardian News & Media 2009
First published in The Guardian, 01/09/09

A- Read the text quickly and find the answers to these questions.

1. How many people came to the new band’s first gig?
2. How many came to their second gig?
3. Where is the Guitar School?
4. When did satellite television arrive in Pakistan?
5. Where is the Rock Musicarium?5
6. What will the capacity of the Rock Musicarium be?

B- Read the text again and match the beginnings and endings to make sentences about the text.

1. A popular new television show …
2. Becoming a professional musician in Pakistan …
3. Extremist attacks …
4. Pakistani musicians use …
5. A new music scene is appearing …
6. For rich Pakistanis, there is a big difference ...

a. … have stopped almost all public performances in Lahore for the past six months.
b. … between western influences and the conservative nature of Pakistani society.
c. … in spite of the security situation.
d. ... has helped to make more people accept rock music.
e. … networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to publicize themselves.
f. … is difficult and sometimes dangerous.

C- Translate the text.