Early Years
Rock activity at this time in Mexico took place in either Mexico City and the nearby area or in northern cities such as Mexicali, Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, and Ciudad Juárez, and Tijuana, whose proximity to the United States resulted in more exposure to American sounds.
Rock, as elsewhere, became tied with the youth revolt of the 1960s. Many Mexican rock stars became involved in the counterculture movement. The three-day Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, held in 1971, was organized in the valley of Avándaro near the city of Toluca, a town neighboring Mexico City, and became known as "The Mexican Woodstock".
In that rock festival, nudity, open sex, drug use, profanity/ obscenity, and the presence of the American flag so scandalized conservative Mexican society that the government imposed cultural curbs in Mexican pop music on a temporary basis. The festival, intended to emulate Woodstock and Altamont, was never expected to attract the masses it did, and the government had to evacuate stranded attendees en masse at the end of the festival.
During the President Luis Echeverría's administration, the Mexican government tried to win back the country's legitimacy through populist, leftist-oriented programmes. Most things that could possibly be connected to the counterculture or student protests was sidelined on public airwaves by the powers that be, who feared a repeat of the student protests of 1968, the very same event which the new government denounced. But, most Mexican rock bands sang and criticized the administration in general and, more specifically, corruption, poverty and persistent social inequalities taken place through Mexican history.
Few bands survived the curbs; though the ones that did, like Three Souls in My Mind (later El Tri), remained popular due in part to their adoption of Spanish for their lyrics, and also as a result of a dedicated following. As the hippie trend waned c. 1973, many Mexican bands inclined themselves to progressive rock and hard rock. During the seventies there was a surge of many new bands but there was very little support from the music industry towards producing original rock music,and the bands suffered from it and had to limit themselves to perform in hoyos fonqui. Representatives of this period were: Perro Fantastico, Mara, Vox Populi, Stray Cat, Rock Moviloy and many more. Perro Fantastico a band from the east of Mexico City (Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl) created rock music singing in Spanish and English, formed by the brothers Jose Luis and Jaime Francisco González (guitar and bass) with Guillermo Avalos (drums) and Arturo Fajardo (rhythm guitar) and played among the other bands in places like Salon Chicago, Macumba, el Herradero and other places until the band disbanded around 1978. During the seventies bands also performed in high schools, universities and other places. Many others followed or continued during the eighties.
Read more about this topic: Mexican Rock Music
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