Italian popular music
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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
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. Sanremo Festival
- Music of the '68 and the Modern Italian troubadours e.g. Fabrizio De André, 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. Piero Pelù
Contemporary music
Rock and pop
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Italian pop and rock has produced many stars including:
During the 1960s and 1970s, Italian popular music changed by incorporating Latin American and Anglo musical traditions, especially
Italy was one of the leading nations of the progressive rock movement of the 1970s (the others being
Beginning in the 1980s, pop grew more heterogeneous and more in line with international sounds. Italian
In the 2000s,
Electronic and dance music
- Baltimora
- Barrio Jazz Gang
- Benny Benassi
- Black Box
- East Side Beat
- Eiffel 65
- Gabry Ponte
- Gigi D'Agostino
- Giorgio Moroder
- Kano
- Koto
- Livin' Joy
- Montefiori Cocktail
- Nicola Conte
- Raf
- Scotch
Hip hop
The Italian hip hop scene began in the early 1990s with
Return to tradition: Patchanka
Following De André, 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
The most important
References
- 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.