Did Che hate/ban rock music?

[Uppercut]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but I don't see any related topics in this forum. I did a search for "Che Guevara rock music" and all that came up are right-wing anti-communist websites describing the "insanity" of the man. At the same time, I haven't found any websites that debunk this theory. Is there anyone that has any detailed information on the claim that Che hated and/or banned rock music in Cuba?

[Die Rote Fahne]

'After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on jazz and rock & roll, which he saw as "imperialist music"' - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_music

http://reason.tv/video/show/622.html

**Note**

Wikipedia is not to be trusted 100%.

[Burn A Flag]

'After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on jazz and rock & roll, which he saw as "imperialist music"' - Wikipedia



I think that quote is pretty biased in its self. "Communist dictatorship". :laugh:

[Die Rote Fahne]

I think that quote is pretty biased in its self. "Communist dictatorship". :laugh:

Which is part of my reasoning for the "**Note**" at the bottom :lol:

[Wanted Man]

'After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on jazz and rock & roll, which he saw as "imperialist music"' - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_music

http://reason.tv/video/show/622.html

**Note**

Wikipedia is not to be trusted 100%.

Well, at least you already posted the source that Wikipedia gave for this claim. That's always a good thing to look at. As we can see, the claim comes from a libertarian think-tank. I believe the only other source for this suggestion is that gusano nutter Humberto Fontova, who claimed that Che shot a teenager for listening to rock music. Again, this was only reported by obscure libertarian blogs.

People sometimes say that it's somehow "wrong" to attack the source, but I don't see how that's the case at all. As anyone can tell you, there is a lot of information on the internet, unfortunately, 90% of it is junk. Wikipedia is no exception, no matter how often people link to the report that it is slightly more accurate than the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Who cares about that, anyway? As if encyclopaedias contain the ultimate truth. Encyclopaedias summarise knowledge, so an encyclopaedia article does not automatically settle a discussion. Especially not Wikipedia. It may be more accurate than Britannica on average, but that does not mean that every Wikipedia article is accurate by definition. Especially not articles about sensitive political and historical issues, which are not only written by experts, but (on Wikipedia) also by partisans who sometimes work 24/7 fighting edit wars to make sure their libertarian blog is cited favourably. This may very well be the case with the article about Che and music censorship.

Sorry for this semi-off-topic rant, but it's a general statement on using Wikipedia as a source that I've been wanting to make for a while. Sometimes, it seems as if people on Revleft are almost saying, "Well, here is a Wikipedia article that says [X]. I don't know if it's true, but perhaps other posters can do my research for me. Until then, I'll just accept what Wikipedia says, and if someone corrects me, perhaps I'll just ignore it."

[Pretty Flaco]

I'm sure that Che liked to jam out with the wonderfully sold out American rock bands in his free time.
I can imagine him now: making a single with nickelback.

[Robocommie]

Wikipedia is a good place to start, but Wanted Man is right. That's why I always try and look at the citations of claims made on Wikipedia - they cite them for a reason, it's best to use them.

As far as Che and banning rock music and all, well, maybe it's true, maybe it's not, they didn't allow certain types of Western music in the Soviet Union at this time period anyway. I can't say I'd be thrilled by the policy myself but it's not exactly the end of the world. It's not like the Soviets sent people who listened to rock music to the gulag - they just didn't give official state record contracts to musicians they didn't approve of. Vladimir Vysotsky is an excellent example of a Soviet-era rock musician who was hugely popular in Russia despite state disapproval.

[RadioRaheem84]

It probably also stems from the night club owners in Havana who were kicked out and began accusing Fidel of hating popular music. I remember watching the ultimate gusano flick; the Lost City, and it showed revolutionaries coming into Andy Garcia's night club and telling him that he could not use the saxophone because it was invented by a Belgian and therefore "imperialist". I mean, one would have to assume that the revolutionaries were looking to A.) Start a totalitarian government and B.) were childish and goofy enough to think that because a Belgian invented the Sax, that music should be banned.

Then again, if you subscribe to belief A then belief B soon follows.

[Robocommie]

A lot of those Havana nightclubs were pretty sleazy, anyhow. Mafia clubs for high income American tourists to get their rocks off doing whatever. A lot of the nightclub shutdowns after the Revolution had more to do with their association with gambling and prostitution than with "evil capitalist saxophone music." They want to make us out to be just as absurd as Nazis and their book burning.

[∞]

Lolwut

[GrungeGestapo]

Well he would have known what true "imperialist music" is if he heard the crap they put out today. Then again, if he survived it might have been different.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

"It is no secret that the Beatles and many other rock bands were banned in Cuba during the early years of the Revolution. Every western band with English lyrics in their repertoire was considered decadent, capitalist and a bad example for the formation of the proper values of the Cuban youth. And it also went for the fashion and subculture that came along. So, rock and roll, the Beatles, jeans, miniskirts, long hair, and English were locked in the same box. And the key thrown away." - http://www.cubanow.cult.cu/pages/articulo.php?sec=17&t=2&item=1063

[black magick hustla]

except jazz, which essentially started in whorehouses and seedy bars and was hella associated with promiscous sex and drugs

i dont get that