A Soda to the Hall of Fame

For quite some months, a group of enthusiastic fans of Argentinean band Soda Stereo have been promoting the nomination of the act to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The band, led by the late Gustavo Cerati, along with Zeta Bosio and Charly Alberti, was one of the most influential in Latin America and some other parts of the world. Founded in the aftermath of Argentina’s dictatorship, Soda influenced many other bands in the years to come.

The first band to tour the whole continent, Soda achieved massive success — being compared to the Beatles of Latin America. However, in musical terms Los Shakers of Uruguay are deserving of that distinction, or even another Argentinean, Luis Alberto Spinetta, but that’s another story. Nevertheless, in terms of popularity and fanaticism, Soda was a phenomenon similar to Beatlemania, in fact named Sodamania.

Songs like “Signos,” “Persiana Americana” and “De Música Ligera” were heard every single day on Latin American radio stations and, eventually, the videos could be seen on the fledgling MTV Latin America.

At the beginning, the band had some issues, after Bosio and Alberti demanded an equal share of revenue from album and ticket sales after discovering Cerati was getting paid more for his talent. Although that problem was resolved, this was not the only hurdle to overcome. Cerati was accused of plagiarism as his guitar riffs bore some similarity to other songs, something we today could consider more as sampling.

After several hit albums and attempts to record in English, the band split years later, turning the front man and guitarist into a soloist. Cerati died in 2014 after a long coma following a stroke backstage. Many have lamented his loss all over the continent and beyond — even now. The remaining members revived the band last year after announcing a continental tour along with other singers that was canceled due to the coronavirus.

“Inducting Soda Stereo represents a final milestone that would recognize their positive contribution to the evolution of Rock and Roll in countries where this genre was not by any means the most popular, and proved that good Rock and Roll can also be massively successful in local languages,” Soda’s induction promoters had written in their webpage. “Their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be the ultimate achievement and recognition to put an honorable happy ending to an amazing history that has touched, and will keep touching for decades to come, millions of lives.”

The promoters had respectfully requested to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and all of its voting members, to induct Soda Stereo into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition to their successful trajectory, their positive influence in Latin American music, and their decisive impact that helped rock and roll reach massive success on an unexplored geographical territory at that time for this musical genre.

The effort has been endorsed by several former band collaborators, musicians and media veterans. Most significantly, the induction proposal has been supported by 70-year-old Puerto Rican producer Carlos Alomar, who spent close to three decades with David Bowie and worked for other acts like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, The Pretenders, Arcadia and Soda Stereo.

The proposal, which was first posted in September in the Go Petition website, has already reached close to 7,000 signatures all over the globe. One might mistakenly think the signees are from countries where Spanish is the first language, but no. Those signatures have been from people living in nations like Canada, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Japan, Israel, Finland, Norway, Indonesia, Bulgaria and Russia.

So far, the Hall of Fame has included some Latino bands or soloists like Ritchie Valens, Greg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone, Mexican Carlos Santana, Jerry García of Grateful Dead, Robert Trujillo of Metallica and Linda Ronstadt.

This year, the foundation decided to induct several acts that are not necessarily thought as rockers — LL Cool J, Jay-Z, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige. However, this time another Latino will make it to the Hall with Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha, the 50-year-old left-wing vocalist of Rage against the Machine.

Now, will Soda Stereo be the first truly Latin American act included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? The answer depends on foundation’s members and a lot of publicity. I truly believe that Soda’s nomination will lead other Latin American bands and singers receiving overdue recognition in the years to come.