The Cold War and Musical Convergence in Uruguay

Abstract

This paper explores how the Cold War directly and indirectly shaped the terrain on which popular music evolved in Uruguay during the period of authoritarianism that stretched from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Four moments in the evolution of two distinct musical movements, one associa-ted with protest, the other with rock, reveal the intersection of politics and culture in the world of popular music. When Cold War driven repression supersedes aesthetic divisions between musicians, a new movement arises which brings together both tendencies in order to resist authoritarianism “between the lines.”