Well, it'd be hard to say but music plays a pretty important part in Uruguay's cultural background, probably only second to football. They also benefitted from a somewhat "milder" dictatorship compared to other countries (not by much though, but more stuff seemed to get through the cracks). Something that also should be said is that most of those "avant garde" bands came from the higher class neighbourhoods, where there was people who had access to import music and such. For instance, I remember that the last time I was over there, I was told that Alvacast were kinda dismissed by a good part of the rock underground because they were "too posh", and when it came to concerts, bands like Ácido were more popular.bigfootkit wrote: ↑Fri May 22, 2020 1:03 amIs there some kind of historical or cultural reason why Uruguay seems to have been quite well represented in hindsight with regard to heavier acts in the 70s? There were quite a few worthwile Uraguayian releases despite the country's comparatively small population. Not a lot, but they definitely punched above their weight for their size.Cochino wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 6:23 amcompared to the rest of the so called "western" world, we were quite behind as a continent.bigfootkit wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 1:32 am
I'm not sure if you're referring to Argentina specificallly or South America in general, (and it also depends on your definition of 'heavy' of course), but i think you're being just a wee bit harsh.
kids who went from AC/DC to Slayer in just a matter of months. The same kinda thing happened later in the European Eastern Bloc.
Also, when it comes to Metal (but I think this might apply to other genres as well) Uruguay benefitted from being close to Brazil and having quite an open commercial relation with them. Not only because of the direct influence, but also because the music industry was much more developed and would release much more stuff than any other country in South America. If you wanted to listen to anything more extreme than Megadeth back then, your most affordable option was trying to get Brazilian releases. Even today, when you got to any record market in Montevideo, most of the stock is gonna be Brazilian prints, but here in Argentina they aren't that common. So, in a time when over here all you had were local bands like Riff and V8 and Iron Maiden and Metallica from abroad, in Uruguay you had easier access to stuff like Kreator or Sepultura, thanks to the releases by Cogumelo and other Brazilian labels. That's why you had stuff like Graf Spee and Angkor Vat when in Argentina, which had a much bigger scene, everyone was still trying to be Metallica and maybe Slayer.