“Break everything”: cartography of Latin American rock

en “Break Everything: the History of Rock in Latin America” ​​(“Break it All”), the Netflix docuseries that premiered last Wednesday, is intended to map, in six chapters, the origin and development of rock in the region. The bet is ambitious for an issue, of course, unattainable for this project. “Break Everything” can’t be taken as the ultimate musical almanac, but it works and entertains.

The decline of “the history of rock in Latin America” ​​is large, with an obvious prominence to what happened in Mexico and Argentina, the two largest markets and during the twentieth century ruled from north to south, and conversely, what was heard in the rest of the countries of the continent.

With this delimited cartography, what comes next is a chronological and choral account of artists, with Mexico as the closest border to the explosion of American rock and roll. In the late 50’s, Enrique Guzmán he was, at the time, a uniformed rupturist in vest and trousers. Alex Lora, An icon of the most caricatured version of rock, admits that at the time they had no idea that what these early performers were doing were “covers”, but he was already dreaming of being like them.

However, Lora, leader of the Mexican group El Tri, states at one point: “Rock and roll is a means of communication and it would be illogical that we, having millions of people in the world who speak the language of Cervantes, do not we had our own rock and roll “.

The phenomenon was repeated in Buenos Aires, the same as in Chile – although the local New Wave is not mentioned – they were nothing more than free translators of Anglo successes. The story is told by its protagonists and advances along with the fashions. They come from Latin hippies, long hair and electrifying folklore. León Gieco relates that he composed with the mold of Bob Dylan, and in Chile, the Jaivas shook the inertia with a fusion that in the end gave identity to this musical mixture, leaving aside the cake, something that promoted Victor Jara, Setting aside the alienating culture.

The social context is inevitably political and is used as a backbone to present the effervescence of the music movement, which arrives as a relief in different countries.

After addressing the prehistory of rock in Spanish, “break everything” comes to 1963, the year in which the real revolution began. With The Beatles as protagonists, there was a whole generation of Latin American musicians who were encouraged to form their group and generate a sound that would become the soundtrack of the youth of the time. In a matter of time, the Shakers would be born in Uruguay (creators of the subject “they break everything” that it gives title to the series), in Peru the Saicos and the Shains would arise, and in Argentina the Beatniks and the Cats would form.

What began as a movement designed for dance and fun, would eventually become a reflection of a society plagued by numerous dictatorships and economic crises. And this is where “breaking everything” generates a very interesting approach that reflects the importance of gender in the second half of the twentieth century. Each episode is a small story class that goes beyond music. In Mexico there is talk of dictatorships, the Zapatista Movement, the 1985 earthquake and the demonization of rock after the Avándaro Festival a kind of Woodstock, but in 1971. In the case of Argentina, the dictatorship of 1976, the Falklands War, the Menem government and the crisis of 2001.

The first chapters address the repression of governments (Pinochet is a dark mantra for Chilean music), the unusual ban on rock in Mexico and the effects of historical events such as the Falklands War in Argentina, which led to the erasure the vestiges of the Anglo culture, which favored the massification of the new local idols: Charly Garcia (From the band Serú Girán), Fito Páez and Soda Stereo.

But beyond all these crises, Latin American rock survived and reached its peak in the mid-eighties thanks to Soda Stereo. “Break Everything” shows how the group led by Gustavo Cerati became the first product of export of the rock of the region and influenced to groups of Mexico, Chile and Uruguay.

MTV Latin, in the 90s, which debuted with the video of “Sudamerican Rockers”, of the Prisoners, was the 24/7 showcase that helped make the alternative massive and here is a common denominator, in a series of names that exploded at this time: the Argentine Gustavo Santaolalla, producer of “break everything” and who was the promoter of several bands on the continent; Between them, Café Tacvba, Molotov, Julieta Venegas and The Prisoners, in the “Hearts” era.

The truth is that the channel put groups like Café Tacvba, Aterciopelados, Molotov and The Fabulous Cadillacs to rotate across the continent and helped build ties between countries.

The last episode addresses the role of women in gender, and features testimony from Julieta Venegas, Juana Molina, Mon Laferté and Andrea Echeverri. “The future of rock is women,” says Uruguayan producer Juan Campodónico, who warns of a promising change in a genre that has been characterized by its constant mutation.

This genealogical tree of the Latin rock that presents the series goes through the spring and summer of a cycle that today is autumn.

Towards the end, everything moves too fast, perhaps at the same speed as the slope of the movement. There is an attempt to put an end to what is rock and what is not, and whether this cultural phenomenon is already dead. The observations among its protagonists are varied in a context where political crises do not stop on the continent.

Newspaper Group America – GDA: The Country / Uruguay and Mercury / Chile