Soda Stereo were an Argentine rock band who are recognized as one of the most influential and important Latin American and Ibero-American bands of all time. They were a power trio formed in 1982 by lead singer-songwriter and guitarist Gustavo Cerati, bassist and backing vocalist Héctor "Zeta" Bosio, and drummer Charly Alberti at Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Soda Stereo were the first Latin rock group to achieve success throughout South and Central America. They helped popularize the Rock En Español, Ibero-American Rock, and Latin Rock genres to a mainstream audience. The band established what would become the template for many other popular Spanish-speaking rock music groups. Soda Stereo has topped the all time lists in much of Latin America and in their native Argentina, where they set landmarks in record sales and concert attendances. In theirs active career they sold over 7 million of albums only in Latin America and this number has continued to rise after the separation of the band. In 2002 Soda Stereo was awarded the Legend Prize by MTV Latin America, the first prize to be awarded of its kind.
Their career spanned from 1982–1997, followed by a short comeback tour in 2007-2008. Soda Stereo began as a new wave outfit influenced by The Police, The Specials, Television, The Cure, XTC, and other Argentine rock. Their music evolved toward a heavier alternative rock sound throughout the 90’s, eventually drawing influences from classic rock, grunge, progressive rock, shoegaze, and Britpop.
Four of their albums have been included in the list of Top 250 all time Latin rock: Canción Animal (Nº. 2), Comfort y Música Para Volar (Nº. 15), Signos (Nº. 40), Sueño Stereo (Nº 41), and two of their albums have been included in the Rolling Stone Argentina list, "Los 100 mejores discos del rock nacional" (The 100 best albums of national rock): Canción Animal (No. 9) and Signos (No. 25).
