Berklee College of Music

Revival of a Sound

Analysis, Production, and Innovation of

by

Roberto Hermosillo

Candidate to Master of Music in Contemporary Performance

July 3, 2015

Valencia, Spain

Contents

Introduction…………………………………………….………………………..…1

Overview………………………………………………...…………………………2

Brief History of Latin Rock……………………………..………………………….3

The Analysis Process……………………………………………………………….5

The Results……………………………………………………..…………………11

Production……………………………………………………………..…………..13

Focus Group…………………………………………………………..…………..15

Conclusion……………………………………………………………..………….18

Follow-ups…………………………………………………………..…………….19

Bibliography……………………………………………………………..………..21

Hermosillo 1

Introduction

Latin Rock? Why?

Having grown up in Northern I was fortunate enough to be in the midst of two great cultural currents. From the north, I received all the great , , Pop, and

Hip-Hop, which were being heard during the 90’s. On the other hand, I heard lots of Folk, Latin, and popular music that was coming from the South of the border. It was more than natural for me to become so much in love with a musical style that mixes the two currents that surrounded me while growing up.

While I was still young, my ears were introduced to the sounds of great bands like Maná,

Caifanes, and Los . This music was everything I was: a combination of Rock and

Latin American rhythms. The beautiful romantic lyrics and folkloric elements that resembled the music of my parents and grandparents were combined with overdriven guitars and heavy drum beats. It was simply beautiful. From an early age I became fond of this kind of music. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a period of time where it was extremely popular both in Latin

America and Spain. So, when the question of writing a thesis came about, there was no question that Latin Rock had to be part of it.

This is, then, the fruit of months of work towards understanding, learning, and innovating a style of music that I hold very close to my heart. In the next few pages I explain how I followed a method to learn how to write, produce, and innovate Latin Rock. This method could also be used to absorb and learn the same skills in any musical style if adapted to it. However, this is oriented to one of my favorite types of music, and I believe that I successfully discovered a formula to create Latin Rock songs.

Enjoy.

Hermosillo 2

Overview

My intent with this thesis project was to enhance certain musical skills through the study of this style of music. I mainly wanted to improve my songwriting and production skills. So, with the help of one of my advisors, Gael Hedding, I put together a method to accomplish such goals.

The idea was that if musicians learn to improvise by listening, analyzing, and transcribing the solos of their heroes, I could do the same for songwriting and production. So, the process would begin with analyzing a big portion of the main songs of Latin Rock. After doing a deep analysis of production, emotion, harmony, and lyrics, I should find a formula that I could use to write music in that style.

The next part of the method would consist of writing songs using that formula, and arranging them in three different versions. The first version would be done in the style of the

Golden Age of Latin Rock, the next one in New Latin Rock, and the last one would be a personal version. The personal version would be an innovation within the style. Then, with a focus group

I would determine which of those versions is more likely to be successful.

However, before we get in the specifics of this method, I must specify what I mean by

“Latin Rock.” In order to do this let’s look at the roots of this musical style.

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Brief History of Latin Rock.

Latin Rock, Rock en español or , was a current of music that started in the 60’s in . The first cases of rock musicians come from Mexico and

Cuba. Songs like “La Plaga” and “Popotitos” by Los Teen Tops from Mexico gained great popularity in Latin America, but they were simply Spanish-language versions of American tunes (Mora 2013). During the same decade, in , bands like Los Gatos and

Almendra became extremely popular. This was the beginning of it.

During the 70’s, in Latin America became a sign of rebellion. It was especially difficult for rock artists in Argentina who were going through a military dictatorship.

Bands like Sui Géneris and Serú Girán were still very popular in their country. In Mexico,

Argentina, and rock bands were banned at this time. This would not stop their popularity, nonetheless (Hernandez 2004). During this time, the sounds of rock bands in Latin

America and Spain were still highly imitative of the bands from England and the .

This was to change; nonetheless, during the next two decades.

The 80’s and 90’s brought new blood to the scene, and globalized the sounds of Latin

Rock. Bands like and Fito Páez in Argentina, Maná, Café Tacvba, and in

Mexico, and Heroes del Silencio in Spain became extremely popular throughout the Spanish- speaking world. A clear example of that is the Mexican Molotov, which sold over one million records globally (Pareles 2000). It is then easy to see that during this period of time Latin

Rock bands became extremely popular.

In the late 90’s and 2000’s the scene changed again. A new revolution of alternative bands like Los Fabulosos Cadilacs, Los Babasonicos, and Café Tacvba , brought a sound that was closer to Latin American music than the previous period. All of these bands sounded much

Hermosillo 4 like a very strong mixture of folkloric and Rock. The popularity of these bands was huge at the time, and Latin Rock was the leading musical style of this generation. This was then a true moment of authenticity in the Latin Rock scene. The sounds were finally unique to Latin America, and not just a mere imitation of what was going on in England and the United

States (Lechner 2006).

Unfortunately, in the past 10 years or so, the genre has become less popular than the previous decades. While there are still bands that are playing internationally like Zoé and Maná, the genre is not as popular as it used to be. However, there’s still an audience for it, especially for the big numbers like Maná, , Café Tacvba, and Caifanes. This is the current state of the genre.

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Analysis Process

The analysis I realized for this project was divided in periods of time: Golden Age of

Latin Rock and New Latin Rock. For my research I have assigned the name of Golden Age of

Latin Rock for the period of the mid 80s to the 90s because this was when it became extremely popular. In this period, the style was internationalized, and a market opened for both Spain and all of Latin America. The biggest artists of this period, like Maná, Heroes del Silencio, and Soda

Stereo had a very particular sound. They all had standard rock beats in the drums, overdriven guitar riffs (but not too distorted), a mild use of pads, romantic and freedom-instigating lyrics, standard rock bass lines, and simple triadic harmonies.

The second period would be the rock in Spanish language created after the year 2000.

The aesthetics in this period of the style differ a little from the previous one. The style became closer to . It was, in general, slower than the previous period, it used more tensions in the harmonies, it incorporated a greater use of pads and other electronic elements, and it usually had a more dramatic chorus.

The analysis, then, started with an in-depth analysis of 30 songs of the Golden Age of

Latin Rock. For weeks, I actively listened many times to a selection of the most representative songs from that period of time. The list was the following:

Title Artist En El Muelle de San Blas Maná Rayando el sol Maná Clavado en un Bar Maná De Música ligera Soda Stereo La flaca Jarabe de Palo Entre dos Tierras Héroes del Silencio La Chispa Adecuada Héroes del Silencio Matador Gimme tha Power Molotov

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Eres Café Tacvba Falaz Afuera Caifanes Ingrata Café Tacvba Eres Café Tacvba Triste Canción El Tri El Duelo La Ley La celula que explota Caifanes La guitarra Los Auténticos Pachuco La Mariposa Tecknicolor Fito Páez Lamento Boliviano Los Enanitos Verdes La Muralla Verde Los Enanitos Verdes Cuando Seas Grande Miguel Mateos No Dejes que… Caifanes En Algun Lugar Duncan Dhu Devuelveme a mi Chica Los Hombres G Baracunatana Aterciopelados Salir Extremoduro Me Vale Maná EL Son del Dolor La Cuca

I then created an emotional timeline for each of them while also making notes on the production of the songs. The emotional time contained important information such as the amounts of emotional peaks that each song had, the location of the climax, the dynamic movement in each piece, the form of the song, the number of bars for each section, the elapsed time, the instrumentation, as well as the key, tempo, and harmonic areas for main sections. Here is an example of an emotional time created for this project:

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“Clavado en un Bar” By Maná Sueños Liquidos, 1997 Climax

Emotion

Dynamics

Form INT V1 PC1 C1 INT1 V2 PC2 C2 BRD S BK V3 C3 OUT END

Elapsed Time 0:00 0:12 0:38 0:58 1:24 1:30 1:56 2:16 2:56 3:20 3:46 4:00 4:25 4:51 5:10

Bars 8 16 12 16 4 16 12 24 16 16 8 16 16 9

Arr. gtr riff clean gtrs dist gtr dst gtr gtr riff ov. gtr dis gtr dis gtr pads dis gtrs cln gtrs vox vox main riff drms bass ov gtr ov. gtr h.h. clean gtr ov. gtr ov. gtr gtrs bss bss bss gtrs gtrs bass drms bss bsss bss bass bss bss bss drm drms gtrs drms bss dist gtr minor perc drm drms drms drms drm drm drms min perc drms e. org e. org vox e. org e. organ d. gtr e. org e. org e. or vox bck vox drms vox vox vox cln gtr vox vox

Groove Rock Reggea Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock doubble time Rock Reggea Reggea Rock Rock

Chart (1997) Peak Position Tempo: 122 BPM Key: B minor Popularity:

US Billboard Hot Latin Tracks 12

US Billboard Airplay 5

US Billboard Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay 5

Very useful information came from these emotional timelines. The harmonic analysis was then done by looking at the main areas of the song such as Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, and

Bridge. The harmonic areas of these sections where included as part of the data.

As far as the lyrical analysis goes, I did it by an exercise proposed to me by Livingston

Taylor in a Masterclass. Such exercise consists on reciting the lyrics of a song in order to absorb the specific type of phrasings and language used by such writers. It was also quite helpful to have grown up with these songs since I was already familiar with the writing style. Playing through the songs also helped for the absorption of the style. Also, the topic of the song was taken into account for the analysis.

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Once I had all of this information the challenge was to put all of the data in one place so that I could then find the formula for writing songs in Golden Age of Latin Rock style. The way I did this was by placing it in an Excel spreadsheet and then finding an average of the pieces of data that were entered. For instance, I found the average length of song in this style by putting all of the lengths of the songs used here in an average calculator. The result was the average length.

I have included the spreadsheet for all of these songs:

Hermosillo 9

The main areas that comprise a song were included in the spreadsheet. Much of the information came, of course, from the emotional timeline. Some rounding up was done at the end, but the main formula for a Golden Age of Latin Rock song was found. This was even true for the key of the song. In this case I found an average for the amount of sharps or flats that were in the used keys.

The exact same process was done for the 15 songs in from the New Latin Rock songs. I listened to them, wrote out the emotional timelines, and put the data in a spreadsheet like the ones showed above. At the end I found the average. This was the formula for writing and producing New Latin Rock songs. The difference between those two was also analyzed to see what made them different from each other. In the following chart, one can see both the names of

Hermosillo 10 the analyzed songs as well as the results:

Hermosillo 11

The Results

After reviewing all of this data I came up with the formulas for both Golden Age of Latin

Rock songs as well as for New Latin Rock songs. The results for Golden Age of Latin rock songs were the following:

1. 4:14 min for total length.

2. The first chorus appears in the 1st minute of the song, and the second chorus appears in

minute 2 of the song.

3. The average amount of chords is 5 per song.

4. 126 BPM.

5. 3 emotional peaks per song.

6. Climax being the last peak.

7. Average key is D major or B minor.

8. Average topic is unfulfilled love.

9. Average instrumentation was , drums, bass, voice, and pads.

10. Average form is Intro-Verse-PreChorus-Chorus-Verse-PreChorus-Chorus-Solo-Chorus-

Outro

11. Harmonic Areas: Verse = I, Pre-Chorus = ii or IV, and Chorus = I

12. Double chorus is always the last chorus

The same observations were done for the New Latin Rock songs, and the results were the following:

1. 3:42 min for total length.

Hermosillo 12

2. The first chorus appears around the 1st minute of the song, and the second chorus appears

in minute 2 of the song.

3. The average amount of chords is 5 per song.

4. 123 BPM tempo.

5. 3 emotional peaks per song.

6. Climax being the last peak.

7. Average key is D major or B minor.

8. Average topic is unfulfilled love.

9. Average instrumentation was electric guitar, drums, bass, voice, and pads.

10. Average form is Intro-Verse-PreChorus-Chorus-Verse-PreChorus-Chorus-Solo-Chorus-

Outro

11. Harmonic Areas: Verse = I, Pre-Chorus = ii or IV, and Chorus = I

12. Double chorus is always the last chorus

So, the form was very similar, but some of the aesthetics changed. These are the formulas for writing Latin rock songs, so they were used at the time of writing.

Hermosillo 13

Production

Once I had the formulas found above, I was ready to start writing using the formula as limitations for songwriting. I started doing so in the style of Golden Age Latin Rock, and all of a sudden it started to become very easy to come up with songs that sounded in the style. The limitations made it faster for me to come up with results that sounded like music in that style, they also gave me a basis for songwriting altogether. So, I started writing until I came up with a song that I liked enough, and that reflected many of the aesthetics of this style of music. I called it “A la Deriva” and it follows the formula that I found after analyzing all the songs previously mentioned.

I proceeded to make an arrangement of this song in the style of Golden Age of Latin

Rock, and I recorded it with a full band. The result was a song that sounds a lot like the music from that period of time. It has a standard drum rock beat, it speaks of unfulfilled love and freedom, it has overdriven guitars, and it follows the elements of the formula.

I then took the same song and arranged it using the formula for New Latin Rock. I rehearsed it, and recorded it. The result was, of course, a song that sounds a lot like New Latin

Rock. It is slower, it used more pads, the chorus is way more dramatic, and the harmonies are more complex. I was quite pleased with the results of these two. Recording these two versions was a great exercise for arranging, coordinating rehearsals and recordings sessions, tracking, and mixing.

The third and last version is an innovation within the style of Latin Rock. For this one, I wanted to follow contemporary tendencies of Rock that use slower beats from Dubstep, and I also wanted to replace the standard guitar solo with a drop like the ones found in Electronic

Dance Music. More specifically, I wanted a Trap drop. In order to write something like this, I

Hermosillo 14 planned the arrangement with the MTI student Eugenio Moleiro. We agreed to turn this version into a collaboration. Eugenio ended up producing the song for me following some ideas I gave him. The result is a successful combination of Latin Rock, Dubstep, and Trap.

Hermosillo 15

Focus Group

So, now I had three different versions of the same song. For the purpose of this research I have called them Version 1 = Golden Age Latin Rock version, Version 2 = New Latin Rock

Version, and Version 3 = Personal Version. They were all Latin Rock songs, and now the idea was to figure out which of them would have a greater impact in the listener. In order to find this out, I put together a Focus group in which I asked questions to the participants, and I observed them in order to see how they reacted to each version of the song.

The participants were chosen within the target market of my songs. That would be both male and female from 18 to 30 years old. All of them are Spanish speakers or live in a Spanish- speaking country.

Following the focus group guidelines by Eliot & Associates (Eliot 2005), the questions were divided into three sections: Engagement questions, exploration questions, and exit questions.

Engagement questions were given before playing the songs. They were the following:

What is your favorite music style?

What makes you feel connected to a song?

Then, the exploration questions were given after a representative sample of every song version was played. The order in which the songs were played was Version 1, Version 2, and

Version 3. The questions given to the participants after they heard the songs were the following:

Which song did you feel the most connected with?

Which song was your favorite, and why?

How did your favorite song made you feel? Name specific feelings if possible.

What did you like about your favorite song?

Afterwards one exist question was asked:

Hermosillo 16

What makes you listen to a song more than once?

The results of these questions were compared to the visual analysis of the participants while the songs were being played. Observing the participants gives very valuable information.

Were they tapping their feel? Were they making faces? Did it seem like they were enjoying the songs? All of this information was compared to their answers in order to enhance the accuracy of the study done through this focus group.

The results were varying from what they wrote to what I observed when I played the songs for them. Most of the people in the focus group claimed that Version 2 was their favorite one. They claimed that the harmonies and music fit the lyrics better. They also said things like

“this version is the most honest one” and “it blended together pretty well.” However, some other people liked the first one too, and the third one had the most interesting results. Being this version a mixture of Dubstep and having a Trap Drop, I noticed a huge reaction on the audience.

The version truly had a big impression on them. While their body language indicated a very small impact in the first two versions, the third one made them move. One of the audience members even burst in a loud “whoo” when the drop entered towards the end.

It was obvious that the third version evoked greater emotions in the audience. The emotions were not positive in all of them, but they were emotions after all. While a person said that he felt “dirty” with the drop and that he really liked it, another person claimed that it was a very “grotesque” mixture of styles. So, people either really liked it or really disliked this. This is a very positive reaction, I believe. That is because evoking emotions in the audience should be the ultimate goal of an artists, and Version 3 definitely accomplished that.

This is why I believe that such version is the one with a greater chance for having commercial success. It is not only a definite innovation within the style of Latin Rock, but it

Hermosillo 17 certainly evoked emotions in the audience. The other two could also have success, but that depends on the market that these songs are aimed towards. The third version, I believe, is more likely to have success in an EDM market. On the other hand, the other two songs are more like to have success in a standard Latin Market.

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Conclusion

Before taking into consideration the results of the focus group, I must repeat that the goals for my Culminating Experience were to improve my songwriting and production skills. I can happily say that not only did I improve those two skills; I also gained others that I did not expect. I basically learned how to produce from the writing point to the mixing point. I wrote the music, I arranged it, I wrote very neat charts, I conducted successful rehearsals, I miked drum sets, I prepared the full recording session, and I engineered as I was performing my part. It was a very intensive exercise in very little time that certainly made me improve my production skills. I then had the opportunity to work in more depth in the mixing process with the help of other people, and I explored genres that I never thought I would be performing. This is specially true for the last version of the song in which I mixed Dubstep with Latin Rock, something that, as far as I know, had never been done before.

Moreover, I learned how to arrange a song in different ways, and how to do it in record time. I think that producing quality music in very little time will be a very useful tool when I am working in the industry. So, I strongly believe that I have accomplished my goals for this

Culminating Experience.

Also, I have created, in collaboration with Eugenio Moleiro, something that did not exist.

We innovated in this style of music, and the result is a song that evoked strong emotions on the audience members. That in itself is a huge success.

I believe that this process certainly made me enhance my production and songwriting skills.

Now I feel more confident to start producing. I know that I still have things to learn, but I can start producing now. This could certainly lead to an exiting career in which I combine my artistic skills with my technical ones. I am very exited to see what the future brings.

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Follow-ups

There are many things I could do with this work beyond graduation. One of them is to self-produce my first album. I think that I have a good basis for writing songs I can use for my first solo album. Also, I have the knowledge to make the arrangements, direct musicians into implementing my ideas and leaving space for their own, I can direct the engineer towards getting the sounds I want, and I can even communicate effectively with a mixing and mastering engineer for a result I would be happy with. So, I think I could self-produce an album.

I could also start producing other artists. I have enough skills to start doing it, and as I do it more and more I will get better at it. This could be an extra source of income for me in the future.

I could create a method book for songwriting and producing in specific styles. I believe that this method worked for me to do that, so I could write a book on how to do it. The same method could be applied to any style of music. So, I could even use this method if at some point I want to learn how to produce music in a specific style. I believe that it is in-depth enough that I could truly absorb the language of a style by following it. This should result in producing music that sounds in the style of the music that I am trying to create.

I could even use the knowledge acquired in this study to create a reality show. Such show could consist of producing bands of young artists in different ways and making them compete with each other. The votes would be left to the TV audience. The difference between this show and the classic talent competitions like American Idol is that this one would get in depth in the production aspects of the music.

Lastly, I could use the knowledge I have acquired about this style of music, and about its history and social influence to create a documentary. It would be a film that features both the

Hermosillo 20 historical part of these bands as well as the specific musical aspects of their songs. It would include a guide on how their music can be reproduced, just in the way that I have done it in this study.

Out of all of these, the one that I am the most exited about starting to do is producing myself and other artists. I truly enjoyed producing from the songwriting point to the mixing part. I love this kind of music, and it was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to improve my songwriting and my production skills through Latin Rock. I also believe that later experimentation and innovation within the style could certainly make it more popular than it is today both in Spain and Latin America. Having said that, I have songs to write.

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Bibliography

Hernandez, Deborah. Rockin' Las Américas the Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America.

Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004. 2.

Lechner, Ernesto. Rock En Español: The Latin Explosion. Chicago,

Illinois: Chicago Review Press, 2006. X.

Mora, Kiko. Rock around Spain: Historia, Industria, Escenas Y Medios De Comunicación.

Vol. 1. Alicante: Universidad De Alicante, 2013. 26.

Pareles, Jon. "Latin Rock Seeks a Global Moment." The New York Times, August 17, 2000,

Arts sec.

"Guidelines for Conducting a Fous Group." Reading, Eliot & Associates. January 1, 2005.