page_title: Rock music in Mexico
section_title: Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, La Onda
hierarchical_section_title: Rock music in Mexico / Classic Rock / Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, La Onda
caption_attribution_description: Español: Elefante en la feria de Zacatelco 2017
context_page_description: Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as rock nacional, originated in the 1950s. Standards by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Nancy Sinatra and Chuck Berry, were soon covered by bands such as Los Apson, Los Teen Tops, Los Twisters, Los Hitters, Los Nómadas, Los Rockets, Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Crazy Boys, and Javier Bátiz, which later 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, 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, Sam the Sham, Roy Orbison and later, Herb Alpert. Initially, the public exhibited only moderate interest in them, because the media attention was focused on La Ola Inglesa.
context_section_description: Many Mexican rock stars became involved in the counterculture movement. One of the most notorious bands from this decade was La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata, from Guadalajara, Mexico. After winning a local contest, they signed a contract with Polydor Records, and their single "Nasty Sex" was a #1 hit in Mexico in 1971, the only rock song from a Mexican band to achieve such a feat in that decade. However, after many members left the band and the Mexican government severely restricted the recording, publishing, and airplay of rock music in the country, the band (like many others at the time) changed its format and became a romantic ballad group.
  The two-day Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro, held in 1971, was organized in the hamlet of Tenantongo near the city of Toluca, a town neighboring Mexico City, and became known as "The Mexican Woodstock".
  At that rock festival, nudity, free love, experimental drug use, profanity, the peace sign inserted in the Mexican flag and the presence of the American flag so scandalized the conservative Mexican society that the government imposed cultural curbs to La Onda, and especially to rock music. The media called the move El Avandarazo. The festival, intended to emulate Woodstock and Altamont, expected to attract a maximum of 25,000 concertgoers but about 300,000 showed up. The government helped some stranded attendees at the end of the festival by sending 300 buses.
  During President Luis Echeverría's administration, the Mexican government tried to win back the country's legitimacy through populist, leftist-oriented programmes.
  Most things that could possibly be connected to the counterculture or to student protests were sidelined on public airwaves by the powers that be, who feared a repeat of the student protests of 1968, an event the new government denounced. But most Mexican rock bands sang and criticized the administration in general and, more specifically, corruption, poverty and persistent social inequalities that had taken place through Mexican history.
  With the Avandarazo effect at its height and the hippie movement waning worldwide, few bands survived the curbs; though the ones that did, like Three Souls in My Mind (later El Tri), remained popular due in part to their adoption of Spanish for their lyrics, and had a dedicated following. As the hippie trend waned c. 1973, many Mexican bands moved to progressive and hard rock. During the seventies there were many new bands but very little support from the music industry for original rock music. The bands suffered from it and had to limit themselves to performing in hoyos fonqui. Representative bands of this period were: Perro Fantastico, Mara, Vox Populi, Stray Cat, Rock Moviloy and many more. Perro Fantastico, a band from the east side of Mexico City (Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl) created rock music sung in both Spanish and English, formed by the brothers Jose Luis and Jaime Francisco González (guitar and bass) with Guillermo Avalos (drums) and Arturo Fajardo (rhythm guitar). They played, among other bands, in places like Salon Chicago, Macumba, El Herradero until the band disbanded around 1978. During the seventies bands also performed in high schools, universities and other places. Many others followed or continued during the eighties.
caption: Elefante's (Elephant) song "Así Es La Vida" (That Is How Life Is) was nominated at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards 2002 for Latin Grammy Best Rock Song.
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