| 23rd February 2006 05:06 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Stones still reign in Argentina
The frenzy that greets the group just gets better with age
BY MEI-LONG HOPGOODS
special to The Miami Herald
Feb 23,2006
BUENOS AIRES -
In Argentina, the Rolling Stones are not 'only rock 'n' roll.''
The Stones, who opened a two-show stint here Tuesday before more than 50,000 delirious fans, are more than a band in this country. They are a way of life -- los Rolling or los Estones, the band whose fans are known as rolingas.
Their following here is as fervent among teenagers as with their grandparents -- even as the average age of band members hovers around 62. And while the Stone's free beach concert in Rio de Janeiro last week attracted more than one million, the fanaticism here is seen almost daily in the streets of Buenos Aires.
Argentina may be one of the few places in the world where Mick Jagger's 1970s mop hairdo continues to be among the hottest looks. The famous Rolling Stone tongue can be seen on T-shirts, wall graffiti, tattoos and banners in soccer games. And teenagers still wear the Converse-style cloth sneakers that Jagger wore years ago.
''Argentina is the jewel, the capital of Stones fans worldwide,'' said Marcelo Quatraro, 40, who started the locally based website Midnight Rambler.
The Stones furor here actually began in the 1980s, nearly two decades after the band's heyday in the mid-1960s and early-1970s.
ALL IN THE TIMING
The country was emerging from the dark cloud of a military dictatorship. The band's words of rebellion -- though not always understood -- appealed to the masses, and ''ended up converting into a way of life, behavior, dress and attitude for generations of adolescents of the middle and lower middle class,'' said Diego Lerer, an entertainment critic at Clarín, the country's largest newspaper.
''It's a subculture that transcends generation,'' Lerer said.
The almost mythical influence of the Rolling Stones and the punk Ramones spawned hundreds of Argentine rock groups, among them them the Callejeros, or the Street Ones, the rock group whose concert in late 2004 ended in the deaths of almost 200 fans after someone lit a flare in a crowded club.
While other Latin American countries today might favor Caribbean beats and hip-hop, Argentina, generally continues to be a place of rock, rhythm and blues, and sometimes cumbia. Iggy Pop's 1999 song, Miss Argentina, says his Argentine love ``likes the military and the Rolling Stones. Her little brother has a T-shirt from Ramones.''
Last year, the Stone's latest album, A Bigger Bang ranked 11th among 2005 album sales here. A Bossa Nova-style remake of Stones songs called Bossa n'Stones, also was a popular sell.
When the Stones first came to Argentina in 1995, fans cried and embraced and could not believe their heroes were here. The group also played here in 1998 to sold-out crowds.
Perhaps the most striking part of the Stones fever is that it continues to represent the dissatisfaction of even teenagers, while the fan base in the United States tends to be dominated by baby boomers.
POPULAR WITH YOUTHS
Claudio Momenti, the owner of Lucky Seven Studio Tattoos in Buenos Aires, said the shop regularly gets requests to ink the famous Stones tongue or images from album covers into the arms and backs of clients, the faces of Mick and guitarist Keith Richards on chests. Rolling Stones tattoos are almost as popular as soccer team tattoos, he said, and the majority of the clients who want them are between ages 18 and 24.
''A lot of people, young people, still identify with the band,'' said Julian Bezek, 22, a student who went to the concert Tuesday and plans to go to the final show today. This week, the student, who like many caught the Stones fever from his mother, camped out in front of the Four Seasons Hotel where the Stones are staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of their arrivals and departures.
At the concert on Tuesday, fans -- who paid at least $50 a ticket, a fortune for many Argentine budgets -- rocked River Plate Stadium, screaming in ecstasy in response to Jagger's attempts at Spanish. Male fans of all ages danced shirtless, hairy-backed 60 year-olds alongside 16-year-olds who smelled of sweat and marijuana.
Argentine Stones fans, said Lerer, ``need their idols to leave here with the sensation that there are no others in the world like them, that venerate, know and love them as much. To understand this, you might be best off consulting a psychologist, rather than a sociologist.''
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 23rd February 2006 05:20 PM |
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| jb |
Aerosmith is huge in the Caribbean!!! |
| 23rd February 2006 05:22 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
jb wrote:
Aerosmith is huge in the Caribbean!!!
Aerosmith is HUGE everwhere!!!  |
| 23rd February 2006 05:23 PM |
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| jb |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Aerosmith is HUGE everwhere!!!
Bigger than the Stones...a way of life!!!!! Aerosmith rules!!!! |
| 23rd February 2006 05:27 PM |
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| glencar |
We should have all planned a trip to Argie. Those people would "get" us. |
| 24th February 2006 01:09 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
Yes Glencar...who knows..maybe there'd be some Argentine girls just dying to meet us!!! |
| 24th February 2006 01:17 PM |
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| Break The Spell |
They generally have really good taste in music, not only do they love the Stones but they like a lot of older hard rock / metal bands I like as well. |
| 24th February 2006 01:36 PM |
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| rocker |
Aerosmith is HUGE everwhere!!!
... except in Steven Tyler's pants |
| 24th February 2006 01:43 PM |
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| Madafaka |
We love Stones like we loved Ramones. |
| 24th February 2006 11:49 PM |
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| Soldatti |
A great article, thanks for posting it. |
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