The History of Rock in Latin America
[Netflix-2020]
Tracing the roots of rock and roll in the ñ world is a topic that’s important to me, so within a day of its December 16th release date I ended up binge-watching this entire six episode documentary mini series. Noted Argentinean musician/producer Gustavo Santaolalla is among the series' executive producers, so I was expecting something solid despite my initial reservations with Santaolalla perhaps tilting the story too much on the side of his homeland, an assumption which I put aside early on as I let the story unfold. Unfortunately, not only was the trepidation from my gut instinct warranted but it went a bit further than I had expected.
In a nutshell: certain aspects of the story are over-emphasized while other equally or even more pertinent elements were glossed over or left out altogether; important artists are represented by lesser songs from their catalogs (for instance: are “Persiana Americana”, “Ingrata”, “La Negra Tomasa” the songs that best capture the greatness of Soda Stereo, Café Tacuba and Caifanes, respectively?); despite its Argentine slant the series gives relatively little airtime to a giant like Luis Alberto Spinetta; and the exclusion of the Caribbean's rockers, including those from Venezuela (Sentimiento Muerto, Desorden Publico) and top, latter day Mexican acts like Jumbo and Zurdok while giving airtime to unknowns from Uruguay and rappers Calle 13 is a bit much, to say the least.
In the end, Break it All is entertaining and well-made but unnecessarily falls short where it should’ve soared. And that they had 6 hours to properly tell the story but couldn’t/didn’t is the most disappointing part of all.
