Refried Elvis provides a history of the development of rock n' roll music in Mexico from the 1950s into the 1970s, tracing its importance in youth culture and in the burgeoning countercultural movement of the late 1960s. Rock n' roll represented a sense of youth rebellion ("rebeldismo sin causa") when it was first introduced; this imported movement, symbolized by such idols as Elvis Presley and James Dean, challenged the engrained social order, the Mexican Revolutionary Family that demanded patriarchic order and the maintenance of buenas costumbres ('good upbringing'). The establishment sought to meet the challenge of rock rebeldismo with restrictions on content, but with little success. The transformation of rock n' roll into Mexican rocanrol stripped the medium of its offensiveness. Spanish-language rocanrol seemed to meet the musical needs of the youth without threatening the established social order.
But as the sixties progressed, an increasingly radicalized youth—influenced in part by the ideals of the countercultural la onda—found expression in the student demonstrations of 1968; this direct threat to the ruling order was savagely suppressed at Tlatelolco. With the crushing of their political and social efforts, many students then turned off and tuned out by joining the hippie movement. Influenced by foreign psychedelia, Mexican jipis sought to escape the oppressions inherent in modern life. Influenced by this movement, a new kind of Mexican rock developed known as La Onda Chicana. These rock groups sought to "align themselves with a global rock movement [and] disassociate themselves from Mexico's earlier ''constrained' rock successes…these youths sought to invent a musical and stylistic expression they could call their own" (12). This movement gave new strength to the Mexican rock music scene; although these new bands sang in English, they came to represent the dreams and disillusionment of Mexican youth. The movement culminated in a massive rock festival in 1971 that generated massive backlash from society. Official and social pressure forced rock into the barrios.
Zolov sought to demonstrate "how global marketing strategies intersected with state apparatuses and audiences to shape and contest the terrain of mass popular culture…rock music becomes our window into viewing the crisis of the Revolutionary Family" of attempting to maintain social order during a period of change and modernization (15). He showed how rock was influenced at every step by considerations of capitalistic corporations and the government. This focus on marketing reminds us that like every other product, "rock was a cultural commodity subject to the logic of capitalism, even while that logic was also shaped by local restraints and demands" (15).
Zolov easily establishes the importance of rock in the transformation of Mexican society, both as a symbol of modernity and youth as well as a cultural product that challenged the established social order. Refried Elvis is a massive piece of researched, backed by extensive notes and an impressive bibliography that demonstrates deep research in archival, print, and secondary sources. Zolov combines both scholarly accomplishment and readability in a work whose subject matter entices the reader.
There are but few weaknesses in Refried Elvis. The book is chronologically organized; topics seem to flow clearly from section to section and from chapter to chapter. Most material seems to be pertinent to his argument; the last chapter, on the influence (or lack thereof) of the United States Information Agency, seems kind of tacked on. The addition or subtraction of this chapter, it seems, would make little or no difference to either the narrative of the book or its thesis. Refried Elvis is a meaningful contribution to the historiography of Mexico by expanding historical understanding of a crucial period in world history through analysis of an unlikely but immensely enjoyable topic…rock music. ( )

¿Qué Onda? (What's UP?) I was shocked to see that Refried Elvis has no customer reviews on amazon.com, to date. Whenever I mention to a Mexican academic that I'm interested in music, or popular culture generally, this is the title they recommend -- partly, because it covers the generation in which they, and many of Mexico's most influential current thinkers, grew up. 'La Onda' was a multi-dimensional counterculture movement arising in the 1960's -- here, Zolov explores the (admittedly sometimes motley) history of Latin American rock music to provide a clear and far-ranging understanding of what the book jacket calls 'post- revolutionary' Mexico; more specifically the crucial, fascinating (though little-known to U.S. readers) era of the 1950s onward. Impeccable research, wonderfully readable, and the illustrations alone provide an entertaining mini-course in Mexican culture. ( )