Los Prisioneros was a chilean New Wave band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1979. They began as a local band during the early 1980s, playing small shows in their neighborhood and high school. After selling a limited press number of their first album in Chile under the independent Fusión Producciones label, they signed to EMI in 1985, re-releasing the same album on LP record and Cassette formats. From that point on they reached mainstream success in Chile, then Peru.
Most of Los Prisioneros song lyrics have substantial social critiques which made them popular as Chile was under Pinochet's military dictatorship in the 1980s. In terms of musical development in Chile Los Prisioneros marked the beginning of a new era by leaving behind folk inspired music that emerged with Víctor Jara and Violeta Parra in the 1960s. Los Prisioneros legacy has been recognised by bands such as Glup!, Javiera y Los Imposibles, Lucybell, Los Tetas and La Ley who together made the tribute album Tributo a Los Prisioneros.
Their albums were completely re-released in remastered Compact Disc form in the early 1990s, once Chile was no longer under a military regime. Throughout the 1990s their music spread out, reaching all of South and Central America as well as some parts of the U.S., Canada and Europe.
According to the Rolling Stone Magazine, Los Prisioneros' La voz de los '80 is the third best Chilean album of all time with their albums Corazones and Pateando piedras in ninth and fifteenth place, respectively.
Many of their creations are among the most important and influential songs in Latin American rock: specially El Baile de los que sobran ("The Dance of the Unneeded Ones"), Estrechez de Corazón ("Narrowness of Heart"), "We Are Sudamerican Rockers" and Tren al Sur ("Southbound Train).
Two years after the group's first break-up, the video for the song We are Sudamerican rockers was chosen to be the first aired by the then-nascent chain MTV Latin America, October 1, 1993.
Read more about Los Prisioneros: Social and Political Legacy, Musical Style, Influences, Awards and Recognition, Band Members, Discography
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