Cuban rock

Music of Cuba
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Rock and roll music was introduced in Cuba in the late 1950s, with many Cuban artists of the time covering American songs translated into Spanish, as was occurring in Mexico at the same time. "The Batista police never looked kindly on Rock and Roll, and much less after the screening of films like Rebel Without a Cause and The Bad Seed, among others. After 1959, Rock and Roll followed the same path, although artists like Argentinean Luis Aguile emerged."

When Cuba and the United States broke relations, some people considered rock "the music of the enemy, the language of the enemy". Then, there was the time of the Cold War, the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis and the uprising of armed bands throughout the country. Nevertheless, rock continued to be played. And though it didn’t have a good reputation, it was tolerated. And though somehow its performers were considered to have a deviant ideology, many groups continued playing the genre. Among these were included Los Vampiros and Los Satélites. These bands were composed of black people and had a style similar to that of Limbo Rock in the United States. This was the origin of street rock. And the situation continued like that until 1965.

Salvador Terry’s Los Vampiros and Los Satélites helped keep Cuban rock alive and showed that black and mixed race people also loved it. From 1961 to 1964, they made people put aside the old quarrels and misunderstandings that rock was the music of high life of the white majority.

Today, all the manifestations and subgenres of rock are performed, no matter how atypical they are.

The strong influence of American music on the younger Cuban generations paved the way for the introduction of rock & roll in the island during the 1950s. Many Cuban artists sung versions of American songs translated to Spanish, as it was also happening in Mexico.

One of the first Cuban rock groups, Los Llopis pioneered the use of the electric guitar in Cuba, although electrically-amplified treses were already being played by musicians such as Senén Suárez. The repertoire of Los Llopis consisted of a combination of American and rock pieces, such as "See You Later, Alligator" and "Rock Around the Clock" by the Bill Haley group, with other Cuban and Hispanic pieces like "Goza mi Guaracha", "Maquinolandera" and "La pollera colorá". Los Llopis also succeeded in Spain, where they established their residence for some years and introduced pachanga, a new Cuban rhythm with an influence from the Dominican merengue.

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