Psychedelia and rebelliousness in times of dictatorship: Argentinian rockumentaries (1973-1983)

Abstract

Over the last ten years, we have witnessed a veritable explosion of the production of documentaries about music (see Boffard 2014; Deutsch 2014). This cinematic momentum seems to confirm Thomas F. Cohen’s suggestion that “cinema may provide valuable information about the physical dynamics of musical performance” (2012, 11). In particular, rock music and documentary film have formed a somewhat controversial duet, characterized by occasional tensions and crises. Rockumentaries, the product of this union, have given high visibility to rock bands and brought a large number of spectators to the theaters to watch their performances on film. The popularity of rockumentaries in Argentina would be non-existent, were it not for the rebelliousness of the music genre; rock music was used sonically and poetically to express opposition to the repression of the dictatorship. Between 1971 and 1986, there were numerous major political events in Argentina: the return of Juan Domingo Perón from his eighteen-year exile after having been overthrown by the coup in 1955, the appearance of guerrilla groups, as well as paramilitaries from the extreme right; the military coup of 1976, which established the bloodiest dictatorship in South America; and the fall of it in 1983, marking an end of the dictatorship cycle and the beginning of the democratic transition.