♪♪ [ Woman singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Edgar: My name is Jacob Edgar.

I'm an explorer, but I don't search for lost cities or ancient ruins.

I'm on the quest for a different kind of treasure -- music.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ As an ethnomusicologist and world music record producer, I travel the globe hunting for the best songs the world has to offer, and I suffer through some of the worst so you don't have to.

♪♪ I've got a backstage pass to the world's music and I won't stop until I've heard it all.

♪♪ [ Woman vocalizing ] [ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ Okay, here's a quiz to see if you can figure out where I am.

It's the third highest capital city in the world.

It's gritty and urban and edgy.

The traffic is insane.

The contrast between rich and poor is pretty stark.

But it's an amazing place with warm, welcoming people.

And it's the epicenter for one of the world's hottest music scenes, which is, of course, what brings me here.

Have you guessed yet?

♪♪ Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Bogotá!

[ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I'm standing on top of Bogotá's tallest building, and the city is spread out in front of me for miles and miles.

It is literally breathtaking.

♪♪ I can't wait to get down in there and discover this city's incredible music.

♪♪ 400 years ago, Bogotá was a small village, part of the Spanish Empire.

And over time, it's grown to become one of the biggest cities in Latin America.

There are 7 or 8 million people spread out over a vast plateau at the base of the Andes Mountains.

And what's really cool about Bogotá is that it has an identity that's been built on all of the people who have come here from different parts of Colombia.

You've got people from the Caribbean coast that make their home here.

You've got people from the plains, and they all come together in this urban environment and really mix things up.

♪♪ In this episode of "Music Voyager," I'll be dipping my toes into Colombia's influential rock and pop sound.

Rock en espanol, or "rock in Spanish," has clearly found a home in Colombia, and the country is also on the leading edge of the international Latin pop scene.

Colombian artists such as Shakira, Juanes, and Carlos Vives are massive stars across the globe, thanks to their radio-friendly songs that mix in just the right amount of tropical flavors.

♪♪ One of the first Colombian rock bands to develop an international following was Aterciopelados, whose name means "the velvety ones."

Founded in the early '90s by Héctor Buitrago and Andrea Echeverri, Aterciopelados was first influenced by American and British punk and alternative-rock bands.

[ Singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ Their irreverent style, socially conscious lyrics and catchy easy-on-the-ear melodies earned them huge success at home and abroad.

They were even dubbed Colombia's hottest rock band by Time magazine a few years ago.

Héctor and Andrea asked me to meet up with them in La Candelaria, Bogotá's historic and colorful old city.

Why did you want to meet on this street and in this neighborhood?

Echeverri: We like it here because of the colors, because of the freedom, because of the graffiti, because of the history, because it's the prettiest part of Bogotá, no?

♪♪ What was the motivation of the group?

I mean, what was the concept when you first started?

Was Hector had a band called The Pestilence.

Okay.

And I think he was tired of the scene.

Too much violence.

In the punk scene?

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

You seem like a gentle guy.

I'm trying to imagine you stagediving and, you know, with a mohawk or whatever.

♪♪ We started coming up with covers, no?

Sí.

Pixies, Jane's Addiction.

Jane's Addiction.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

So you guys were into, like, alternative rock from America at that time?

Yeah, and we started writing our songs.

♪♪ Edgar: After showing me around the neighborhood and with storm clouds threatening one of their daily downpours, Héctor and Andrea set up under an old archway to perform the song "Ataque De Risa," which means "Laugh Attack."

Andrea wrote it for her daughter, whose birth and childhood has been the subject of a lot of her songs lately.

♪ Propongo caricias ♪ ♪ En vez de bomba, bombón ♪ ♪ En vez de que te maten, tomate un rico mate ♪ ♪ Y en vez de pelear propongo enamorar ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Disparo flores, bombardeo amores ♪ ♪ Disparo flores, bombardeo amores ♪ ♪ Ataque de risa, invasión de sonrisas ♪ ♪ Ataque de risa, invasión de sonrisas ♪ ♪ De canto y de baile las milicias ♪ ♪ De canto y de baile las milicias ♪ ♪♪ ♪ En vez de trincheras, propongo trineos ♪ ♪ En vez de bunker, el yunque ♪ ♪ En vez de soldados, mejor hermanos ♪ ♪ Y en vez de pelear, propongo enamorar ♪ While parenthood has mellowed them a bit, Aterciopelados still tackle heavy themes in their songs, and one issue that's been very important to them is the rights of Colombia's long-oppressed native peoples.

Héctor and Andrea are going to take me to meet with some spiritual leaders, some shamans of one of the indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada region.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah?

Yeah.

That'll be very interesting.

♪♪ So, people come here from Bogotá to connect with the Arhuaco culture and with spirituality as well.

Exactly.

That's very interesting.

♪♪ What's the importance of the coca leaf for the indigenous people of Colombia?

The coca leaf is very important, nutritionally speaking, ritually speaking, and... Culturally because... Let's see if anybody's home.

Yeah.

Hola!

[ Laughter ] -Hola.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -Gracias.

-Gracias.

Edgar: As we walk into the center, we are greeted by a group sitting in a circle around a fire in the courtyard.

Two of them are shamans, spiritual leaders from the Arhuaco people that live in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the Caribbean coast.

They sit chewing coca leaves and rubbing their poporos -- dried gourds that contain lime, which help increase the coca's stimulating properties and are a tool for ritualistic contemplation.

Before we start filming, he wants everybody to sit around the circle and to kind of connect.

Their message is one of respecting the land and native traditions of hope that modern society will renew its connection to Mother Nature.

It's not a message that your average hedonistic rock band wants to get across, but it's clear that Aterciopelados has a broader mission to their music.

[ Imitating guitar notes ] [ Imitating guitar breaking, fire starting ] [ Sighs ] Only in my dreams.

While Los Aterciopelados helped pioneer a uniquely Colombian rock sound, a lot of great groups have followed, and Bogotá is one of the hot spots for rock in Latin America.

In fact, every summer they have one of the biggest rock festivals in Latin America called Rock al Parque right here in Bogotá in July.

Now, one smoldering group is Superlitio, which comes originally from Cali, but they moved here to the heart of rock 'n' roll, Bogotá, and they've invited me to meet them over at their recording studio where they're going to give me some unplugged samples of their songs.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We grew up in a very rock hard-core, like rock scene, and then it's strange, but it happens to a lot of artists.

It wasn't until we started touring outside of Colombia that we started taking our music into another direction and we started mixing in a lot of Latin sounds, a lot of percussion, cumbia rhythms, riffs.

Salsa.

Salsa.

And it all started kind of permeating into the music.

I think we had to leave to miss it and appreciate it.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Laughter ] [ Sniffs ] Wait.

I smell something.

It's unmistakable.

It's... Well, it's shoe polish mixed with...vinyl.

I'm going to explore.

♪♪ Alright.

Alright.

So we're going back here.

♪♪ Got to squeeze through to get into this place.

[ Woman singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ I'm almost speechless being in this room.

I feel like -- I feel like the guy who discovered King Tut's tomb must have felt when he cracked open the door and peered inside and saw the riches that lay within.

I mean, here we are at Cosmos, which is a shoe store, and you climb up this dark and dingy little staircase and you climb around and over things and you end up here in what must be one of the greatest collections of Latin music vinyl that you will find anywhere.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] Found the mother lode of Joe Arroyo.

Oh.

Look at -- Look at -- Look at this.

Look at this.

"Arroyando."

Joe Arroyo y La Verdad.

[ Woman singing in Spanish ] Ah, Cielo de Tambores.

Grupo Niche.

Triunfo.

Look at those guys.

Look at that suit.

Oh, "Un Alto en el Camino."

I have this album.

"Grandes Orquestas Tropicales."

The Niche just keeps on coming.

With a bull.

This is the album, "Cali Pachanguero" by Grupo Niche, one of their greatest songs of all time.

Ooh, nice hat.

[ Laughs ] You have everything from Grupo Niche.

It's incredible.

I'm just looking for a great one.

I like the placement of the lettering.

Oh, this looks great.

I have no idea what it is, but it just...

There's something about it.

I'm afraid that the "Music Voyager" shoot is going to last a little longer than we thought because I'm going to have to stay here for a few months.

It's going to be tough.

♪♪ [ Sighs ] I wish I had more time and more money, but I'll come back.

I'd love to tell you where this place is, but I think I'm going to keep it my little secret.

[ Man, woman singing in Spanish ] One of the biggest pop stars in Colombia and across Latin America these days is Fonseca, a leading figure in a style some have dubbed tropipop for its mixture of pop and rock with local rhythms such as vallenato and cumbia.

[ Singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ Fonseca won a Latin Grammy for Best Tropical Song in 2006, and he's sold hundreds of thousands of albums while touring nonstop.

♪♪ Hi there.

Fonseca, I'm Jacob.

How are you?

How are you, Jacob?

Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

Good, good, good.

So, getting ready for the Guinness Book of World Records bingo playing championship here.

It's a living, right?

Yeah, it's a living.

We're going to be tomorrow here.

This is a great venue in Bogotá.

Everybody knows it.

Parque Simón Bolivar.

Nice.

It's beautiful.

We recorded a DVD like three months ago here.

Oh, your live DVD?

Yeah, great.

It was recorded here.

[ Singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ So we have plans later.

What are we going to be doing?

We're going to Monserrate.

I'm going to show you a really nice place in Bogotá, and I'll see you there.

Alright, man.

I won't keep you.

Good luck.

Hey, very nice to meet you.

Make sure to play play the winning card, okay?

We're going to do it.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Ah.

[ Conversing in Spanish ] Okay, so this is like a guava paste and cheese, and that's like peanut butter and jelly.

It's just you take two great tastes, you put them together and the result is amazing.

I'll take one.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Wow.

I could pick any one I want.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] It's amazing.

You can take two totally different ingredients, something sweet, something salty, put them together and the result is really, really tasty.

[ Woman singing in Spanish ] Fonseca asked me to meet him at Monserrate, a mountain overlooking Bogotá, which is one of the city's most popular attractions.

To get to the top of this steep incline, you take a funicular train up the side of a cliff or dangle from a cable car, both of which are pretty heart-stopping.

This is like a monastery or a church or... Yeah, it's a really famous place here in Bogotá.

It's like almost every tourist that comes to Bogotá, they take them...

Here?

Yeah.

I hear monks singing in the background.

It's like I feel like I'm in heaven.

[ Laughs ] You know, we have this incredible view of Bogotá, and, you know, it's a very spiritual place.

[ Man singing in Spanish ] I've met a lot of musicians who live in Bogotá but didn't grow up here, but you actually were born here.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was born here.

This is my city.

What's it -- I mean, what's it like?

What's it like growing up in a place like Bogotá?

It's great because you have music from all around the country.

You can -- Like, you have concerts from all around, and you have, like, different influences also.

And that's -- I love the city.

[ Woman singing in Spanish ] What kind of music really influenced you growing up?

I mean, what were some of the things that... Actually a Colombian music like vallenato with the accordion and everything else, it's like a really big influence for my music, but also pop music, rock music.

I was a huge fan of -- I am a huge fan of Metallica, Guns N Roses also, so I've never been into that music like recording or writing music like that.

When I had a band in school, yeah, it was like that.

But now it's been like a -- like a mix between the Colombian music and pop music, so...

Interesting.

So you're going to play a song for me?

Yeah, I have a song.

It's called "Paraiso."

Nice.

Paradise.

Yeah, I wrote it.

It was a soundtrack of a Colombian-Mexican movie that it was called "Paraiso Travel."

And I made the song for the movie.

And it's -- I think it's a -- it's a song that really describes, like, my feeling also about Bogotá, because it's not, you know, Bogotá.

It's -- I love accordion and I love vallenato.

But Bogotá, it's more like an urban city and more like this.

♪ Yo te sigo si me dejas todo vale ♪ ♪ Maybe it's better to let go ♪ ♪ ¿pa' donde se fue tu amor?

♪ ♪ De haber sabido que en las buenas saltarías ♪ ♪ Sin pensar de este vagón ♪ ♪ Si caminamos en la mala y olvide pegarte el corazón ♪ ♪ Fue mi error ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Acuérdate, acuérdate ♪ ♪ Que fuimos uno y caminamos en la misma dirección ♪ ♪ Ya no me dejes solo en este mundo por favor ♪ ♪ Y el paraíso sabe amargo sin tu amor ♪ ♪♪ [ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Acuérdate, acuérdate, acuérdate ♪ ♪ Que fuimos uno y caminamos en la misma dirección ♪ ♪ Ya no me dejes solo en este mundo por favor ♪ ♪ Que el paraíso sabe amargo sin tu amor ♪ ♪ Nena que te adueñaste de mi vida entera ♪ ♪ De dos colores son tus ojos nena ♪ ♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ ♪ Aunque tú no entiendas de eso candela ♪ ♪ Que te adueñaste de mi vida entera ♪ ♪ De dos colores son tus ojos nena ♪ ♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ Edgar: I'll be meeting up with Fonseca again in another part of my Colombian journey to explore together the roots of vallenato in the town where it was born.

♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ ♪ Aunque tú no entiendas de eso candela ♪ ♪ Que te adueñaste de mi vida entera ♪ ♪ De dos colores son tus ojos nena ♪ ♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ ♪ Aunque tú no entiendas de eso candela ♪ ♪ Que te adueñaste de mi vida entera ♪ ♪ De dos colores son tus ojos nena ♪ ♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ ♪ Aunque tú no entiendas de eso candela ♪ ♪ Que te adueñaste de mi vida entera ♪ ♪ De dos colores son tus ojos nena ♪ ♪ Y hoy llevo el miedo acá bien adentro ♪ ♪ Aunque tú no entiendas de eso candela ♪ [ Strums guitar ] ♪♪ [ Woman vocalizing ] ♪♪ Edgar: While it's been through some tough times in the past, Bogotá today is a city filled with creativity, energy and optimism.

And that spirit comes through in its music.

As I've discovered, rock and pop are going strong here, but I look forward to checking out more of what this city and country have to offer.

I know I've barely scratched the surface of Colombia's rich music scene, so I look forward to hitting the road and hearing more of this country's incredible sounds.

[ Woman, man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ [ Slow rock music plays ] ♪♪ [ Man singing in Spanish ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪