The music
I love music. In my free time I often listen to some music.
Written by: Giulia Rosso (free11@itcgbianchi.it)
My favourite singers are Cesare Cremonini, Eros Ramazzotti and Ligabue.
Music is something special for me. It remember me particular moments of my life.
In those last years the information has had great improvements;
now I can archive hundreds of songs in my mp3 player and I could listen them when and where I want.
I would divide Italian popular music into three different categories:
Melodic music
Italian music has seen many changes over the past forty years.
In the 60s, my mother still remembers songs that characterized her youth.
This was the period when young star like Mina, Rita Pavone, Adriano Celentano, and Gianni Morandi first appeared.
Italian music continued in the 70s along several tracks.
One melodic singer Lucio Battisti could be compared in popularity to the Beatles.
Most Italians between the age of 15 and 50 know and are able to sing many of his songs.
The texts were often romantic and non-political.
In fact, after the middle of the 70s, when young Italian began to expect music to be related with politics,
he lost some of his audience and he only re-acquires fans again in the 80s and 90s continuing through today.
Young Italians still play Battisti’s songs and I consider his albums 'the top' in Italian music.
Italian Rock
In the 70s a melodic style introduced a new style of music.
Woodstock with Jimmie Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many others changed the story of music forever in England and the United States.
Italian rock singers and singer-songwriters of the 70s and 80s include for example PMF (Premiata Forneria Marconi) and I Nomadi.
They were followed more recently by Vasco Rossi, Ligabue and Zucchero.
At the end of 2004, Vasco Rossi gave a free concert with an unheard-of audience - for an Italian singer - of 300,000 spectators that happily stood under the rain.
His crowd was surpassed only by the free concert that Simon and Garfunckel gave in front of the Colossem in Rome in summer 2004 where crowds reached 500,000.
Singer-Songwriters (usually politically influenced)
The first of the singer-songwriters is Fabrizio De Andre'.We could compare him with Bob Dylan.
De Andre' wrote wonderful songs like "La canzone di Marinella" and "La Guerra di Piero" (an anti-war song).
Other originals current Italian Singer-songwriter are Antonello Venditti,the poet and ballad singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori
and the political singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini.
Lucio Dalla from Bologna began his career as a player in a jazz band and proceeded to develop his own style which now includes even theatre musical scores.
There has also been a revival of vocal romantic singing that reached its height with stars such as Pavarotti and Boccelli,
following the outstanding worldwide success of the song Caruso, by Lucio Dalla.