The 1980s
With the arrival of stations like MTV, American rock reached the island. However, surging rock en español bands from Mexico, Argentina and Spain are rarely heard of. Most of the local bands still used English as their language. Some of the bands that surfaced through this decade were:
- Apocalips
- Black Widow
- Rebel Rose
- Cardinal Sin
- Sekel
- Red Crusader
- Corrupted Society
- Rybeck
- Whisker Biscuit
- The MD’s
- Island
- Anshar
- Daydream
- Dreamer
- Sin Excusas
- Legacy (Know later as Mindscrape)
- Mattador
- Mermaid
- Miracle
- Mystified
- Never On Time
- Nirvana
- Oro
- One on One
- Pelican In Flight
- Power Lord
- Rainfall
- Raphet
- Rock Shott
- Skyriders
- Still Heaven
- Top Banana
- Ten to Midnight
- Zyron
- RPM
- Unicorn
- Traffic Jam
- Wild Caps
- Killers
However, there were still a few bands that preferred to sing in Spanish like: Virus, Kantares and Belaris. Artists of other genres like Menudo, Wilkins and Glenn Monroig started fusing their music (pop/ballads) with rock. This decade also started the ongoing "battle" between "Cocolos" (people that listen to salsa) and "rockeros" (people that listen to Rock music). The introduction of new wave and europop in the USA started the surging of similar bands like Words Four Two, No You Turn, NeoEngland, and Nirvana (not the Kurt Cobain band). In 1988, a pop-rock band called Top Banana was signed by national label CBS.
Read more about this topic: Puerto Rican Rock Music