Episode Five—"Al son del horror," How music shakes the national conscience during violent times

In this episode,we are again joined by Prof. Citlali Sosa-Riddell (Cal State University, San Marcos) She will be examining essential Rock Nacional (Argentino) songs to consider how "el rock nacional" became a space to confront the painful memories of the military dictatorship even before the dictatorship collapsed.The songs became important discursive spaces across Latin America because it was a way to engage with the national conscience, to tell stories of the murdered victims, and to deal with crimes of the dirty wars of the state against the population when the courts and nation would not.Song Listing: In this episode we heard “El Show de los Muertos” by Sui Generis, León Gieco with “El Fantasma de Canterville.” Luis Alberto Spinetta with "Maribel se durmió." Alejandro Lerner’s “Indulto” and Bersuit Vergarabat with their song “Vuelos.”Original songs played in our episodes are included in our Podcast Playlist. Make sure to check it out as new songs are included weekly during the summer 23.Episode Five Bibliography. Books and Articles for further reading and research:—Abello Onofre, Carolina. "Scratching the Stones of Rock and Roll: Love Lyrics in the Times of the Argentinian Dictatorship." Rock Music Studies 5, no. 1 (2018): 76-93.—Citro, Silvia. "Ritual transgression and grotesque realism in 1990s rock music: an ethnographer among the Bersuit." In Youth Identities and Argentine Popular Music: Beyond Tango, pp. 19-39. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2012.—Favoretto, Mara. "Brothers in rock: Argentine and British rock music during the Malvinas/Falklands War." The Bloomsbury handbook of popular music and social class (2020): 291-313.—Giusti, Cristian Secul. Rompiendo el silencio: La libertad en las letras de rock-pop argentino (1982-1989). Editorial Biblos, 2021.—Hernán, Dal Molín. "Al son del horror. Música y dictadura en la Argentina." HyA ediciones (2023): 31-46.—Hernandez, Deborah Pacini, Héctor D. Fernández l'Hoeste, and Eric Zolov, eds. Rockin'las Américas: the global politics of rock in Latin/o America. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.—Lopez, Diego, and Veronica Gomez. "Resistance to Censorship and Cultural Repression During the Military Dictatorship (1976–1983)." The Routledge Companion to Music and Human Rights (2022).—Semán, Pablo, and Pablo Vila, eds. Youth identities and Argentine popular music: Beyond tango. Springer, 2012.—Vila, Pablo. "Tiempos difíciles, tiempos creativos: rock y dictadura en Argentina." Music and Dictatorship in Europe and Latin America, Harback, Amsterdam (2010).—Wilson, Timothy, and Mara Favoretto. "Making the “Disappeared” Visible in Argentine Rock." Lied und populäre Kultur/Song and Popular Culture 60 (2015): 351-364.

Om Podcasten

This podcast examines the perennial quest of Latin Americans and Latinx peoples to create more just and equitable societies. The series focuses on the political project of Latin American rock en español, a musical genre that challenged the hegemony of English rock and began in the 1970s.During the 1970s, a number of Latin American countries were faced with dictatorships and military coups that led to the “dirty wars” in which citizens were traumatized, tortured, and murdered. This project will be examining the lyrics for main themes of social justice that circulated during the dirty wars of Mexico, Chile, and Argentina in particular.We will also feature intergenerational conversations to examine the legacies of this music in our present moment and how Rock en Español was employed by LA Latinas and Latinos to fight against anti-immigrant rhetoric and politics in 1990s California.This project is supported in part by the University of California Office of the President MRPI funding M21PR3286.