Rolinga


The Rolingas are an Argentine urban tribe comprising fans of The Rolling Stones and Argentine bands influenced by the aforementioned band. The musical genre associated with such bands is known as "rock rolinga"

Origins

, with a style similar to that of The Rolling Stones, was the band that started the "rock rolinga" genre and "rolinga" urban tribe during the 1980s. The Rolling Stones had not influenced many Argentine rock bands before that point, and during the period there was a boom of pop music and glam rock. Their style soon became a success.
The "rolinga" urban tribe flourished between the mid-1990s after The Rolling Stones first played in Argentina in 1995, during the Voodoo Lounge Tour. The 1990s also saw an increased number of "rolinga" bands, such as Los Piojos, Viejas Locas, La 25, Los Gardelitos, Jóvenes Pordioseros, Los Guasones and Callejeros. Their lyrics slowly departed from the classic topics of rock and roll music and focused instead on localism and the customs of poor people; but not to the point of talking about idealistic struggles or purported revolutions.

Decline

During the early to mid 2000s, the "rolinga" urban tribe started to lose popularity at the advent of the cumbia villera genre and the subculture associated with it. The subculture's decline was rather slow until it was accelerated by the República Cromañón nightclub fire, which took place during a concert of Callejeros. Most of the leading bands broke up or changed their style, and new music styles became prominent. The political reactions to the República Cromañón nightclub fire included increased safety controls at nightclubs in Buenos Aires, which made the concerts of small bands very expensive. The subculture remained in the suburban areas of the Gran Buenos Aires urban area, especially the western zone, which are under the administration of the Buenos Aires Province and do not enforce the same controls as the city.