Rock music in Italy

At the time of the 1968 student uprisings, many young and educated Italians began to identify with the counterculture in France, Mexico, the US and across the world.

They merged agit-prop lyrics, jazz-rock jamming, raw electronics, middle-eastern scales and psychotic warbling, creating an original mixture of different music styles.

Area were fronted by Demetrio Stratos, one of the most original singers of his age, who recorded experimental albums entirely devoted to the human voice such as Cantare la Voce.

The same period, the early 1970s, also saw the rise of Italian singers and songwriters like Lucio Battisti, Fabrizio De André, Franco Battiato, Paolo Conte and Francesco Guccini.

Gianna Nannini in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s was the first Italian rocker who achieve real popular success outside of Italy, especially in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux and later in Mexico.