ITALY

Changes in music in the last decades

After the 2° world war, there was a marked, though temporary, wish for

renovation in music. During the reconstruction period, Italian culture was

deeply influenced by the American liberators which brought, in the music field, to the massive use of jazz (swing most of all) and boogie-woogie. After the end of

Fascism and WITH freedom from the German occupation, records could finally

be sold and found in shops, and new bands and radio programmes started spreading the afro-american rhythms all over Italy.

At the beginning of 1951, the RCA record company launched long

playing records on the market which started spreading pop music which became extremely popular in the 1960s. In may 1955, coming from

Chicago, the first juke-box appeared on the italian scene.

Renovation,however, went hand in hand with the contrasting wish of

going back to tradition (partly due to cultural limits), of listening to songs dealing with light, joyous themes.

In such a context, even singers adapted to the general conformism, using a disciplined way of singing,

wearing serious, elegant clothes and leading a blameless life.

Regional songs found a renovated success: famous are Neapolitan songs such as “Dove

sta Zazà” (1944) or “Simmo ‘e Napule, paisà” (1944) or “Munasterio ‘e Santa Chiara”

(1945), or the Roman “Vecchia Roma” (1947), brought to success by Claudio Villa, one of the

greatest singers of the time or “Romagna mia” (1955), first of a long series of successful songs that characterize the popular dancing

style from our region called “liscio”.

At the same time, many rethoric romantic songs, using a language that was quite far from the simple dialect used by most of the italian people became very famous. Among the singers of the time we can remember: Oscar Carboni, with his “Serenata celeste” (1947) and “Cantando con le lacrime agli

occhi” (1947); Achille Togliani (1924-95), with his “La signora di trent’anni fa” (1949);

Giorgio Consolini; Luciano Tajoli; and most of all Nilla Pizzi (“Grazie dei fior”, “Vola

Colomba”, “Papaveri e papere”) and Claudio Villa.

With the economic growth of the 1960s, the wish to change and

break with tradition permeated all aspects of life in italy, music

included. The new phylosophy of life became “live and enjoy

yourself!” Young people became the protagonists of the time and broke with all the previous types

of music preferring the new music coming from abroad, the music

that suggested freedom, the music of the Beatles and the rolling stones, and of italian singers that were considered innovative such as adriano

celentano or little tony or bobby solo.

The end of the 1960s and all the 1970s were characterized by strong political contrasts in italy which influenced even the lirics of many songs that were politically involved and dealt

with social themes, individual freedom, working conditions. It is the period of the many pop and rock concerts and of the

independent radios, it is the age of the most famous italian singer-songwriters such as lucio battisti, riccardo cocciante, angelo branduardi, claudio baglioni, Francesco guccini, lucio dalla, pierangelo bertoli,

francesco de gregori.

In the 1980s there was a complete change in italian music which more and more became a “satellite” of international pop and electronic music; at the same time italian popular songs were almost removed. The teen idols of the

time were singers like michael Jackson, prince or peter gabriel.

The process of contamination went on in the 1990s. three of the most appreciated rock

singers that started their career in this period and still have plenty of fans among both

teenagers and less young people today, were born in our area, between modena, bologna

and reggio emilia.

Vasco rossi zucchero ligabue

“Albachiara”“Siamo solo Noi”“Vado al massimo”“Va bene va bene così” “Vita Spericolata”

“Con le mani”“Diavolo in me”“Overdose d’amore” “Diamante”“Senza una Donna”

“Certe Notti”“Una vita da mediano”“Balliamo sul mondo” “Non è tempo per noi”“Urlando contro il cielo”

ITALY

Changes in music in the last decades