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Italian Music
Born out of the strains of melodrama, the melodic
traditions of Italian song have seen many a change over the
past forty years, starting with Domenico Modugno. This
tradition has never lost its charm, confirmed by the fact
that singers like Nilla Pizzi and Al Bano are
still very popular abroad, essentially responsible for the
success also of modern singers such as Eros Ramazzotti
and Laura Pausini.
The explosion of rock ‘n’ roll influenced
and altered Italian song from the outset: this was the time
when wild young stars like Mina, Adriano Celentano,
Rita Pavone and Gianni Morandi made their mark.
However a truly original current in Italian song is the singer
songwriter phenomenon. For Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco,
Bruno Lauzi and Sergio Endrigo, songs could
express a world of inner feelings that was artistically autonomous;
also the songs of Fabrizio De Andrè, while influenced
by the music of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, reflect a tendency
towards a world of intimate thought; Roberto Vecchioni
explored individual inner feelings by telling tales of Milan
and its private emotions; the music of Lucio Battisti
for the first time inventively blended the characteristics
of American rhythm ‘n’ blues with the Italian melodic
style, using simple yet dramatic language. Other major names
in Italian music are Claudio Baglioni, Antonello
Venditti, poets and ballad singer-songwriters such as
Francesco De Gregori and Francesco Guccini and
rock artists such as Vasco Rossi, Ligabue, Zucchero.
The story of Lucio Dalla from Bologna is quite unique:
he began his career as a player in a jazz band and shrewdly
proceeded to develop his own individual style of work which
now includes even theatre musical scores. There has also been
a revival of vocal romantic singing which reached its height
with stars such as Pavarotti and Bocelli, following
the outstanding worldwide success of the song Caruso,
by Lucio Dalla.
Italian light music comprises excellent singers
and players whose style models are jazz-oriented, such as
the piano player Paolo Conte, or inspired by the blues,
as in the guitar music of Pino Daniele, or even based
on ancient traditional music and folk songs, best seen in
the violin music of Angelo Branduardi. Singer-songwriting
has today embarked into new musical territory with figures
of great talent and communicability such as Jovanotti.
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