Mexican rock music

Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as rock nacional ("national rock"), originated in the 1950s. Covers of standards by Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers, by bands such as Los Rockets, Los Twisters, Los Teen Tops, Los Rebeldes del Rock (), Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Crazy Boys (), Los Nómadas, and Javier Bátiz soon led to original compositions, often in English. The group "Los Nómadas" was the first racially integrated band of the 1950s. Their lead guitarist Bill Aken (Adopted son of Mexican movie actress Lupe Mayorga, said adoption making Aken the cousin to Ritchie Valens) wrote most of their original material, including the raucous Donde-Donde, and co-wrote the material for their Sounds Of The Barrio album, which is still being sold. Their 1954 recording of She's My Babe was the first top 40 'R & B' recording by a Latino band. In the southwestern United States, Spanish guitar rhythms and Mexican musical influences may have inspired some of the music of American musicians Ritchie Valens, Danny Flores (of The Champs), Sam the Sham, Roy Orbison and later, Herb Alpert. Initially, the public exhibited moderate interest in them, because of media attention paid to La Ola Inglesa (British Invasion).

However, after the substantial success of Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana in the United States in the late 1960s and the successful development of Mexico's own counterculture movement called La Onda (The Wave), a large number of bands sprang up. Most of these bands sang in both Spanish and, with foreign commercial exposure in mind, English. Mexican and Chicano rock has crossed into other Hispanic groups like José Feliciano and Lourdes Rodriguez, of Puerto Rican descent.

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