Nueva Trova

At the end of the 60´s, some young authors resorted to guitar compositions to praise love,   their country daily life and life in general. Already in those first songs, in those texts --whether personal or epic, philosophical or colloquial, but always highly lyrical--, it was obvious that something new was taking place in Cuban music, especially concerning the song.  
At that time, and since the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, deep social transformations were continously taking place in the Island; Cubans were facing a new life and all that had a deep impact on artistic creation. The Nueva Trova movement emerged from these transformations, not only in its content, but also in its aesthetic nature and stances adopted by artists in society.  
In the second half of the 60´s, some of the dancing genres of popular music, that since the 20´s   had been very popular, started to decline. Youngsters, in general, were fascinated by the rock phenomenon, thus considering the old son and cha-cha-chá singers and orchestras out of fashion.
This situation did not spare the songs realm. The bolero also declined and many of its interpreters began to sing "international" songs for the sake of a very doubtful modernity.   These songs, which arrived in our country in large numbers, were generally "constructed" on simple musical patterns - so as to 'hit' the listener - and had really awful texts. Many Cuban authors also began composing under these patterns with the support of media promotion.
The first songs of the Nueva Trova , meant a total break. From Mis 22 años , by Pablo Milanés to the first songs by Silvio Rodríguez, different elements and the evident attempt by the authors showed when they hightened the artistic level of songs in front of other songs -- mainly foreign -- prevailing in the country.  
We are particularly referring to the work of the Cuban youngest authors and musicians at that time, because for example, even though the "feeling" representatives were still producing excellent songs, they did not constitute the prevailing fashion among Cuban youth. The Nueva Trova is based on a fundamental instrument in the Cuban music: the guitar and it was a movement whose main protagonist was the singer-composer, the so-called cantautor . The guitar, the lyrism of the texts, the rejection to any "commercial" form of creativity, as well as the praising of the mother country, link the Nueva Trova to the Cuban troubadour tradition which started at the end of the 19th century and continued through the 40´s with the ' filin '   movement.