Rockin Las Carnegiens Summary

Rockin’ Las Américans: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin America by Eric Zolov investigates the “systematic pattern of harassment and abuses” towards rock n’ roll in South America during 1960-70s. It questions how and why rock became so controversial, what was rock in Latin American contexts, depictions of race, class and gender in music, and what makes Latin American rock truly Latin American rock. Using first hand knowledge from “rockers” themselves as well as help from ethnomusicologists, and sociologists. It is a cultural type of history, and examines rock with different gender and age perspectives.
The author seems very adept to answer these questions as in the beginning of the texts, he cites that they were aware of the dilemmas in studying this topic and acknowledges them as pretty much unavoidable as some history simply is. Additionally, he explains the meaning of “American” very early on which sometimes creates a decent amount of confusion.
Again another example how something new as initially labeled as an “alternate group” and received a negative stereotype just like marijuana did in Mexico, Colombia, and several other South American countries.
Citing reasons as to why it is frowned upon to be associated with rock n’ roll such as: it was a “distortion of local customs”, fear of subversion to the counterculture, and “rebellion without a cause”. The fear of subversion to the counterculture must be a constant fear of elites. It has been a theme in many texts I have read recently, elites do not want the youth to latch onto something they regard as bad or
dangerous.
Ties between South African and Latin America are present as well. “However, the music industry increasingly privileged white performers, … over more “ethnic” artists.” This quote is directly related to other texts I have encountered about the South African apartheid regime. It was a quote discusses how all employers should fire the black workers and replace them directly with white workers. In the same text, it describes the massive wage gap between whites and blacks, furthermore, the job and education gap.
Power being given to the United States is a move that has been made time and time again in Latin America. “... and thus with the history of unequal power relations between the United States and the other countries of the Americas”. This theme of unequal power being given to the United States is an ever recurring theme in our readings. All of the drug readings had a section regarding the role the US played in legislation development as well as development of police involvement.
Rockin’ Las Américans: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin America by Eric Zolov gives some very valuable insight into the type of struggle that was present throughout the history of rock n’ roll in Latin America. Rock n’roll has many parallels to other topics I have both studied in class and in other classes. It employs a cultural lens to examine the history of rock n’roll. It also answers many of the questions about rock n’ roll and its controversial life until its cultural acceptance.