The five nominated works for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album at the 2024 GRAMMYs underscore how incredibly pluralistic the genre has become.
Recorded live on tape with a cadre of virtuoso players, Mexican songstress Natalia Lafourcade’s De Todas las Flores explores grief, impressionism and the healing power of love. Motivated by a deep marital crisis, Vida Cotidiana by Colombia’s Juanes is a middle-aged rocker’s message of hope — and it grooves like crazy. A collage of alternative sonics hand-crafted at his Puerto Rico home studio, MARTÍNEZ finds former Calle 13 founder Cabra delving into trance-inducing electro and slick Afrobeats. A cool, sophisticated affair, Diamante Eléctrico’s seventh album Leche de Tigre fuses Colombian rock with nocturnal vibes and cosmopolitan funk. In Argentina, Fito Páez lovingly reinvented his 1992 masterpiece El Amor Después del Amor on EADDA9223, populated by a gallery of iconic guest stars.
If the nominees at the 66th GRAMMY Awards are any indication, Latin rock and alternative are more than a sound. They signify a point of view, a credo, a way of doing things that spans countries.
With that in mind, GRAMMY.com organized a roundtable with this year’s nominees, who discussed their influences, the current state of the multifarious genre, and the dreams of future albums that keep their creative fires burning.
Is rock 'n'roll eternal? Will its mystique continue to influence musicians for generations to come?
Natalia Lafourcade: It is eternal, yes. Rock is like life itself. It evolves and transforms in language and form — its tempests, energy and meaning. I would never have imagined my album being nominated in this category. But then I think about the idiosyncrasies of rock — a style spawned from broken places, the crevice where a flower can blossom and it makes sense. I cherish the fact that rock can encompass so many different possibilities of singing about emotion.
Cabra: I understand rock’n’roll as an agent of change and attitude is already dead. In my work, I like using musical references from the past as I create in the present mode.
Juanes: Rock will be eternal to me for as long as I live. In my own universe, rock was the channel that allowed me to transform as a person and I find in it a very powerful energy. I hope future generations will learn to play instruments, form their own bands and write songs — even with the current avalanche of technology and AI.
Fito Páez: Rock is much more than just a genre. It represents an open minded, eccentric cultural reality that fears nothing and transcends the music itself.
Juan Galeano (vocalist and bassist, Diamante Eléctrico): Rock has evolved, just like music has. It will live on as long as it preserves its avant-garde qualities and continues to challenge the establishment.
Who were the rock artists who first inspired you?
Juanes: Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. Heavier stuff too: Slayer, Sepultura. Even Venom. [Laughs.] That was my path during the ‘80s here in Medellín. Before I discovered rock, the sounds of Latin American popular music that I heard during childhood defined my path as a musician as well.
Lafourcade: The works of women like Julieta Venegas, Joni Mitchell, Björk, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey and Erykah Badu, among many others. All of them acted as anchors on my artistic path. They offered guidance and illumination.
Páez: I was influenced by artists outside the confines of rock — people who played all kinds of music, like Charly García and Luis Alberto Spinetta. Is [Brazilian MPB icon] Chico Buarque rock? Sort of. You could say he’s part of the rock culture, much like [tango master] Astor Piazzolla was.
There’s something really cool about the Alternative Field. It goes beyond the mainstream — there’s an extra serving of fun in it; it defies logic. An artist is truly alternative when he’s different from everyone else.
During the ‘70s, rock became exceedingly ambitious — incorporating elements of jazz and classical, folk and the avant-garde. I believe the same ethos informs the Latin Alternative today, a time when stylistic experimentation is accepted as the norm. Do you agree?
Cabra: I agree about 50 percent. I believe the experimental tendencies of the ‘70s and ‘80s signified the genre’s finest moment. Right now, there are artists who dare to innovate. At the same time, many defend the purity of various musical styles, and as a result, everything sounds the same.
Lafourcade: Rock will always be linked to that utmost freedom of expression. It’s connected to the soul, and it’s deeply spiritual. There is no strategy in it. It’s about seeking the disruptive, the unexpected — that which will surprise and shake us up. It allows you to scream, weep and laugh — to be silent following heartbreaking chaos.
Galeano: Something that we really enjoy about the last few years is the increasing blurring of genre boundaries. We’ve always believed that Diamante is much more than just a rock band. We borrow from different styles: funk, soul and cumbia; jazz and classical; Black music in general, and, of course, rock 'n' roll. I love that the younger generations don’t listen to any specific genres anymore — just good songs.
Are reggaetón and urbano the new rock? Could they coexist with the works of Soda Stereo or Café Tacvba?
Páez: No, they’re not. Clearly not. I’m writing a lengthy essay on the current state of the music scene. I think it will generate an interesting debate.
Juanes: I notice in artists like Bad Bunny the same kind of rebellious spirit and desire to provoke that was present in rock. That said, I think music will continue to evolve. It can never stagnate.
Cabra: Rock is a feeling, a lifestyle. That is why I believe it is dead.
Within a rock context, is there a fusion or experiment that you have yet to attempt? Is there a treasured album percolating in your soul, waiting to emerge?
Lafourcade: I’d love to return to the electric guitar at one point, and explore beyond the familiar limits. To navigate alternate possibilities that can continue to surprise me and make me feel like it’s the first time doing this.
Juanes: I’d like to record an album or EP focused on cumbias, slow and heavy. Haven’t found the time yet, but it’s something I would love to do at one point.
Páez: The music I desire the most is the one I have yet to record — that much is clear. The advantage of music over words is that the potential combinations are infinite. You just have to play, something I’ve been doing my entire life. Sometimes you have to push the new melodies away so that you don’t step on them when you get out of bed in the morning. At other times, you can’t find a single tune. It’s all about being adventurous, studying and researching — the kind of activities that are not in vogue at the moment.
Cabra: This year I’d love to make a record of complicated duets in different genres. Right now I’m dreaming of that album.
Galeano: We’d love to experiment with jazz, corridos tumbados, cumbia and Brazilian. Whenever we collaborate, we gravitate to artists who come from different worlds. I’d love to record a song with Carín León.
2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List