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Alice Andrade

Opinion: Rock in Rio: Music Legends and Fans Harmonize



Every two years, there is a super popular event that happens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, called Rock in Rio. Many famous artists perform there, and thousands of people buy tickets to watch them. Although Rock in Rio is known for its entertainment and fun, it can also lead to challenges such as crowd invasions, weather issues, lineup changes, and tremors/earthquakes. All the fans go watch their favorite artists on stage, and have the time of their lives with pop, rap, metal, funk, and plenty of other genres of music. 


The performers


In the 2024 Rock in Rio, some of the artists that played were Travis Scott, Ed Shereen, Katy Perry, Cyndi Lauper, and many others. The two artists that are going to be mostly recognized in this article are Travis Scott and Cyndi Lauper. Both artists have already played in the famous event before, Travis having performed in the 2019 edition and Cyndi performing in the first Rock in Rio edition, in 1985. Since she performed both in the first and latest editions, it is possible to see how successful and popular she has always been. Jacques Bermon Webster II, also known as Travis Scott, had his song "FE!N" nominated for the BET Hip Hop Awards, and his album "UTOPIA" was also nominated for the same award. Travis is performing at the event in one of the peaks of his career as his song "FE!N" is going viral on all social platforms. 


Cyndi's Comeback 


Cyndi Lauper, who has one of the most viewed music videos on YouTube, is one of the iconic musicians of the 1980s. She has been asked to create music for movies, including famous titles like "The Goonies", where she released the music  "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough". Lauper also  wrote "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", which is still very popular nowadays,  for the musical called Kinky Boots.  Her unexpected comeback was iconic, given her  older age, fans who remembered her peak recognized how iconic it was for her to be back. Even though Cyndi was loved by many fans, she was also unfortunately judged for her bad Portuguese, refusing to use playback, having a unique type of singing which many people don’t like, and for being in an older age and thus having to use an earphone to listen the music better. Despite the judgment, it was an awesome performance with fans and even Cyndi herself crying., 


Travis' Chaos


Chaos; others may think that this word is disturbing, but not Travis, he likes chaos… How so? You may ask. Well, Travis, with his songs, has already created multiple 1.3 magnitude earthquakes, including one in the Circus Maximus concert, at Rome in August 2023. The latest tremors that Travis created with his music were indeed in the Rock in Rio, with all the fans jumping and hopping around the stadium since his music has really hard beats. The tremors in Rock in Rio were the result of more than a thousand residents that live around the region plus the City Hall complaining about 'mini earthquakes' that were happening during the concert. The song "FE!N" was one of the main ones that made the stadium go crazy. Since the song has parts where the lyrics are very repetitive, it is easier for the fans to jump and go mad with the hard electronic rap. The tremors and disturbances were similar to the ones in Rome, where tons of historians and archeologists complained that his concert was not meant to take place in a historic place like the Circus Maximus. They claimed it could damage the monument, which many claim is not a stadium but instead, a historic glorious area. Now, it may leave the contradictory question, could the complaints about the disturbances affect how often Travis Scott has concerts? Some may say yes and that the cities are not going to accept having to hear so many complaints afterwards. While some may say no since the musician has so many fans that the complaints are not enough to decrease how much his shows are sought for.. 


The big event clearly has what to say with music legends, passionate followers, and even an earthquake, which is not even possible to happen naturally in Brazil. Hopefully  the Rock in Rio festival will never end and people will continue to enjoy themselves for years to come. Well, maybe in the future even currently young music artists are going to be performing as an old legend in Rock in Rio just like Cyndi Lauper did this year.



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