Rock in Spanish
The rock in Spanish is rock music composed and performed in Spanish. It has developed in a heterogeneous way, mainly in Hispanic nations and in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, often combining with rhythms and characteristics of local cultures. In this way, rock in Spanish has generated currents such as Latin rock, alterlatino, Andalusian rock, Latin American fusion, among others.
All Spanish-speaking scenes had Anglo-Saxon rock as a common frame of reference since its origins in the mid-1950s, making the development of the various styles of rock in each country relatively contemporary, to varying degrees of popularity. The Latin Grammy Awards include four awards related to rock en español: Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, Best Pop/Rock Album and Best Pop/Rock Song.
History
Beginnings and adaptation of early rock and roll
Rock and roll, also transcribed into Spanish as rock and roll, is a musical style created by the Afro-descendant community in the United States after the end of World War II in 1945. In the 1950, musicians like Little Richard, Chuck Berry as well as other Caucasians like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, promoted the massification of the genre that became a global culture.
The production of rock in Spanish began in the second half of the fifties, with musical bands that, for the most part, interpreted American rock and roll hits in Spanish. Although it is difficult to establish the limits of when exactly it begins to develop, it is true that the first rock recordings to incorporate vocals in Spanish were published around 1956.
However, the first great international success came from the hand of saxophonist Danny Flores with the band The Champs, reaching great popularity in the United States (and a good part of the world) reaching the first place on the Billboard charts in March in 1958 with his hit "Tequila".
Shortly thereafter, "La bamba", a regional Mexican song performed with a rock rhythm and sung in Spanish by Ritchie Valens, also entered the US charts in the same year in 1958.
The first years of rock in Spanish, in general, were based above all on the appearance of groups that tended to cover Anglo-Saxon rock hits by translating them into Spanish. Already during the transition to the new decade, groups like Los Llopis -which were actually a band focused on melodic songs and more standardized genres- or Los Teen Tops -which were successful both in Latin America and in Spain- poured into Spanish some early American rock and roll songs.
During the early sixties, rock began to spread and the media began to give it more and more coverage among the different Spanish-speaking regions. Given its enormous capacity to attract young people, entertainment venues and music promoters began to systematically schedule concerts by rock groups; so that in a short time the genre became a true mass phenomenon.
However, as rock gained more and more attention, little by little various groups and soloists appeared who would interpret their original songs in Spanish, gradually ceasing to cover American hits and consecrating themselves as authors just as the Dynamic Duo did. The influence of other non-English-speaking European countries is also notable, with the arrival of the yeye phenomenon.
On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that in some South American countries the term new wave was coined to encompass those artists who adopted the musical influence of rock from the United States and the patterns of pop culture from Europe. This style of pop mixed with twist, beat and rock became very popular in Latin America. However, the outbreak that would come with the arrival of the English wave that occurred in the middle of the decade would be decisive for the development of rock in Spanish..
The effect of the British invasion. Beat music, garage rock and psychedelia
It is just then that the British The Beatles became a worldwide success; they were followed by a large number of groups of the same nationality. This phenomenon, the so-called British invasion, affected the Spanish-speaking world and the entire planet. The new sounds coming from the United Kingdom (although also from the United States) such as beat music, rhythm and blues, psychedelia, soul, folk rock or pop have been imposed all over the world, exerting a notable influence in Spanish-speaking countries and promoting the development of rock in their respective scenes.
The influence of beat music, pop or psychedelia was immediately present with Los Brincos, El Kinto, Los Gatos, Los Iracundos, The Speakers, Sandro, Los Flippers, and some artists hit bands that expressed themselves mainly in English also performed in Spanish occasionally as Los Bravos or more anecdotally as Los Shakers; while others would gradually give way to the use of Spanish as Lone Star. Although in the few cases that the bands had World successes were mostly with songs performed in English (as happened with Los Bravos or Miguel Ríos). Also notable was the case of Los Saicos, one of the pioneering protopunk bands in the world, later being claimed as an example of garage rock primal in Spanish. And it is that not everything was based on adapting Anglo-Saxon sounds to the Hispanic environment, but rock went further, allowing itself to be influenced by the native music of each country. This is how the band Santana obtained great worldwide success with its mix of rock and Latin American sounds, a style that came to be called Latin rock, even participating in the original edition of the Woodstock festival with only one album to its credit. It is worth mentioning that their repertoire was expressed mostly in English, there was some success in Spanish such as "Oye cómo va". This trend of Latin rock would continue to develop during the end of the decade and the following with bands like Malo as well as the of mixing folk sounds from other regions with rock. But this fact does not mean that the Hispanic scene ceased to be influenced by the Anglo-Saxon one, since during the turn of the decade styles such as acid rock, blues rock or hard rock would continue to be decisive; as well as progressive rock where it was already glimpsed in bands like Almendra whose singer Luis Alberto Spinetta would be a key piece in rock performed in Spanish during the seventies.
Acid, hard and progressive rock. Resistance to censorship
Under the amalgamation of influences that had occurred during the previous decade, a large part of the groups of Hispanic origin still continued to perform mainly in English with anecdotal incursions into rock in Spanish as occurred with La Revolución by Emiliano Zapata —which would end for abandoning their status as a psychedelic rock band after the early seventies.
On the other hand, there were several clear exponents of psychedelic rock in Spanish, as was evident with Los Dug Dug's, Pescado Rabioso, or the "bluesy" and progressive influence of Vox Dei, along with others closely related such as Manal —although more assiduously related to blues rock.
As the decade went by, progressive rock bets with less psychedelic influences emerged more strongly, such as Invisible, Sui Generis —with a more marked line towards folk— or Témpano while others chose to adhere new influences to his stylistic proposal such as Los Jaivas —with its mix of rock and Andean folk music— or Triana —with a high influence of flamenco—.
And the thing is that Triana was a pioneer band in what came to be called Andalusian rock, a derivation of progressive rock and symphonic rock with a strong presence of flamenco, a style that was fused to rock music in a completely homogeneous way. Although this type of fusion, on occasions, went even further, leaving symphony aside and mixing flamenco with other types of rock that anchored their roots in traditional rock and roll, blues or folk, as the band Veneno did..
Similar to what had happened at the end of the previous decade in the United Kingdom, many of the bands related to psychedelia and blues —including some already mentioned— gradually made their way to a more hardened sound, incurring the rock hard. Various groups were embracing the style gradually moving away from psychedelic influences and other characteristics settled in the sixties such as Pappo's Blues among others already mentioned as Vox Dei or Lone Star. Many of their contemporaries followed that path creating a scene music with heavier sounds and, above all, giving birth to new musical currents. Among them, he highlighted a movement that became known as urban rock (from Spain), clearly attributable to hard rock, but also influenced by styles such as progressive rock and blues rock; and whose main banner was the Leño group.
But it was not all good news for rock in Spanish since it was perceived as an act of rebellion in various countries where a dictatorial political model had been established. Cases such as the assassination of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara a few days after Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état in Chile or the prohibition of singer-songwriter Alfredo Zitarrosa during the civic-military dictatorship in Uruguay began to create an extra-musical context (of a sociopolitical nature) that had considerable consequences. negative in more than one Spanish-speaking scene. In Spain, although the Franco dictatorship had not decreed any law that persecuted these musical forms, although it is true that all material had to go through censorship.
In Mexico, at the beginning of the seventies, rock suffered something similar to persecution when the federal government (in theory, as a consequence of the events originated in a festival held in the town of Avándaro), prohibited the holding of concerts, restricted their media coverage (radio and television) and pressured record companies to reduce the publication of records of the genre. As for Argentina, the coup d'état of March 1976 also opened a period of repression and censorship in which, far from being prohibited, rock was seen as something suspicious and subversive, capable of agitating and mobilizing youth against the established system. As a consequence, several Argentine musicians and bands would leave the country and go mainly to Spain, a country that had just emerged from the Franco dictatorship—the United States and even Mexico.
This migration of Argentine musicians to Spain gave rise to a fleeting connection between two of the most powerful scenes of the genre to date in the Spanish-speaking world. In fact, the exiled Argentine artists quickly joined the Spanish scene and adapted —in some cases with greater success and in others with less success— to their host country. There were cases in which groups with components of both nationalities were formed, as was the case with Tequila while others developed their careers as soloists, just as Moris did.
In any case, that connection could somehow help to consolidate a new music scene far from progressive rock and the hard and symphonic sounds that were then predominant on both sides of the Atlantic. A new scene heir to classic rock and roll, glam rock, rhythm and blues and pop and rock of the sixties in which bands like Burning and groups that were difficult to classify as La Orquesta Mondragón (which combined rock with a certain parodic theatricality) which, in some way, was equivalent to the British pub rock that, at that time, was emerging in the United Kingdom; and that, in a few years, would end up giving rise to new currents such as punk and the new wave. In fact, one of the few contemporary bands of the first wave of punk that satisfactorily established itself on the scene was La Banda Trapera del Río.
In any case, these political repressions did not prevent rock from still being heard on the underground scene, and good proof of this is that well-known bands would still emerge during this period such as Serú Girán, a project by Charly García who was already in the band Sui Generis.
Rise of punk, new wave and heavy metal. Rock in Spanish reaches the masses
When progressive rock was already in decline in the rest of the world, in the Hispanic scene it was still making its last hits with Chac Mool, Pro Rock Ensamble or Frágil, with its last great contributions to the progressive scene during the early eighties.
Precisely at the end of the previous decade, the world was influenced by the advent of the punk scene that, although it already had pioneers during the same period in the Spanish-speaking scene, would be throughout this when it would turn out to be more prolific; just when in the English-speaking world it was in decline. The movement was precisely in full swing in the Spanish-speaking world with bands like La Polla Records —a group that was included within Basque radical rock—, Siniestro Total —with a certain humorous tone— or Los Violadores.
However, in Anglo-Saxon punk it had led to new trends such as new wave and post-punk, something that did not go unnoticed by the scene in Spanish. Numerous bands along these lines arose from the Madrid movement, a countercultural movement that captured international attention, such as Alaska y Dinarama, Radio Futura, La Unión or Gabinete Caligari; although far from being limited to it, it encompassed others from different stylistic proposals such as the traditionalist rock and roll of Loquillo and the Trogloditas, the pop rock of Nacha Pop or the synth pop of Aviador Dro and Mecano.
The reach of the new wave and post-punk would also influence bands outside of this movement (although many of them would end up changing their register or were also subject to other influences) such as Sumo —despite the fact that most part of their repertoire was performed in English—, Sentimiento Muerto, Los Prisioneros, Los Abuelos de la Nada, Virus, Caifanes, Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota —commonly abbreviated to Los Redondos— or Soda Stereo.
Soda Stereo would be precisely one of the greatest standard-bearers in the internationalization of rock in Spanish. And it is that despite the fact that the scene had had certain contacts, it had never had a massive diffusion. Although it was by no means equivalent to the British invasion since not all rock styles received the same diffusion, it did serve to start a cycle of internationalization of rock in Spanish, thus starting the first major Spanish-American tours.
Under this scenario, during the second half of the decade, the Spanish Miguel Ríos organized the festival «First Ibero-American Rock Meeting» in Madrid and immediately began a dissemination campaign called «Rock in your language» where various of the groups mentioned along with others of a diverse nature such as Duncan Dhu, Maldita Vecindad and the Sons of the Fifth Patio, Los Toreros Muertos, Hombres G, Enanitos Verdes,, Miguel Mateos, among others. From artists from pop rock like El Último de la Fila or the "guacarrock" of Botellita de Jerez to singer-songwriters like Fito Páez, Joaquín Sabina, Juan Carlos Baglietto and Rodrigo González showed that rock was experiencing a period of prosperity. Rodrigo González would be one of the seeds of the current that was called Mexican urban rock, which had some characteristics similar to urban rock in Spain although it anchored its roots in a style more influenced by rock and roll, blues, and rhythm and blues leaving aside those of punk and progressive rock, being El Tri one of the greatest exponents of the current.
On the other hand, the heavy metal scene — totally unrelated to the "Rock in Your Language" scene — being influenced by the hard rock of the previous decade and the movement that became known as the new wave of British heavy metal (abbreviated in English NWOBHM), was quickly taking shape with bands like Riff —formed by the leader of Pappo's Blues—, Kraken or Barón Rojo —who also had some success in Europe by versioning some of their songs into English. Although some metal bands would find their peak of popularity during the coming years, the phenomenon of heavy metal in Spanish arose.
The irruption of alternative and alter-Latin rock. The promotion of MTV Latino
Precisely Ángeles del Infierno, who had developed his career in the previous decade, would begin to offer performances in Latin America from the nineties. And it is that at that time in the Anglo-Saxon scene, heavy metal was suffering a recession in favor of new styles such as grunge. However, it would take a little longer for alternative rock styles to become dominant in the Spanish-speaking scene, because just as grunge was emerging in the US, heavy metal in Spanish reached new heights of popularity with the success of Rata Blanca. Of course other less classical styles arose such as the death metal of Brujería, the thrash metal of Ekhymosis or Transmetal —which their style was located between both genres—.
The resurgence of punk in the Anglo-Saxon world was also notorious, which was quickly joined by bands (although the productive era of punk in Spanish was very close) such as Attaque 77, Todos Tus Muertos —betting more on hardcore punk— or Ska-P —focused on ska punk—. It is notable to say that ska was a style that also had a lot of presence with other bands such as Desorden Público, King Changó —who would classify their style as latin ska—, Tijuana No! or Los Rabanes.
Since the 1980s, the trend of using video clips as a way to promote songs by numerous bands became widespread. In 1993 the MTV Latino channel was born, achieving a much more international diffusion of Latin American rock. In the image and likeness of the American MTV, live performances were promoted, including acoustic sessions known as MTV Unplugged.
Many of the “Rock in your language” bands were in their heyday; and they were soon joined by others of a similar wave, generally based on pop rock (many born at the end of the previous decade) such as Jarabe de Palo, Los Rodríguez (and, after their dissolution, Andrés Calamaro as a soloist), Celtas Cortos —with their rock with Celtic roots—, Julieta Venegas, Juanes —who radically changed their record since leaving Ekhymosis—, Ely Guerra, Los Pericos —singing their style towards reggae—, Shakira, Maná or Héroes del Silencio—although the latter are more hardcore and rocker than the others.
Despite Héroes del Silencio's incursions into hard rock, it is not customary to classify the band as a faithful representative of that genre. However, it continued to have a presence with other groups that can be more clearly recognized on the label; We are talking about La Renga —as part of neighborhood rock—, Cuca —with a humorous proposal— or the greatest architect of the revival of old Spanish urban rock Extremoduro.
Even so, it would be too risky to affirm that rock in Spanish enjoyed international or worldwide fame. The Spanish-speaking territory was seen primarily as a source of summer hits and dance songs. It is ironic that Ricky Martin's producer, Draco Rosa, began his career letting himself be influenced by alternative rock. Cianuro, Libido, La Gusana Ciega, Santa Sabina, La Barranca, Los Tres, Lucybell, Zurdok —origin band of the multi-style movement “Avanzada regia”—, El Otro Yo, Babasónicos, Divididos — with great affinity to hard rock and even funk—, as well as others related to funk rock such as Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas, Chancho en Piedra or Los Tetas. It is also worth noting derivative subscenes such as indie rock, of which we can highlight Los Planetas.
However, just as classic Latin rock did, the new trend of alternative rock was influenced by native Latin American music and other rhythms such as reggae or ska, thus forming alterlatino. Far from being something anecdotal, the scene was very prolific—quite supported by MTV— with numerous successful bands such as the artist Manu Chao and his band Mano Negra —who interspersed various languages with their releases—, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Fobia, Café Tacvba, Aterciopelados, Jaguares as was the band Caifanes from which he settled, Bersuit Vergarabat, Amparanoia, Los Piojos, Los Auténticos Decadentes, La Ley or Molotov —with a stylistic proposal based on in rap rock—as well as Control Machete's hip hop are some of the most representative in this musical aspect. As had happened in the Anglo-Saxon world, the scene was plagued with proposals of an alternative nature compared to what had been composed in the past, as did the metallic scene. Alternative metal became evident with the nu metal (among other styles) of Springe, Puya —mixing its sound with salsa— or A.N.I.M.A.L. —also good groove metal—
Electronic music in rock in Spanish and the independent scene. The continuist current of the 21st century
Despite this internationalization, many bands of great national popularity still continued without expanding their borders due to the lack of promotion in other countries. The globalization of content accentuated by the generalization of the Internet began to help to unify —relatively— more the different regional scenes; however, this caused MTV to put aside the broadcast of video clips in favor of reality shows. This lack of broadcasting was, in general, an aggravating factor for specific scenes, such as the hard and heavy rock proposals. Despite this, of the entire Spanish-speaking heavy metal scene of the early years of the XXI, the one that achieved the most transcendence was the folk metal band Mägo de Oz.
Stylistically, the century began as an extension of what had occurred during the 1990s. The sounds of alternative rock or alter-Latin continued to be seen with Ozomatli, No Te Va Gustar, Panteón Rococó —inclining towards ska—, Kevin Johansen —in another line of singer-songwriter—, Catupecu Machu, Los Bunkers, La Vida Bohème -more inclined towards indie rock-, Calle 13 -with its rap and forays into reggaeton, which made them receive rejection by some attendees at various rock festivals-, La Vela Puerca, the pop punk of PXNDX, Zoé, Macaco and Ojos de Brujo —adhering influences from flamenco and thus classifying themselves in what is known as "miscegenation"—, Mon Laferte —incurring in folk and author song —, Jumbo or Kinky —incorporating elements of electronic music into their style.
Precisely electronic music would be the basis of others that would anchor their roots in alternative rock such as the trip hop of Plastilina Mosh, the electrofolk of Juana Molina, the electropop of Belanova and Miranda! or the dark synth pop from Saiko's early albums.
And it is that if we had to highlight a new trend, without a doubt, it would be to incorporate electronics; even the former singer of Soda Stereo, Gustavo Cerati, was influenced by the sound.
However, the more «classical» styles did not fall into oblivion, and if Enrique Bunbury initially began his solo career letting himself be influenced by the new alternative and even electronic trends, he would soon distance himself from them experimenting with various styles in a line of singer-songwriter and pop rock. Away from these aspects, in the pop rock scene we can name Estopa —also linked to flamenco rumba—, Bacilos —a bet on Latin pop—, Natalia Lafourcade —with a style more typical of folk and baroque pop—, Phyto & Fitipaldis —with a sound more inclined towards rock and roll—, El Cuarteto de Nos —with certain humorous gifts—, or others closer to songwriting such as Nacho Vegas, Jorge Drexler or Fiel a la Vega. Also notable is the Latin funk of Los Amigos Invisibles, a style that stands out from all those mentioned.