Short historical survey of popular music performers in Italy from about 1930 yo the present.
The expression
Italian popular music
refers to the
musical
output which is not usually considered academic or
Classical music
but rather has its roots in the popular
traditions
, and it may be defined in two ways: it can either be defined in terms of the current geographical location of the
Italian Republic
with the exceptions of the Germanic
South Tyrol
and the eastern portion of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
; alternatively, it can be defined as the music produced by all those people who consider themselves as
Italians
and openly or implicitly refer to this belief. Both these two definitions are very loose: due to the complex
political history
of the
Italian Peninsula
and the different independent political states, cultural and linguistic traditions which sprang within them, it is rather difficult to define what may be considered to be truly
Italian
. Since before the formation of a unified educational system and the spread of information through the radio and the press during the 1920s, all the different cultural and linguistic groups within the country were independent of one another, and a unified Italian country was still only a political or ideological concept far from the daily life.
The Fascist period: Affirmation of a national Italian culture
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Music and the artistic production of this period reflected the need of the political class to affirm its ideological statement of a united and strong Italian identity on both the political as well as cultural basis.
Regional languages
and independent cultural inheritances began to be slowly eradicated through the school system and the advent of the
mass media
which, at the time, were entirely controlled by the Italian government. The slow process of the industrialization which begun during the fascist period had strong effects on the lower classes; it helped in forming the contemporary Italian society, in particular in the economical separation between the north and the south, which is reflected in the different references to the traditional background in the contemporary popular music. Emigration contributed to the exportation of the Italian musical background to other countries such as Argentina, Australia, and the United States.
1948 to the late 1980s: Slow evolution to new forms
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During the second half of the twentieth century, Italian popular music has seen a strong shift as a result of the influences foreign music had on the Italian musicians brought by the technological advances such as television, tapes vinyl. In particular, the protests of 1968 helped to form a new group of musicians in contrast with the stereotypes of the
musica leggera
(light music) and opened to new musical forms.
- Foundation of
musica leggera
during the fifties and early sixties, e.g.
Domenico Modugno
,
Adriano Celentano
,
Mina
,
Mia Martini
,
Gino Paoli
,
Sanremo Festival
- Music of the '68 and the Modern Italian troubadours e.g.
Fabrizio De Andre
,
Francesco Guccini
,
Francesco De Gregori
,
Giorgio Gaber
- Opposition with the traditional
musica leggera
, e.g. Celentano, Mina,
Toto Cutugno
,
Gianni Morandi
- New direction of the late 1970s, e.g.
progressive rock
,
Franco Battiato
,
Le Orme
,
Lucio Dalla
- Rock leggero
of the 1980s and 1990s, e.g.
Vasco Rossi
,
Piero Pelu
Contemporary music
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Rock and pop
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]
Italian pop and rock has produced many stars including:
Laura Pausini
,
Eros Ramazzotti
,
Mango
,
Max Pezzali
,
Biagio Antonacci
,
Antonello Venditti
,
Lucio Dalla
,
Lara Fabian
,
Tiziano Ferro
,
Anna Tatangelo
, partially
Salvatore Adamo
and
Pooh
,
Adriano Celentano
,
Mina
,
Andrea Bocelli
and
Elisa
. Additionally, a popular singer is
Viola Valentino
. The modern style of
pop music
tends toward sentimental ballads with a
crooning
vocal style, though it previously had a blend of Mediterranean folk rhythms fused with pop forms. These folkier pop artists included
Lucio Battisti
,
Vasco Rossi
and
Pino Daniele
. Modern and young emerging artists falling within this genre who have acquired public success for their voices include
Alessandra Amoroso
,
Malika Ayane
,
Emma
,
Arisa
and
Noemi
to name a few.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Italian popular music changed by incorporating Latin American and Anglo musical traditions, especially
Brazilian
bossa nova
, American and British
rock and roll
and even
jazz
. The same period saw diversification in the
cinema of Italy
, and
Cinecitta
films included complex scores by composers including
Ennio Morricone
,
Armando Trovaioli
,
Piero Piccioni
and
Piero Umiliani
. This film music remained popular in the 1970s, and then underwent a revival in the 1990s.
Italy was one of the leading nations of the progressive rock movement of the 1970s (the others being
Germany
and the
United Kingdom
), and its progressive scene was big, united and lively. The main Italian style of progressive rock was
symphonic rock
mixed with Italian
folk music
influences, e.g.
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
,
Le Orme
,
Premiata Forneria Marconi
,
Pooh
,
Il Balletto di Bronzo
. There were also some
experimental rock
bands around, such as
Area
. Progressive rock concerts were usually political events with an energetic atmosphere: Area's songs had mainly
left-wing
political lyrics.
Beginning in the 1980s, pop grew more heterogeneous and more in line with international sounds. Italian
house music
spawned
Black Box
, whose first single "
Ride on Time
" was an international hit, making the Top 10 in many countries and no 1 in the UK, becoming the UK's best-selling single of 1989.
Zucchero
is a leading Italian rock musician along with
Luciano Ligabue
and
Vasco Rossi
, whilst
Jovanotti
is a widely popular singer mixing elements of
dance music
with Italian popular music and
rap
. Other prominent rock bands include
Litfiba
.
In the 2000s,
dance music
group
DB Boulevard
with vocalist
Moony
, charted at number 3 on the
UK Singles Chart
in 2001, with their song "
Point of View
".
[1]
The video accompanying the song featured a computer-animated cardboard woman driving a cardboard car through a cardboard city. The song earned DB Boulevard the distinction of being the first Italian music group to be nominated at the
MTV
Europe Music Awards.
Electronic and dance music
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Techno
,
trance
, and
electronica
are all popular forms of electronic dance music in Italy. The country is home to genres such as
Italodance
,
Italo house
and
Italo disco
, and the Swiss-born but Italy-raised
Robert Miles
was one of the seminal artists of the
dream trance
genre.
Hip hop
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The Italian hip hop scene began in the early 1990s with
Articolo 31
from
Milan
. Their style was mainly influenced by the
East Coast rap
. Other early rap groups are typically politically oriented acts like
99 Posse
(who later became influenced by British
trip hop
). More recent artists of the genre include
Fabri Fibra
and
Club Dogo
.
Return to tradition: Patchanka
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Following De Andre, many artists are rediscovering the forms of traditional music abandoned since the fascist period as a sort of traditional revival, including
Tazenda
and
Teresa De Sio
. There are bands in Italy that play patchanka music, characterized by a mixture of traditional music, punk, reggae, rock, and political lyrics.
Modena City Ramblers
are one of the more popular bands; they mix Irish, Italian, punk, reggae and many other forms of music. Other bands include
Casa del Vento
,
Mau Mau
,
Banda Bassotti
and
Talco
.
Jazz
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The most important
jazz
scenes are in
Rome
and
Milan
, however many Italian jazz musicians are resident in
Paris
. Italian instrumentalists include: saxophonists
Stefano di Battista
and
Francesco Cafiso
, pianists
Danilo Rea
and
Stefano Bollani
, trumpet players
Paolo Fresu
and
Enrico Rava
.
Palermo
also has a lively jazz scene, including
Enzo Rao
, who have added native
Sicilian
influences to
American
jazz.
References
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]
- ^
Roberts, David (2006).
British Hit Singles & Albums
(19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 132.
ISBN
1-904994-10-5
.
- Marcello Sorce Keller, "American Influences in Italian Popular Music between the Two World Wars", Orbis Musicae, no. 11, 1993?94, pp. 124? 136.
- Marcello Sorce Keller, "Popular Music in the Mediterranean: Some Remarks Concerning Forms of Culture Contact", Revista de Musicologia, XVI(1993), no. 4, pp. 1? 7.
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Stylistic origins
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Styles
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Regional variants
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The Americas
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Asia
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Europe
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Related topics
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Popular music in Europe
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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