Venezuelan rock
Venezuelan rock is rock music from Venezuela, the most common being based on Rock en Español.
History
Rock music in Venezuela took its first steps in the late 1950s and can be traced to the band "Los Dangers", where after Rudy Márquez, it would be part with Henry Stephen of "Los Impala", a band from the oil city of Maracaibo and the first South American group with a reputation that had a considerable impact outside the continent (making much of his career in Spain). In Caracas "Los Holidays" released several albums, and were the first Latin-American rock band to travel and work in Europe (Mostly Spain's Costa Brava, July 1966-October 1966). Los Holidays main vocalist, Wolfgang Vivas went on to a solo career, as did guitarist/vocalist Franklin Holland (Van Splunteren) who later formed part of the American band Gary and the Playboys, and created a new and very original "Proyecto Franklin Holland" in Caracas, 1984, releasing several well received albums on the Sonografica label. Then there appeared bands like "Los Darts", "Los 007", "Los Supersonicos" and "Los Claners" who followed the rock pattern established by the British. Bands such as "Ladies WC" or "Azúcar, Cacao y Leche" focused on what is progressive even entering the fusion stage of rock. "Las Cuatro Monedas" introduced in Venezuela the Jamaican rithms as Reggae and Ska.
Subsequently, there appeared some bands in the 1970s, such as "Una Luz", "People Pie", "El Zigui", "La Cuarta Calle", "Témpano" (Iceberg) and the progressive rock trio "Ficcion" (Sobre el Abismo). "Ficcion" has become emblematic in the Venezuelan Prog Rock scene and is still very active today, they just released (May 2013) their third album: "Ficcion III-Sobre La Ira de Dios". "Tempano" moved on to a more progressive (Atabal Yemal) and later moving to a new wave sound with the album (Essequibo). Then also came a heavy metal, hard rock movement with "Sacrifice" (its members were Rafael Sanchez (bass), Fernando Ovalle guitarist, Ricardo Montrose Schok (vocal), Rolando Rojas guitarist and Prospero Salazar (drums) from Valencia-Venezuela), "Power Age" that later would become "Arkangel" founded by Paul Gillman and Freddy Marshall, "Uzi", "Spectro" and "Jose Arevalo Rock Band" at its helm, and bands as "Resistencia", "Fahrenheit", "Grand Bite", "Alta Frecuencia". As for the blues music, while a few artists did occasionally perform some classic blues in English since the late '60's, the first band recording blues music with Spanish lyrics was "Pastel de Gente" (People Pie) that released two albums in the mid 1980s containing what are considered milestones of the genre such as "El Blues del Plan Union", "Jessica" and "El blues del Perdedor". Other prominent artists in the 1980s were the band "Aditus" and the soloists Melissa and also Jorge Aguilar who mixed rock with pop and other trends, such as the new wave, synth pop and funk respectively, making the genre more digestible to the larger audience. While these efforts were mostly oriented to the commercial pop/rock scene, from the underground-punk scene of the 1980s emerged several bands with international promotion, such as "Sentimiento muerto" (Dead Feeling) and "Desorden Público", whose first production was launched in 1987, despite the blockade in the media of some of their music due to their strong political views and mildly offensive language. However, both bands' first recordings achieved a huge success, which led to the record companies change of attitude towards them, both allowing them to record subsequent records, and opening the doors for other emerging bands of the late 80's, such as "Zapato 3", "Sentimiento Muerto" and "Seguridad Nacional" (who currently reside in New York) among others.
In the 1990s, many new bands appeared, such as "Caramelos de Cianuro", "Malanga", "Los Amigos Invisibles" (who currently reside in New York), Candy 66, and "Zapato 3" (from Caracas).
The post-90s era was characterized by a lack of significant new rock acts in the Venezuelan music scene, as the musical tastes of former rock-lovers shifted towards electronica.
Recently, the Venezuelan rock scene has been re-energized. Several new bands have begun to create what has been considered the new golden age of Venezuelan rock music. Bands like "La Vesper", "Viniloversus", "La Vida Bohème", "Los Pixel", "Los Mesoneros", "Telegrama", "The Asbestos", "Americania", "Los Dilbertos", "Los Javelin", "Los Verona (band)", "Los Paranoias", "Los Daltonicos", "Petrula", "Pentatoniks" and many others have created a vibrant live music scene that threatens to outgrow the limited venues that Caracas has to offer for live music.
Venezuelan rock artists
- La Vesper
- Vytas Brenner
- Franklin Holland (van splunteren)
- Henry Stephen (musician)
- Los Amigos Invisibles
- Culto Oculto
- Sacrifice
- Desorden Público
- Caramelos de Cianuro
- Los Paranoias
- Los Gusanos
- Verona (band)
- La Vida Boheme
- The Asbestos
- Candy 66
- Freddy Marshall