When the band Peace and Love began chanting, “We got the power!” at the first rock festival in Mexico in 1971, the government responded by banning rock.

Argentina’s Soda Stereo was the first all-hemispheric hitmakers, followed by Mexico’s Caifanes and Los Prisioneros from Pinochet’s Chile.

Mexico’s Café Tacvba fuses rock and folk traditions while Aterciopelados, rising with MTV Latin America, does the same with Colombian beats and sounds.