Generally, these terms are: Rock and roll first began to appear in Argentina in 1956 after the genre was created in the United States in 1954-1955, based largely on rhythm and blues and country and western.
The most notable among Argentine garage bands which sprung up in this period was Sandro y Los de Fuego, who recorded a successful series of Spanish language covers of American rock and roll hits, and attained commercial popularity.
On television, several shows such as Ritmo y Juventud and El Club del Clan, with singers like Palito Ortega, Violeta Rivas, Chico Navarro, and Lalo Fransen, featured a poppy version of rock, which owed equal amounts to Merseybeat and to Argentine and Italian romantic pop.
Los Beatnicks, of which Moris and Martinez where members, began the transition that would slowly take Argentine rock from imitation to a more creative state (while still following UK trends mainly).
[16] Charly García formed his first post-Sui Generis band, La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, which began Garcia's explorations of symphonic and progressive rock.
Arco Iris meanwhile continued expanding on their symphonic-folk rock and were joined by veteran Chilean band Los Jaivas, whom were escaping the Pinochet dictatorship that had come to power in their nation in 1973.
But the year would show a glimpse at the future: a band from La Plata called Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, with their comical costumes and nervy fast tempos, started performing.
Partly because the group lived for three months in northeast Brazil, the band's first album shows clear influences of Brazilian music, mixed with symphonic rock and jazz.
[22] Serú Girán went touring in Brazil in 1980, where their reception by fans at the Monterrey Jazz Festival in Rio de Janeiro was so enjoyed that the organizers requested that they perform again, the next day, but on the main stage with jazz-rockers Weather Report.
Serú Girán returned home, released "Bicicleta" and gathered 60,000 fans in La Rural back in Buenos Aires chanting no se banca más ("it isn't bearable anymore", alluding to the dictatorship).
[23][better source needed] Serú Girán released their fourth album Peperina in 1981 and promoted it on tour, but by the end of the year Pedro Aznar decided to leave the band because he wanted to study at Berklee.
After a season of death and destruction in the South Atlantic in which both sides suffered sunken ships, aircraft blown from the sky, and hundreds of young lives were cut short, the United Kingdom regained control over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas).
In Buenos Aires, three young men influenced by the advent of post-punk in Britain started exchanging ideas, and decided to form a band with the name Soda Stereo.
An Italian of Scottish background named Luca Prodan arrived in Argentina to fight his heroin addiction, worsened by the death of his friend Ian Curtis of Joy Division.
Songs critical of the military that were in prior years censored, some with exquisite lyrical poetry and allegory, were released during this time: "Tiempos Dificiles" by Fito Páez (sung by Juan Carlos Baglietto), "Maribel se Durmió" by Luis Alberto Spinetta, "Sólo le pido a Dios" by León Gieco and "Los dinosaurios" by Charly García.
The Cafe Einstein was opened in 1982 by Omar Chaban (who would end up convicted for the República Cromañón nightclub fire 22 years later), featuring some of the first presentations of three underground bands: Sumo, Soda Stereo, and Los Twist.
As the early 1980s progressed it became clear that the new generation of rockers were not like anything before: Los Violadores pioneering punk in Latin America; Virus oxygenating rock with their new-wave sound, followed by Cosméticos with a similar style; Sumo's punkish reggae-rock developing a fanatical cult following (Luca Prodan sung mostly in English, which reduced his band's radio exposure yet their fame expanded unabated); and Soda Stereo the buzz of the underground.
[28] The trickle became a flood as 1986 approached, and by the start of that year it had become a continental phenomenon, reaching Central America, Mexico, and crossing the Atlantic to Spain, even as far Italy, France, and Germany.
[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Los Enanitos Verdes, with their energetic pop-rock that appealed through music lines, gained previously unseen popularity across borders.[promotion?]
][dubious – discuss][citation needed] By this time the invasion had begun to 'quiet' down in comparison to the prior three years, but its legacy of opening the doors of Argentine rock to massive success beyond its own borders remains to this day.
With their first album, the self-titled Soda Stereo (1984), they reached national success with joyful and ironic lyrics, and a sound that combined pop, reggae, ska, and new wave, but were accused of being superficial and frivolous.
In heavy metal, the already mentioned Rata Blanca dominated popular tastes, specially in other Latin American countries, along with Hermética, JAF, and Horcas (the last two more domestic), in a very healthy scene for a style that never was overwhelmingly crowded in Argentine rock.
The end of the 1980s were also a period of continued growth for Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, on their way to becoming one of the most mythic cult bands of broad popularity in the history of rock, anywhere.
Canción Animal helped underground acts like Los Brujos, Peligrosos Gorriones, and Massacre break faster into the mainstream, by taking guitar-crunching rock to the apex as 1991 began.
Even pop-bound groups like Los Enanitos Verdes rocked harder in their early 1990s works, particularly in their Big Bang album, whose single "Lamento Boliviano" is now a classic.
A term that not long after would also be used as an umbrella to group bands with a hard-to-pin-down style, like the neo-surf pop of Super Ratones (from Mar del Plata), and neo-fusionists La Portuaria with their world music touches.
[33] On the other hand, Babasónicos had in 1992 their first major breakthrough of their careers with the hit D-generación from their 1992 album Pasto, which would herald future international success for a band that would define the sound of "sonic" rock.
1992 was the year of "La Pachanga": Rosario's Vilma Palma e Vampiros single was an across the board mega hit in the Spanish-speaking world; there was no way of escaping it unless one did not have any kind of social life in the early 1990s.
[46] Other underground groups started making noise at this time: Iguana Lovers, they founded the Sonic movement in Buenos Aires in 1990,[47] El Otro Yo, Catupecu Machu, and Santos Inocentes, leaders-to-be of the early 2000s alternative rock scene in Argentina.
Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas produced some catchy, original, and danceable music (a mix of rock, hip-hop, and Latin) which cemented their fan base all over the Americas, until the duo's separation in 2001.