a rich history and an enduring present, right here in Lakeside
Gloria Rios, an American-born actress and singer, is often credited with introducing rock & roll music into México, performing in 1944 from Texas and recording in 1955 with various orchestras. She settled in with Mario Patrón and his Estrellas del Ritmo band, performing and recording covers of songs by Bill Halley and Elvis Presley.
She also recorded «La Mecedora» in 1956, which was said to be the first original song of Mexican rock & roll, although many rock historians also say that first rock and roll record ever recorded in México was “La Cama de Piedra” by Pablo Beltrán Ruíz in 1956 followed two months later by later Luis Marquez’s “Let’s Bop”.
These were not rock bands as we know them today – they were orchestras that played jazz, swing, and the “new music” with a high tempo 4/4 beat – songs like Rios’ “Jazzeando”, a fast tempo be-bop jazz tune.
The swing/jazz/rock orchestras quickly gave way to bands like Los Lunáticos in 1956 , Los Teen Tops and Las Mary Jets – an all-female Mexican Rock band formed in 1959, predating the first American female rock band Goldie & the Gingerbreads in 1964.
But unlike in the US where rock became the dominant – and highly profitable – music form until displaced by rap and hip hop, rock was repressed in México. The repression impulse was always there in a conservative society, but the 1971 two-day “Mexican Woodstock” Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, with nudity, drugs , sex and anti-government songs (imagine that?!) led to the government restricting rock music publishing and airplay.
But rock and roll cannot be held down for long, even by the Mexican government, so by the 1980’s “Los Urbanos” bands with a Bob Dylan-like folkloric style known as música rupestre, and Mexican British Invasion bands like Maná were dragging the country back into the rock revolution, centered in Monterrey.
Monterrock , a stadium-scale, anthem- style rock that sways the masses. Monterrey bands like Kinky, The Warning, Panda and many others took over Mexican arenas and stages everywhere and soon moved to Latin America and the US, and generated a second rock revolution throughout Mexico.
All of that is the foundation for the rock scene in México today which is huge, vibrant, experimental, and thrilling to watch grow and evolve. Modern Mexican rock bands like Hello Seahorse, Zoe, and Insite are popular worldwide. On the cutting edge are Mexican post-rock bands like the Guadalajara-based The Wohl Band, blending dream rock, British shoe-gaze and alt-rock into new forms. And there are the nascent upcoming bands we see here in Lakeside like Mary Island and Alfonsina.
With that rich history of Mexican rock, I am very interested in seeing the portrayal of the 60’s music at the DIF-fund raiser this Friday at the Hotel Real Chapala. Will the songs be covers of Gloria Rios, Los Lunáticos, Los Teen Tops and Las Mary Jets, or will they be straight Bill Halley and the Comets, The Drifters, and Isley Brothers. Whichever, it will be music made to dance and a lot of fun.
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