Soda Stereo - Legacy

Legacy

Soda Stereo is widely considered to be the “mythic” Latin American Rock Band. They were the first band to break the geographical barriers of their country of origin and the first band to view Latin America and parts of the U.S. as a unified cultural space. The result of their effort was their widespread identification with the Latin American youth that transcended countries, which had already been the case for Anglo rock, but was not the case for Latin American rock, Ibero-American rock, and Rock En Español - all variants of the same cultural-musical phenomenon.

Soda Stereo paved the way for the ascension of Latin American rock by finding a way to break the divisive "rock vs. pop" ideology that that tore through the heart of popular Latin American music. They did this by first appealing to the affluent and middle classes who listened to Anglo rock, and secondly, by appealing to the broad popular sectors of working classes who listened to “Latino” and “dance” rhythms –both classes mutually despising each other. Gustavo Cerati addressed this dilemma in 1996, when he said: “We are a pop group with a strong, absorbed, rock culture.”

In Argentina, a country with a long tradition of Rock music, which is called "rock Nacional" (national rock) and with a strong national identity, Soda Stereo signified the beginning of the internationalization of rock, that incorporated local musicians in a great rock and roll movement. This movement has forced local analysts to ask the question, "Does it make sense to keep talking about national rock?”. In many parts of Latin America, like Colombia, “Soda Stereo expressed the musicality and poise of a new generation, who sought to differentiate themselves from those who were in their thirties who listened to Dominican merengue, to begin to listen to and to sing Spanish rock”. In Chile, Soda not only marked a whole generation with their look, their lyrics, and their music but with an intense emotional relationship established by between the band and its fans, which was a decisive factor for the "de-nationalization" of the group. Not only for young people of a particular country, but as a uniform social group who shared a common languages and problems, something that rock and roll had not been achieved so far in the Spanish-speaking countries due to language barrier.

Journalist Carlos Polimeni commented in an interview, “I was on tour with them. I saw them take as if they were Anglo heroes who sang in Spanish.” Something that, I underscore, did not derail their first continental hit, Cuando pase el temblor, which was a Huayño-Carnavalito, in line with Andean rock.

Something similar occurred in Peru and Ecuador where the cultural impact of the band was considerably felt. For those countries, Soda was, “the most important act in the history of rock,” and remained in the collective memory of Latin American music. In a similar sense, this has been affirmed in Nicaragua, where “nobody doubts that Soda Stereo is a pillar in the history of Latin American rock.”

In a 1988 press conference in Venezuela, commenting on the phenomenon, Zeta Bosio stated:

We came out of Argentina and started to go to Chile, Peru, then we started to rise, and on certain countries, that we would pass through out of coincidence, we would be the first ever rock band to play there. Detractors would say that rock was something from another world and that it was not going to work…now it is a joy to see that it does work and that it has its own power.

But, the multiplier effect of Soda Stereo, more than its individual success, like the creation myth on the origin of Latin American Rock, would concentrate, above all, in Mexico. Polimeni adds: “It was Soda Stereo who woke up Mexican rock. Dozens of Mexican groups reacted: Why not do what these Argentinian groups are doing?” And that hit during the mid 80’s, which has given us the richest and most established rock of the continent.

As a matter of fact, the musical-cultural phenomenon that was expressed by Soda Stereo in Latin America exceeded the band itself and inserts itself in the deep reasoning of juvenile identity, that have made rock and roll and global cultural movement. Just as the sociocultural conditions of Latin American youth that existed in the decade of the 1980s (the fall of dictatorships, globalization, postmodernism, information societies, and the disintegration of social classes). When Soda Stereo starred in the explosion of continental rock, every country in Ibero-America formed their own “movement of new bands” as they referred to it in Venezuela.

In the manner of The Beatles and "Beatlemania", Soda Stereo was the right band at just the right time, creating an aesthetic-linguistic bridge that connected the Spanish-speaking youth with the global phenomenon of rock and roll. For this reason the term "Soda-manía", used repeatedly to describe the effect of soda on young Latin Americans, is not inappropriate.

The decisive influence of Soda Stereo Latin American rock music on the decades of 90 and early twenty-first century has been reflected in the opinion of the leading musicians of the continent:

I have been a Cerati fan all my life when he was part of Soda Stereo and before I met him I had already gone to three of his concerts. Both Gustavo and Santana have enriched me, they are my little wonders.-Shakira

Soda Stereo is one of the most emblematic bands in Latin America.-Gustavo Santaolalla.

Soda Stereo is a wonderful group. I'm very happy for . They are one of the best Latin American rock groups.-Juan Luis Guerra

El temblor was the first song of theirs that I heard, it was the first one to be heard in Colombia. I really dig . Why not, if they are alive? They are totally a legend. They have made history for all Latin American youths, and to see them together again, well, will be a great, great event.-Juanes

In 2002 the MTV Latin Awards were created, a milestone that reflected the identity and the international level reached by the Latin American music, after two decades of growth. As reviewed Latin American press, "the most memorable moment of the night was when the Legend Award was awarded to Soda Stereo, the most important and influential Latin American rock band of all time".