Culture

Rolling Stone puts Colombia’s Aterciopelados in top 10

by Joey O'Gorman

music

Colombia rock group Aterciopelados have been given a place in the Latin American top 10 best rock albums of all time by U.S. Rolling Stone magazine.

Rolling Stone’s best Latin albums

  1. Cafe Tacuba, “Re” (1994)
  2. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, “Fabulosos Calavera” (1997)
  3. Julieta Venegas, “Bueninvento” (2000)
  4. Soda Stereo, “Sueno Stereo” (1995)
  5. Babasonicos, “Infame” (2003)
  6. Aterciopelados, “Rio” (2008)
  7. Karnak, “Karknak” (1995)
  8. Manu Chao, “Clandestino” (1998)
  9. Os Mutantes, “Os Mutantes” (1968)
  10. Santana, “Abraxas” (1970)

The list however has generated a flurry of controversy with the editor of Rolling Stone Mexico coming out on air to disassociate his edition of the magazine with the list.

The list compiled by music commentator Ernesto Lechner was issued this week in a special Latin American edition of the magazine with Spanish headlines on the cover and a photo of rapper Pitbull on the front. “I think it was confusing …. everybody thought it was our edition,” said the disgruntled editor of the Mexican magazine Benjamin Salcedo Villareal.

Salcedo wrote a letter disassociating his magazine with the list after “I received a lot of calls asking if I agreed with this and I told them no… The first intention was to clarify it wasn’t us.” The Mexican said that his group wasn’t consulted at all in relation to the list “that was a surprize for me also,” he said.

“When we talk about the 10 greatest albums of all time I think there were a lot of misses,” said Salcedo who added, “I think the best way is to make our own list and say – look this is what we think the best Latin American albums are.”

The order of the U.S. list puts Bogota group Aterciopelados in sixth place with their 2008 album Rio, but with Salcedo already having made a list of 11 albums he thinks it has missed, it remains to be seen if the Colombians will stay on the revised Mexican list.