Rolinga, rollinga, or "stones" are names of an Argentine subculture comprising fans of the Rolling Stones and Argentine bands influenced by the aforementioned group. The musical genre associated with such bands is known as "rock rolinga" and also "Rock Chabón" (which is roughly translatable as "dude rock"). The term "stone" in Argentina is also used to refer to any fan of the Rolling Stones, regardless of whether they belong to this particular subculture or not.
History
Origins and heyday
In the 1970s, Argentine fans of the Rolling Stones in Buenos Aires began to call themselves "stones" and tried to emulate the style of clothing worn by the English band. Ratones Paranoicos, who played a style similar to the Rolling Stones, launched the genre that became known as "rock rolinga" in the 1980s.
The rolinga subculture flourished starting in the 1990s, after the Rolling Stones first played in Argentina, in 1995, during the Voodoo Lounge Tour. A number of rolinga bands emerged at this time, including Los Piojos, Viejas Locas, La 25, Los Gardelitos, Jóvenes Pordioseros, Los Guasones, and Callejeros. Their lyrics slowly departed from the classic topics of rock and roll music and focused instead on localism and the customs of poor people—but not to the point of talking about idealistic struggles or purported revolutions.
Other bands whose music has been classified under the rolinga moniker include Riff, Memphis la Blusera or Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, Bersuit Vergarabat, La Renga, Divididos, Los Piojos, and Las Pelotas.
Decline
During the early- to mid-2000s, the rolinga urban tribe started to lose popularity with the advent of the cumbia villera genre and the subculture associated with it. The subculture's decline was rather slow, until it was accelerated by the República Cromañón nightclub fire, which took place during a Callejeros concert. Most of the movement's leading bands broke up or changed style, and new musical genres became prominent. Political reactions to the fire included increased safety controls at nightclubs in Buenos Aires, which made the concerts of small bands very expensive. The subculture remained in the suburbs of the Gran Buenos Aires urban area, especially the western zone, which the Buenos Aires Province administers, and where the same controls as in the city are not enforced.
References
- ^ "Ser rolinga hoy: historia de una pasión" [Being rolinga today: history of a passion]. Rolling Stone (in Spanish). 10 May 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- "Ser stone, un sentimiento auténticamente argentino" [Being stone, an authentically Argentine feeling] (in Spanish). Página 12. 26 March 1998. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- ^ "Historias de la Argentina rollinga" [Stories of the rollinga Argentina] (in Spanish). La Nación. 5 February 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- Pierri 2012, p. 7.
- "Chetos go home" [Snobs go home] (in Spanish). Página 12. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- Hernández, p. 278
- "30 años de rock en democracia" [30 years of rock in democracy] (in Spanish). Revista 2010. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ""Capítulo 5: La Biblia y otras yerbas", lahistoriadelrock.com.ar" (in Spanish).
- "Hoy: oeste alternativo" [Today: alternative west] (in Spanish). Clarín. 26 March 1999. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- "Cómo vino la mano" [How the matter happened] (in Spanish). Página 12. 13 February 2005. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- Mario Yannoulas (21 August 2008). "Like a rolinga stone" (in Spanish). Página 12. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
Bibliography
- Hernandez, Deborah Pacini (2004). Rockin' Las Américas. United States: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-4226-7. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- Pierri, Diego (2012). República Stone: Diario de viaje con los Rolling Stones por el mundo [Stone Republic: Travel diary with the Rolling Stones around the world] (in Spanish). Argentina: Music Brokers Argentina. ISBN 978-987-98873-8-7. Retrieved 16 December 2024.