Cuban rock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rock and roll in Cuba began in the late 1950s, with artists covering American songs translated into Spanish, as was occurring in Mexico at the same time. Its development was disrupted by the Cuban Revolution; the government of Fidel Castro banned rock music in 1961 as being a corruptive American influence that had no place in the new, puritanical Communist Cuba (Which, ironically, was at odds with Marx's own liberal views on art and culture. Not to mention the existence of Marxist punk and heavy metal bands like The (International) Noise Conspiracy elsewhere).

The Castro government's attitude towards rock until recently was quite negative, although it has varied greatly in severity throughout the regime's existence. During the 1960s and 1970s rock was seriously prohibited, although nueva cancion/nueva trova artists like Silvio Rodriguez and Carlos Varela would sometimes perform rock material. In more recent years, with the transition to a tourism-based economy, attitudes of the Castro regime towards rock have softened somewhat, not only towards domestic and Latin American artists but also towards foreign Anglophone artists. In 2001, the Welsh rock group Manic Street Preachers were invited to perform in Cuba.^[1] Their concert was attended by Fidel Castro and others in authority. In 2004, Castro made a speech honouring the birthday of John Lennon (whose music, both with The Beatles and as a solo artist had been banned in Cuba). A bronze statue of John Lennon has been put in one of the parks in Havana. This statue was notorious in Havana for being under constant vandalism by citizens who would rob John Lennon's bronze glasses. Rick Wakeman played in Havana. The American band Audioslave performed in Havana in 2005.^[2]

A rock scene in Cuba is usually seen as small and underground due to official disapproval. However since the late 1990s, groups such as Moneda Dura and Los Kent have performed rock music on Cuban TV, and the profile of rock music has risen, with concerts and festivals.