Popular Music and the New Left in Italy during the 1970s

In his A History of Contemporary Italy, Paul Ginsborg analyses in a rich and varied way the forms of youth protest which emerged in Italy between 1968 and 1970. In that period, he argues, the wide range of political youth groups also led to an alternative political culture, with highs (he makes reference to the work of Dario Fo) and lows (‘the uncritical importation of drug culture and commercial rock music’). This chapter illustrates the rich cultural landscape of the late 1960s and 1970s in which the spread of rock music was not limited to its most commercial forms. Consideration is given to the way the counter-cultural youth landscape in Italy created new communities and experiences, which grew alongside those created by the extra-parliamentary left. These contained a promise of social and cultural innovation that ultimately faded as many young people, frightened by the times they were living in and anxious about the ongoing economic crisis, moved towards other, highly commercial, kinds of music and culture which seemed to offer more reassurance.