Italian Music

Born out of the strains of melodrama, the melodic traditions of Italian song have seen many a change over the past forty years, starting with Domenico Modugno. This tradition has never lost its charm, confirmed by the fact that singers like Nilla Pizzi and Al Bano are still very popular abroad, essentially responsible for the success also of modern singers such as Eros Ramazzotti and Laura Pausini.
The explosion of rock 'n' roll influenced and altered Italian song from the outset: this was the time when wild young stars like Mina, Adriano Celentano, Rita Pavone and Gianni Morandi made their mark. However a truly original current in Italian song is the singer songwriter phenomenon. For Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco, Bruno Lauzi and Sergio Endrigo, songs could express a world of inner feelings that was artistically autonomous; also the songs of Fabrizio De Andrè, while influenced by the music of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, reflect a tendency towards a world of intimate thought; Roberto Vecchioni explored individual inner feelings by telling tales of Milan and its private emotions; the music of Lucio Battisti for the first time inventively blended the characteristics of American rhythm 'n' blues with the Italian melodic style, using simple yet dramatic language. Other major names in Italian music are Claudio Baglioni, Antonello Venditti, poets and ballad singer-songwriters such as Francesco De Gregori and Francesco Guccini and rock artists such as Vasco Rossi, Ligabue, Zucchero. The story of Lucio Dalla from Bologna is quite unique: he began his career as a player in a jazz band and shrewdly proceeded to develop his own individual style of work which now includes even theatre musical scores. There has also been a revival of vocal romantic singing which reached its height with stars such as Pavarotti and Bocelli, following the outstanding worldwide success of the song Caruso, by Lucio Dalla.
Italian light music comprises excellent singers and players whose style models are jazz-oriented, such as the piano player Paolo Conte, or inspired by the blues, as in the guitar music of Pino Daniele, or even based on ancient traditional music and folk songs, best seen in the violin music of Angelo Branduardi. Singer-songwriting has today embarked into new musical territory with figures of great talent and communicability such as Jovanotti.

Artisti
Alex Britti, Alexia, Andrea Bocelli, Biagio Antonacci, Carmen Consoli, Edoardo Bennato, Eros Ramazzotti, Gianna Nannini, Irene Grandi, Laura Pausini, Mango, Marco Masini, Max Pezzali, Gianni Morandi, Paola e Chiara, Paolo Meneguzzi, Pino Daniele, Pooh, Raf, Renato Zero, Tiziano Ferro, Umberto Tozzi, Vasco Rossi, Zucchero