Luis Alberto Spinetta, nicknamed "El Flaco", was an Argentine singer, guitarist, composer, writer and poet. One of the most influential rock musicians of Argentina, he is widely regarded as one of the founders of Argentine rock, which is considered as the first incarnation of Spanish-language rock. Born in Buenos Aires in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano, he was the founder of iconic rock bands including Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, Spinetta Jade, and Spinetta y Los Socios del Desierto. In Argentina January 23rd is celebrated as "Día Nacional del Músico" in honor of Spinetta's birth.
Argentine rock is rock music composed or performed by Argentine bands or artists mostly in Spanish.
Norberto Aníbal Napolitano, popularly known as Pappo, was an Argentine rock musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter. One of the most influential figures in Argentine music, he was a forerunner of Argentine rock, heavy metal and blues.
Amaral is a Spanish rock duo from Zaragoza, who have sold more than four million albums worldwide. The band consists of Eva Amaral (vocals) and Juan Aguirre (guitar), who write their songs together. Amaral and Aguirre met in 1992 in a bar in Zaragoza. She played drums in a local punk rock band called Bandera Blanca and also sang with Acid Rain. Aguirre was playing with a band called Días de Vino y Rosas at the time. Soon after they met, the two decided to play together and perform their own material. In 1997, they moved to Madrid and signed a major deal with EMI. Amaral's musical style is often called pop rock, but it is often fused with Latin beats, folk rock, synthesizers, complex poetic lyrics, and in particular, traditional Spanish folk music. Their distinctive style was described by Juan as folk, "and the person who has heard a lot of folk and traditional music will listen and understand, but I think our attitude to life is rather that of a rock group."
Andrés Calamaro is an Argentine musician, composer and Latin Grammy winner. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential rock artists in Spanish. He is also one of the most complete artists for his wide range of musical styles, including funk, reggae, ballads, boleros, tangos, jazz. His former band Los Rodríguez was a major success in Spain and throughout Latin America mainly during the 1990s. He is multi-instrumentalist and became one of the main icons of Argentine rock, selling over 1.3 million records to date.
Miguel Angel Peralta, known by his artistic name Miguel Abuelo, was an Argentine rock musician and singer.
Rock en español is a term used to refer to any kind of rock music featuring Spanish vocals. Compared to English-speaking bands, very few acts reached worldwide success or between Spanish-speaking countries due to a lack of promotion. Despite rock en español's origins in the late 1950s, many rock acts achieved at best nationwide fame until the Internet consolidated the listeners. However, some rock en español artists did become internationally popular with the help of a promotional campaign from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s called "Rock en tu idioma". Some specific rock-based styles influenced by folkloric rhythms have also developed in these regions. Some of the more prominent styles are Latin rock ; Latin alternative, an alternative rock scene that blended a Latin sound with other genres like Caribbean ska, reggae, and soca; or Andalusian rock, a flamenco-influenced style that emerged in Spain.
Carajo was an Argentinian rock band from Buenos Aires. It was formed in 2000 with Marcelo "Corvata" Corvalan on bass and vocals, Andres "Andy" Vilanova on drums and Hernan "Tery" Langer on guitar and backing vocals. The first two share the history of having been part of the band A.N.I.M.A.L. In 2020, the band's breakup was announced.
The Uruguayan Invasion was a musical phenomenon of the 1960s similar to the British Invasion, with rock bands from Uruguay gaining popularity in Argentina.
Óscar Moro was an Argentine rock drummer.
Manal was an Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock. The band members were Claudio Gabis on guitar, Javier Martínez on drums and vocals, and Alejandro Medina on bass and vocals. Martínez was the band's lead vocalist and leading songwriter.
José Alberto Iglesias, better known as Tango or its diminutive Tanguito or Ramses VII, was an Argentine rock singer-songwriter. Born into a working-class family from western Greater Buenos Aires, he began his career in the early 1960s as the lead singer of the nueva ola group Los Dukes, which recorded two singles released on label Music Hall. In the mid-to-late 1960s, he became a leading figure in the countercultural underground of Buenos Aires, a scene that gave birth to Argentine rock, the earliest incarnation of Spanish-language rock. Tanguito is celebrated for co-writing Los Gatos' hit "La balsa", that catapulted the burgeoning rock nacional into massive popularity in the summer of 1967–68. This success led to a contract with RCA Victor which soon ended after the little impact of the 1968 single "El hombre restante". Tanguito later worked for Mandioca, Argentine rock's first independent record label founded by producers Jorge Álvarez and Pedro Pujó in 1968.
Los Abuelos de la Nada were an Argentine rock band formed in Buenos Aires in 1967. The group underwent several incarnations throughout its history, with all of them led by its founder and frontman, singer-songwriter Miguel Abuelo. The group produced numerous hit singles in the 1980s as "Sin Gamulán", "Costumbres argentinas", "Mil horas", "Himno de mi corazón", "Lunes por la madrugada" and "No te enamores nunca de aquel marinero bengalí".
Mauricio "Moris" Birabent is an Argentine rock musician and pioneer of Spanish-language rock
Félix Francisco Nebbia Corbacho, better known as Litto Nebbia is an Argentine singer-songwriter, musician and producer, prominent in the development of the early Argentine rock scene.
Riff was an Argentine heavy metal band formed in Buenos Aires in 1980. The band was fronted by guitarist Norberto "Pappo" Napolitano, who formed Riff after dissolving his old musical project, Pappo's Blues. The group was mostly influenced by acts like AC/DC, Motörhead, Saxon, and the new wave of British heavy metal scene, who helped introduce heavy metal music in Argentina in the early 80s.
Álvaro de Luna Blanco was a Spanish actor. He performed in more than one hundred films since 1961. He was most known for El Algarrobo in Curro Jiménez.
Los Gatos Salvajes, from Rosario, Santa Fe in Argentina, were a beat and garage rock band active in the early to mid-1960s, following which members Litto Nebbia and Ciro Fogliatta would go on to form the later, more successful group, Los Gatos. They were one of Argentina's first teenage rock & roll bands, and part of the popular worldwide beat movement inspired by the success of the Beatles and the British Invasion. They enjoyed only limited record sales, despite some degree of success in their television appearances, but are recognised as a pioneering group in Argentina.
Almendra is the self-titled debut studio album by Argentine rock band Almendra which was released in 1969 on Vik, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. To distinguish it from the band's next release, Almendra II, it is also known as Almendra I. The album represented the first full-length musical endeavour of nineteen-year-old Luis Alberto Spinetta, having formed the band in the mid 1960s along with Emilio del Guercio, Edelmiro Molinari and Rodolfo García. The famous artwork, showing a crying man with a toy arrow stuck on his head, was designed by Spinetta to embody the different lyrical themes of the album.
"La balsa" is the debut single by the Argentine band Los Gatos, released on July 3, 1967 on Vik, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. Formed in 1967 after the disbandment of Los Gatos Salvajes, Los Gatos were the house band of the bar La Cueva, which became a popular meeting place for rock enthusiasts and the birthplace of Argentine rock—known locally as rock nacional. During the mid-to-late 1960s, Buenos Aires was experiencing a cultural blossoming characterized by innovations in modern art, literature and cinema, largely driven by a burgeoning youth subculture that adhered to the countercultural phenomenon of the decade. The underground had its center in La Cueva, Plaza Francia and the Torcuato di Tella Institute, and identified with British Invasion music. "La balsa" was written by Litto Nebbia—lead vocalist of the band—and Tanguito on May 2, 1967, in the men's toilet of La Perla de Once, another bar frequented by the group. At the time, Argentina was under a military dictatorship led by Juan Carlos Onganía, which regularly imprisoned and persecuted these young bohemians.
