Today I've listened to some Lhasa de Sela's songs. She had a very beautiful voice, indeed.
Apart from this, I think this thread wouldn't be completed without mentioning some important names. At least a few acclaimed musicians, by critics and public, from both sides of the Atlantic.
For instance, except for a mention to
Me Enveneno de Azules, we haven't talked about
indie. At present, there are a lot of indie bands singing in Spanish (mainly from
Chile, Mexico and
Spain). One of the most recently successful is
Love of Lesbian (yes, that's their name, but they are guys
). Their latest hit is
Allí donde solíamos gritar ("
There Where We Used to Shout"), which stands out for its intense lyricism:
(translation
here)
"The shout always comes back,
and it will die with us,
cold and brief like a verse
written in an animal language."
I love it.
As you have seen, there is a very strong influence of British and American pop and rock, that began at the end of the 70's and the early 80's (the 80's decade is called "
the Golden Age" of Spanish-language pop). Some Argentine and Spanish bands "broke the ice" and then it started all.
Tequila (two Argentines and three Spaniards) is one of the most outstanding of those "pioneers".
Salta ("
Jump") has been already mentioned here, but they made more "top ten" songs:
Me vuelvo loco,
Matrícula de Honor,
Rock & Roll en la plaza del pueblo,
Dime que me quieres, etc. They really were a kind of "
Hispanic Rolling Stones".
Radio Futura (Spain) is another "must-listen" band from the 80's. Some of their pop-rock songs are a sort of "classics" in the Spanish-speaking world:
Escuela de calor ("
School of Heat"),
Veneno en la piel,
La negra flor and...
Annabel Lee, based on the
famous poem (I guess it's very well-known by the Americans) by Edgar Allan Poe:
[To be continued, if you like so
]