ITALIAN MUSIC
FROM THE ’60s TO THE ’90s
Produced by: Bordino Silvia,
Cornaglia Fabio
THE ‘60s
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Around the second half of the 1960's, Flower Power arrived in Italy and young people started
listening to protest songs, and the student political movement, which was spreading across Europe,
greatly influenced several musicians, like Fabrizio De André, Giorgio Gaber, Gino Paoli and Luigi
Tenco. These singer-songwriters gradually introduced more social, political, psychological and
intellectual themes in their work. Other songwriters remained more faithful to the romantic and
emotional themes of Italian musical tradition. Extremely famous, and in later years strongly
influential for the Italian pop scene, was the songwriting duo formed by Lucio Battisti and Mogol.
LUCIO BATTISTI
Battisti (5 March 1943 – 9 September 1998) was an Italian singer and a great songwriter. He is
considered to be one of the best-known and most influential musicians and authors in Italian pop/rock
music. Battisti started his career in 1966 and from 1969 to 1994 he released 18 albums in his home
country. A significant part of his production was translated into Spanish and English. He was
renowned to be an extremely reserved artist: during his successful career he performed only a small
number of live concerts, and in the early 1980s he announced he would communicate only through his
studio albums, completely disappearing from the Italian public scene.
Lucio Battisti was not a political songwriter but despite this he certainly left his mark on the music
scene of this period and most Italians who were in their teens or older grew up listening to and loving
the songs of Battisti. He had a high pitch voice and together with Mogol’s lyrics they made an
incredible cocktail of melodic songs which were and still are short dreams and stories in which you can
very easily lose yourself in complete pleasure.
Amongst his most beautiful songs there are Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara, Emozioni, La Canzone del
sole.
FABRIZIO DE ANDRè
Fabrizio De André (1940 - 1999) was a leading Italian singer-songwriter and poet. In his works he
often told stories of marginalized and rebellious people, above all prostitutes, that were seen by De
André as an answer to the bourgeois prissiness. De Andrè is considered a poet because of the quality
of his lyrics. He was born in Genoa on 18th February 1940. His father was an anti-fascist, and
during the war the De André family had to seek refuge in a country farm in Piedmont. The family
returned to Genoa in 1945. Fabrizio studied law at the University of Genoa, but left it before
graduating. He played the violin and the guitar and started his career playing with some jazz bands.
His songs can be considered popular but their content is highly poetic and full of political, historical
and religious elements. They are so highly regarded that it’s possible to find them in school books.
His success started in the ’60 but went on till his premature death in 1999. He wrote a lot of
marvellous songs and performed triumphal concerts.
Il pescatore La Guerra di piero and Creuza de ma are just three examples of his immense production.
Fabrizio De andrè
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THE ‘70s
In the seventies, together with the political and cultural movements of the period, spreads even further the
use of song by some singer-songwriters for a political purpose and social influences musically moving from music
to the French side of the channel and overseas. The main models were Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Leonard
Cohen. The most important exponents of this period, are: Francesco Guccini, Francesco De Gregari, Antonello
Venditti, Lucio Dalla, Claudio Baglioni and Renato Zero.
FRANCESCO DE GREGORI
Francesco De Gregori has been, together with other important singers like Lucio Dalla and Antonello Venditti,
one of most important Italian song-writers. Inspired by Leonard Coen and Bob Dylan, De Gregori started to
sing the guitar in the late 60's. He came from an intellectual bourgeois family, and it was his brother, who
also plays the guitar, to help Francesco to know other musicians. In 1973 De Gregori made his first album
Alice non lo sà, but it was only in 1975 with the album Rimmel that he really made a name for himself. The
success of De Gregori lies both in his music – a mix of rock and folk – and in his lyrics which can often be
considered pure poetry. His songs are about love, social problems, actual events with reference to the recent
Italian history. One of his most successful songs is La donna cannone (The cannon woman) a song probably
based on the true story of a woman who, after working for a circus for years, decided to escape with his
lover. It’s a delicate ballad about alienation and exploitation and it is considered a masterpiece.
RENATO ZERO
Renato Zero is the stage name of Renato Fiacchini, an Italian singer-songwriter and showman.
Throughout his career, Renato Zero has been a crusader against drug abuse.
Renato Fiacchini was born in Rome on 30 September 1950. He quitted his studies early to devote himself to his
true passion - the arts - more specifically playing music and singing - though initially with little success. From
an early age, he would wear make-up and cross-dress. He replied to the criticisms he received (including the
recurring insult Sei uno zero! - "You're a "zero", you’re not worth a penny!) by taking on the pseudonym Renato
Zero.
He had several different jobs, including an appearance in an advertisement for ice-cream, worked as a dancer
in a TV show and played in two musicals and (minor roles) in two Fellini movies.
In the late 1960s Zero’s career was helped along by the glam-rock movement, from which he benefited with
his sexual ambiguity and androgynous appearance. At the same time, this led him to being accused of emulating
other celebrities like David Bowie.
It was not until 1976 that he scored his first hit. A song titled Il trapezio (The trapezium) enormously
increased his success. In the late ‘70s Zero was among the two or three most popular singers in Italy and his
song Il carrozzone (The gipsy caravan) was already regarded as one of the best Italian songs ever. He also
created a moving theatre, a sort of circus tent with a capacity of 5000 seats in which he gave shows
throughout Italy. It’s interesting to notice that on numerous occasions his fans participate in the gigs, made-up
like Zero and dressed in his typical bird-like and strass-decorated costumes. In the ‘80s Zero started to
abandon make-up and greasepaints but not his mania for grandeur. Unfortunately the late ‘80s saw the lowest
point of his career and only in 1991 his concerts restarted to be “sold out” again and still are.
Renato Zero’s great force is regarded to be having shown the normality of the diverse, convincing the public
that diversity feeds our human abilities to feel and act with love, respect, solidarity and faith.
Amongst his masterpieces we can find songs like Il carrozzone, Vecchio, and Amico.
Renato Zero
THE ‘80s
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In the ‘80s the committed songwriters of the ‘70s were partly replaced by a less political and more
irreverent kind of music. The typical Italian melody had a great success thanks to old and new artists
such as Antonello Venditti, Roberto Vecchioni, Claudio Baglioni, Franco Battiato, Zucchero Fornaciari,
Jovannotti and Eros Ramazzotti. In this period, however, some singers went on writing beautiful songs
which are still sung today, while dance music was a little more than a shooting star and left a very
little trace.
JOVANOTTI
Jovanotti is an Italian singer-songwriter and rapper. Jovanotti, whose real name is Lorenzo Cherubini,
was born in Rome on 27 September 1966. His family is from Cortona, in the Province of Arezzo,
Tuscany
From the mix of hip hop, rap and disco of his early hits, however, Jovanotti departs gradually
approaching to funk, world music and even classical arrangements and ska influences. As his musical
influences changed, so too did his lyrics, which, over time, began to increasingly address philosophical,
religious and political issues, which are more typical of the Italian “cantautore” (songwriter) tradition.
His social and political commitment increased as well. Some of his earlier work is also closer to
keyboard-heavy 1980s pop.
Most of his songs are sung in Italian; he also released a Spanish-language greatest hits album.
Jovanotti appears on several international compilations, most notably Red Hot + Rhapsody, a 1998
tribute to George Gershwin, on which he performed “I Got Rhythm”. His most famous songs are
L’Ombelico del Mondo (The navel of the world) and Serenata Rap. Jovanotti has also appeared in one
of Luciano Pavarotti’s charity concert in 1996.
ZUCCHERO FORNACIARI
Zucchero also known as “Zucchero ‘Ray’ Sugar Fornaciari” is an Italian songwriter and rock singer who
was born in ‘55 near Bologna, one of Italian music-cultural centres with Naples, Rome and Milan. His
music is largely inspired by gospel, blues and rock music, and alternates between ballads and more
rhythmic boogie-like pieces. In 1985 his single Donne (Women) became a huge hit in Italy and in
1988 the album Blue’s made Zucchero a household name in Italy and the rest of Europe. In 1989 he
released Oro incenso e birra (Gold, incense and beer), an album which can be considered as one of
Zucchero’s most successful work.
Zucchero has co-operated with lots of international stars such as Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Miles
Davis and many others and in his music it’s possible to hear a great variety of influences.
His lyrics are very interesting because they are a mix of sacred and profane, deep feelings and
transgression, sweet images of innocence and colourful sensual approaches.
Amongst his most beautiful songs are Diamante (Diamond), a ballad where he recall his childhood with
his grandmother, Diavolo in me (A devil in me), a song full of energy about sexual attraction and
Donne (Women) in which he makes a beautiful portrait of women’s world.
Jovanotti
Zucchero
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THE ‘90s
In the ‘90s the recording industry invested a great deal in dance music and we can see a number of
artists and groups that produced only disco music contaminated by house, hip hop and rap music. Once
again, many Italian artists followed their own path and produced personal music and songs which are
very difficult to group because they cannot be classified in categories. We can find melodic, pop,
rock singers according to the style in which they perform. The most representative are Giorgia, Vasco
Rossi, Laura Pausini, Ligabue and groups like Articolo 21 and Subsonica.
VASCO ROSSI
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Vasco Rossi (born on February 7, 1952), is also known as Vasco or with the nickname Il Blasco.
Doubtless Italy's one and only true rock star, Vasco Rossi has not only been the most successful
Italian singer since the 1980s, but he is also the most realistic and consistent incarnation of the
triad of sex, drugs (or alcohol), and rock & roll. Ignored -- when not hated -- by the critics but
adored by his fans, Rossi was the first Italian artist to tour the stadiums (at the end of the 1980s),
reaching the apex of a popularity that has survived uncountable trend changes and at least two full
decades. His songs, heavy riff-based rock pieces and romantic ballads, and his lyrics, very simple but
effective, made him a sort of prophet for a generation of disappointed youngsters who found in them
an escape, a door to an easier reckless life. Vita Spericolata (Reckless life) is in fact one of his most
famous hits. Other extremely famous songs are Alba chiara(Clear dawn),Cosa succede in città?
(What’s happening in town?), Siamo solo noi (It’s only us).
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ARTICOLO 31
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Articolo 31 is a popular band from Milan, melting hip hop, funk, pop and traditional Italian musical
forms. They are one of the most popular Italian rock/hip hop groups.
Its members are rapper J Ax (real name Alessandro Aleotti) and DJ Jad (Vito Luca Perrini). The
band took its name from the Irish constitutional law (Article 31) guaranteeing freedom of the press.
Articolo 31 was one of the first hip hop groups in Italy, releasing one of the first Italian hip hop
records, Strade di città (Town streets), in 1993. Soon they started to mix their rap with pop music,
obtaining great success and popularity. However, for this reason the underground hip hop scene
considered them as traitors.
With Domani smetto (Tomorrow I’ll give up), Articolo 31 left the world of hip hop and moved to rap
with many influences. In recent years, J Ax and DJ Jad have each released solo records, and in
2006, the group declared an indefinite stop.
Vasco Rossi