During the late 50s, in some countries the scene started. These groups were really influenced by the succes of Bill Halley and the Comets and Elvis Presley (Rock N Roll). Artists like Peter Rock (Chile) and Los Teen Tops, Cesar Acosta, Enrique Guzman (Mexico) made covers by Bill Halley and the Comets and Elvis Presley during the end of this decade. With original songs, Billy Cafaro, Edie Pequenino (Argentina) and Los Impala (Venezuela) are remembered.
During this time, the music industry wasn't really as important as it was in the USA and in England, this lasted for a long time (until the 80s) and artists mainly lived because of the money in their shows.
During the 60s, the tribute bands continued and the scene expanded a lot around Latin America. The tribute bands (that covered the Rolling Stones and The Beattles) were in Uruguay, but became famous in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As an effect to this, Argentina later had its wave of tribute bands in the second half of the 60s. Some of the most famous tribute bands were Los Mockers, Los Shakers, Los Walkers (Uruguay), Los Jerks, Los Sesason, Los In, Telmo y los Stones, Los Jets, etc. (Argentina) Los Yetis (Colombia) (Los Yetis actually dressed with the same jackets, same hair, etc. as The Beattles and had the same guitars, drum kit, etc.)
But the scene in the 60s was way bigger than this, the bands that made psychedelic rock during this time were a lot, the best ones in my opinion are Los Abuelos de la Nada (Argentina), Los Ramblers, Los Mac's, Los Jockers (Chile), The Speakers, Los Flippers (Colombia), Los 007 (Venezuela).
In the early 70s, big festivals came to the rock scene. These were BA Rock (Argentina), Festival de Ancon (Colombia), Festival de Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro. All of these came after Woodstock and I really want to mention that Santana is mexican, so I'm gonna count him for the USA and Mexico at the same time. Legendary bands appeared in this decade. Sui Generis, Seru Giran (both from Argentina and with Charly Garcia in it), Mike Rios (Spain), Three Souls in my Mind (Mexico), We All Together (Panama). It is important to say that the dictatorship in Uruguay (1973-1985) stopped popular music a lot, but it would later come again with a lot of force.
During the 80s, the story completely changed. The economical stability in Latin America, the fact that all the bands were now having lyrics in spanish, the creation of the CD and the popularity of Rock Music during this time, lead to the creation of big labels in Latin America, making Rock in Spanish a really attractive product. The Rock music scene obviously kept expanding around the continent. In my opinion, this was the best decade of Rock Music in Latin America with no doubt. It is also notable that during this decade, as well as the popular music in english, the bands started touching a lot the poltitical themes, the Cold War, the Farklands War, etc. Some of my favourite bands of this decade are Soda Stereo, Virus, Riff, Enanitos Verdes (Argentina), Los Prisioneros (Chile), Kraken, IRA (Colombia), Chac Mool (Mexico), Los Estomagos, El Cuarteto de Nos (Uruguay), Equilibrio Vital (Venezuela). Between 1986 and 1990, there was a campaign called ''Rock en Tu Idioma'' which had bands from Spain, Argentina and Mexico to play in order to influence the young ones to ''sing in spanish.''
In the early 90s, the bands that remained from the past decade were now becoming known internationally and new bands had now more support. It is really important to mention that the day October 1, 1993 was MTV Latinoamerica's first transmission (with a song by Los Prisioneros called ''We are sudamerican Rockers''). This was the first decade were a variety in the genres (in Latin America) in the mainstream was finally seen. Some of the bands I would recommend to you are A77AQUE (Argentina), Go Go Blues (Bolivia), Sexual Democracia (Chile, I would also like to say that Tom Araya from the legendary Thrash Metal band Slayer, is from Chile), Los Rodriguez, Ska-P (Spain), Delirium Tremens (Honduras), La Cuca, Molotov, Caifanes (Colombia), La Liga del Sueño (Peru), Culto Oculto (Venezuela), Los Rabanes (Panama), Estados Alterados, Ekhymosis, Aterciopelados, Bajo Tierra (Colombia). I would also like to say that Rock al Parque (Colombia) was founded in 1995 and it is a festival that is extremely famous.
In the new milenium, as in Rock in English, the Rock in Spanish had a fall. There are certain differences though. For example, there is no post-grunge in spanish and nu-metal is scarce, the pop punk scene appeared in this decade and not in the past one and the amount of ska punk bands in spanish is a lot. Anyway, there are other festivals in Colombia that have been founded (2004) which are the Cali Underground and the Altavoz (so now, the 3 main cities in Colombia have their Rock festival). Some of the bands I like are Los Bunkers, Fahrenheit (Chile), Tr3s de Corazon, Citoyens, Don Tetto, Raiz (Colombia), Division Minuscula, Alison (Mexico).
So now, I'm gonna say good bye and hope you enjoyed my column and if you listen to at least one of the bands, hope you enjoy it!
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