El Proceso: The Rise Of Argentine Rock And Roll In Argentina

Rock and roll, as a genre of music, quickly became a cultural phenomenon in the United States after its inception in the forties and fifties, reaching its peak of popularity in the sixties and seventies. But, while rock and roll originated in the United States, different countries soon developed their own styles and flavors, from Western Europe to Latin America. But, while rock and roll has always held heavy anti-establishment messages across nations, nowhere have these sentiments been more important than in Argentina during the late seventies and early eighties – a time in Argentine history known as “el Proceso.” It was during this time that Argentine rock and roll had evolved from its anti-establishment roots and took a complete anti-authoritarian …show more content…
At that time, it was not seen as an important component of the national culture, with many people seeing it as a simple copy of the American music. But, similar to the adoption of rap in Puerto Rican culture, Argentina began to mix the American style of rock with their own styles (Negrón-Muntaner 220). And once musicians began incorporating regional issues into their songs that were of greater importance to local Argentine citizens, it became an evolutionary movement that lead to more politically significant themes, such as protesting traditions at the time, and onwards to criticize the government at the time – led by Isabel Peron (Wilson 7). Take, for example, rock musician Charly Garcia – between 1972 and 1974, he had released three musical albums. In his first album, he had four songs with the theme of love, as well as two songs with a critical theme on society. But by his last album, he had a much stronger emphasis on critiquing the Isabel regime with a total of five songs. Evidently, as Garcia’s career went on, his tone shifted due to the encroaching authoritarian government and its censors (Wilson 17). Then, a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976, introduced much stricter censorship on music lyrics and other cultural activities, as well as committing several human rights violations: kidnap, torture, and murder, all in the name …show more content…
A folk rock musician, Garcia’s music tended to reside within the realm of idioms and metaphors, with a common symbol in his lyrics being the horse. In many songs, the horse symbolized people as he imagined they should be – at liberty to frolic in pastures, unhindered