Cuba Maps Its Rock Music History

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Saturday, October 30, 2010
Inter Press Service

Cuban rock 'n' roll, once an underground movement, is being mapped for inclusion in an exhaustive compendium of Latin American rock -- from the music itself to its transformation into a lifestyle. The project's promoters say the Cuban rock music 'map' will serve as a guide, a way to open doors, and as a historical record of a musical genre imported and kept for decades deep in the cultural underground.

It is a matter of 'conducting a much deeper study of the rock music scene,' according to Liliana González, Cuban coordinator of the Cartography of Rock in Latin America project, sponsored by the regional office of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. With a 10-year period for the project, the 'Cartography of Rock in Cuba' is in the phase of receiving contributions of information, after winning approval from Cuban national institutions in 2009. At the head of the initiative are the Centre for Investigation and Development of Cuban Music (CIDMUC) and the Cuban Rock Agency.

Personal archives from musicians and fans hold the memories of the music itself, and its impacts on broader culture. From early on, rock music made its mark. In 1954, the electric sounds of rock 'n' roll captivated followers on this Caribbean island. The first amateur bands emerged soon after.

'Although rock didn't originate here, it did arrive early on, and there was a strong appropriation of it, so much so that there are already four decades of Cuban rock,' said González, a CIDMUC researcher and university professor. The idea that only music which originated in this country can be considered Cuban is sorely 'out of date,' she said.

Cuba Maps Its Rock Music History

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Cuba Maps Its Rock Music History

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