2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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‛.
5. 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.
6. 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
7. 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.
8. 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
9. Vasco rossi zucchero ligabue
“Albachiara” “Con le mani” “Certe Notti”
“Siamo solo Noi” “Diavolo in me” “Una vita da mediano”
“Vado al massimo” “Overdose d’amore” “Balliamo sul mondo”
“Va bene va bene così” “Diamante” “Non è tempo per noi”
“Vita Spericolata” “Senza una Donna” “Urlando contro il cielo”
