- Guatemalan rock
Guatemalan Rock or "Rock Chapín" is a genre of
rock music which has been developing in Guatemala since the mid 1960s.Guatemalan Rock Music
The rock movement with Spanish texts began in Guatemala in the mid 1960s. One of the first representatives of the rock movement was Luis Galich, with his band "Santa Fé", who played gigs and concerts in Guatemala City and some of the towns. Bands like "Plástico Pesado", later renamed "Quetzalumán", were more on the side of the experimental. Other
psychedelic bands of that time included "S.O.S." (Rony de Leon, Chepito Hope, David de Gandarias), "Caballo Loco", "Apple Pie" (Tito Henkle, Luis Zetina, Rico Molina & Gentry)", "Cuerpo y Alma", "Banda Clásica", "Cerebro", "La Compañía", "Siglo XX", "Eclipse", and "Pastel de Fresa". One remarkable milestone was the unprecedented creation in 1973-74 of therock opera "Corazón del sol naciente" (Heart of the Sunrise) by "Sol Naciente", a large youth group formed by dancers, solo vocalists, an extended chorus, as well as band which included Guatemalan percussion instruments besides "unplugged" acousticalguitar s,piano , and soloviolin . Some of the band members later formed the group Alción.A unique case in the rock scene is the rock band "Sobrevivencia" from
Huehuetenango whose lyrics are sung in Mam, aMayan language spoken in the Guatemalan northwest.In Guatemala City, rock bands such as "Radio Viejo", "Ricardo Andrade y los últimos adictos" (which disbanded when their leader, Ricardo Andrade, was murdered in Zacapa), "Bohemia Suburbana", "Viernes Verde", and "Viento en Contra" have enjoyed popularity among high-school and college students during the 1990s. "Viento en Contra" are still around, backing the campaigns of a certain presidential candidate, thus adding a political component to their rock gigs and recordings.
Another band that was popular during the 1980s and 90s was
Alux Nahual , one of the Spanish lyrics writing and singing rock bands, that has published a number of recordings in Guatemala.Some of the bands of Guatemalan rock active in the present are "Bohemia Suburbana","El Tambor de la Tribu", "Malacates Trebol Shop"," Viernes Verde","Redhka","La Gran Calabaza", "El Clubo", "Viento en Contra", "Extincion", "Legión", and "Vitriolo".
Further reading
Also 4 Tiempos, who have emerged in the early 2000s.
*Dieter Lehnhoff , "Creación musical en Guatemala". Guatemala City: Editorial Galería Guatemala, 2005. ISBN 99922704-7-0. [http://www.karnobooks.com/cgi-bin/karno/81112.html]External links
*http://www.rockchapin.org/
*http://www.rockrepublik.net/
*http://www.musica.com.gt/
*http://www.elcircodelrock.com/
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