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i have a question, how is italy in the rock scene? specially indie, punk, lo-fi, i walked into a record shop in Bologna and there were many American and English artist, but i didnt see any italian artist, or people in the store. so what are the tendencies regarding rock music? thank you in advance
I manage some bands with a small booking agency as a hobby, so I may be the right person to answer. Unfortunately, there's no mainstream rock scene in Italy (let's clear it now: people like Ligabue, Vasco Rossi, Piero Pelù and Litfiba never played rock music or, in the case of Litfiba, do not play it anymore): there's some underground, but the average quality is very low and anyway there're really few bands to sing in Italian; most of them sing in English and look to foreign countries to play. Oh, and the scene is very sparse and not united at all, the bands do not help each others. Moreover, there's a very strong and unfortunately very successful cover band scene that kills everything else. Rock in general is seen only as 'the music of the devil' here and will never have mainstream success: the "Sanremo-style" music is too rooted here. And that's a pity, because in the 80's we had one of the best hardcore punk scenes in the world, with bands known worldwide like Raw Power, Declino, Negazione, 5° Braccio, Indigesti... An example to show how the rock scene works here: I know a very good stoner rock band from Savona, they're called Isaak (formerly Gandhi's Gunn), they sing in English and they publish their records through an American label. I bet they will tour Germany very soon.
It depends on your definition of what it is rock and what not. Are le luci della centrale elettrica a rock band? Are tre allegri ragazzi morti? (i'd say yes, even if they tend to explore on different genres). Il teatro degli orrori is definitely a rock band and imo they're awesome. These are just some examples. You may not like him (I'm not a fan myself apart from very few songs) but ligabue's genre is pop rock. The same can be said for vasco rossi and others. Negramaro come to mind. I could go on. A genre is not defined by being alternative or commercial, like them or not, how they dress, how they behave... a musical genre is defined by the structure of the songs/instruments used etc. Rock covers a huge variety of modern musical styles. rock'n roll, blues rock, prog rock, math rock, etc etc (even pop can often be considered a subgenre). to cut discussions wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rock_genres Only 80 yo or older may consider rock as "the music of the devil". Actually there is widespread appreciation for the genre.
thank you so much ive always had this curiosity, specially since i read get in the van by henry rollins and he talked about how he loved Italy and how people in the scene were so nice to them, what a shame :/ indigesti was an amazing band, its odd that after a punk scene there it just died and didn't evolve like it did elsewhere, what happened exactly ?
My opinion may be influenced by my personal tastes , you're right, but the bands you talk about started as rock band but have switched to pop. I saw Il Teatro degli Orrori and Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti multiple times and I can't see them as rock band, maybe pop with some rock influences, but that's it. I think that Pierpaolo Capovilla's other band (One Dimensionl Man) is much more rock than Il Teatro. Anyway LosYunai asked for "indie, punk, lo-fi", so... I know, really... but I wouldn't take wiki as a reference. maybe in America, in Italy is still like that: most of young people prefer to listen to Gigi D'Alessio instead of a rock band, and consider "rock" a negative genre... we still have news reports about the rock bands that draws the youngster to the devil, really.
The "new generation" wasn't interested in taking the hc punk scene to the "next step". Very few bands survived the 80s: Raw Power never stop playing and they are more successful in the US than in Italy (there were some photos showing a recent concert in New Orleans that was very crowded and with Phil Anselmo from Pantera attending in the first row... here they play in front of 50 people if they headline); Strange Corner was formed in 1993 with some members from historical bands like I Deny, but never had much success and split up this year (the singer emigrated to Illinois). Generally the 90s were dominated by punk rock bands a-la Rancid like Derozer, Punkreas, Pornoriviste, Cetomedio, Vampirestri and the likes, with more catchy, but mainly unoriginal songs. In the recent years some bands from the 80s made a comeback (Peggio Punx, Indigesti, Impact, Vanexa, Sabotage...): not bad, but I'd prefer to see new bands have some success.
hey man thanks alot again ive asked this question in different places, who know i would find it in bigsoccer.. but atleast it sounds like there is a scene a weak one but its something. some places really have no scene at all, im guessing most of the scene is in the north of italy? or am i wrong?
But this time wiki is perfectly spot on. rock is an ocean of subgenres, ranging from pop-rock to noise metal. all of them are rock. now if you talk specifically about punk you may be right... and you're obviously the expert here. I did understand the question and your answer, I wanted to bring accuracy to your (you two) dialogue. p.s. Il teatro's music is rock... and often quite heavy too. carrarmatorock... compagna teresa etc. It's capovilla vocals in that project who are peculiar, you could say that often it's more theater than singing. They put out some more pop rock oriented songs recently though. p.p.s. I listen to anything music. I don't put limits on the genres I may like... and infact I like a huge variety of genres and artists. commercial or alternative is not an issue, only my tastes rule. well, maybe liscio and, since you mentioned it, also neomelodic neapolitan music... the singing style, melodies, harmonies are so no no for me. lol. I don't want to have a preemptive negative attitude but... I am still waiting for something out of that style that makes me think "ah, that's good" in a non 'unvoluntary comedy' fashion. I don't think there is really that great a difference worlwide. Only the names change. Pop has a huge audience, punk not so much. gangnam style rules. young people nowadays tend to be ignorant and narrow minded on many things, music included.
You're right: mainly for logistical and geographical reasons. It's difficult to see foreign bands touring southern Italy: they usually use northern Italy as a "passage", some bands deviate a bit and push themselves to Rome (but it's a really terrible city to play in...). This situation also influenced the local scene. Let's stay with the hc punk example: most of the main bands were based in Piedmont (5° Braccio, Negazione, Declino, Indigesti, Jester Beast, Peggio Punx, plus Kina in Aosta Valley), Liguria (Stinky Rats, Klasse Kriminale), some in Tuscany (like Nerorgasmo, Contr-Azione, CCM (or Cheetah Chrome Mother********ers)), Lombardy (Wretched, Rappresaglia), Emilia-Romagna (Raw Power, Impact), while the Tri-Veneto region was a bit late (I Deny, Strange Corner in the early 90s, Warfare?, Upset Noise). The only band from southern Italy that made an impact that I can think of are PSA (Punk Sound Against) from Naples (one of the few to do an American tour, by the way... the CD that compiled all of their discography also contains a quite comical interview were the singer ask for help to come back to Italy ) The problem nowadays is that the "rock scene" is too oriented to foreign countries: bands want to go out from Italy (Germany is the Holy Grail), and people move their asses mainly to see foreign bands (let alone the "not-so-rock" Italian rockstars ) or cover bands (we have 5 AC/DC cover bands only here around Vicenza... it's depressing). I agree that rock is bigger than the sea, but I just question that the bands you mentioned are (still) rock. In my opinion Il Teatro is Capovilla's attempt to bring One Dimensional Man's music in a pop direction, keeping the experimental and more rock side of their music with the original band. That's my impression about that. Anyway, I think you agree that a rock band that want to be comercially successful have to move in a pop direction... like Litfiba, Negrita, Finley, Lost, the Bastards Sons of Dionisio, Afterhours... Hmm... I also try to be open-minded, but my tastes take me to places like punk rock, hardcore punk, thrash metal, death metal, crust, grind and the likes, and, strange enough, stoner and doom metal. The most "commercial" band I listen to regularly are Atari Teenage Riot, I think. anyway pop is different in America than in Italy... here the pop(ular) music genres are "musica leggera" and/or "musica napoletana", in the US is country... or at least that's how I percieve it. You also have to think that we host Vatican City here... I don't care a lot to what other people think, but walk around the city with an Iron Maiden t-shirt could bring you some bad looks or even religious people that asks you if you're atheist or even satanist (it happened to me... but I may be wearing a Bad Religion hoodie, actually )
Pop is more Lady Gaga, Justin Biebler etc. Country is a different genre. Anyway there's great pop and great country music around in the world. But also awful one. Si vabbé, meno male che non ti hanno proposto l'esorcismo... non è che ti hanno pure inseguito spruzzandoti acquasanta? i bacchettoni esistono, ovvio. Ed esiste anche la diffusa abitudine di farsi i cazzi degli altri suggerendo in parole e/o gesti come ci si dovrebbe vestire. C'è un po' troppa ossessione nel seguire certi canoni dell'abbigliamento qui da noi. Molto più che altrove e non credo sia un bene. Limita la creatività e in definitiva l'espressione di sé stessi. La scelta giusta è la tua: fottersene in allegria.
Il barbuto ha il negozio di dischi a GE con la fidanzata, ora ha cambiato sede ed è molto che non ci passo ma quando era in Piccapietra ci ho fatto il pieno di dischi. The longer the beard etc. è un ottimo disco.
Not nearly as good as the 1990s in terms of average quality (hipsterism really took its toll) but CapPixel is being a little too harsh. Alternative rock still enjoys decent following (in terms of show attendance, sales have hit rock bottom due to illegal downloading), especially among urban youth. Some decent 'alt rock' records that came out in the past decade or so: Ardecore - Ardecore (rock renditions of traditional Roman 'malavita' songs) Bachi Da Pietra - Non io (classic alt-rock) Franco Battiato - Ferro battuto Baustelle - La malavita (baroque pop-rock) Calibro 35 - Calibro 35 (tribute to 'poliziottesco' soundtracks) Cesare Basile - Gran calavera elettrica (Sicilian singer-songwriter) Fine Before You Came - Sfortuna (emo-core, sort of) Fuzz Orchestra - Comunicato n° 2 (heavy) Giardini di Mirò - Rise and fall of academic drifiting (post-rock) Massimo Volume - Aspettando i barbari (post-rock, spoken word...not as good as their 1990s masterpieces 'Lungo i bordi' and 'Da qui' but still perfectly passable) Offlaga Disco Pax - Gioco di società (electronic, spoken word...might be a little hard to truly grasp for non-Italian speakers) PGR - Ultime notizie di cronaca (last proper work of one of the most talented authors of the Italian alt rock scene, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti...some very moving songs IMO) Zu - Carboniferous (punk-jazz, truly great record) As far as more conventional 'Pitchfork-style' indie-rock and singing-songwriting (which I personally loathe) is concerned, the 'Rockit' website offers an excellent insight. Scene is pretty active. Some of the most popular acts are Teatro degli Orrori, Luci della Centrale Elettrica (I actually like his first record), I Cani , Amari, Zen Circus, Marta Sui Tubi, Dente, Paolo Benvegnù, Ministri.