By the end of 1983, Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship had been supplanted, thanks to democratic elections, and artists, journalists, and other “free thinkers” were no longer automatic targets. Musicians responded to the newfound freedom with an unprecedented cultural flowering: they called it “La Ola Argentina”—the Argentinean wave—and it swept over not only the country but the continent, and Spain too. Top of the list were rock bands like Soda Stereo, led by the magnetic Gustavo Cerati, with his liquid voice and post-punk edge, and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, whose irreverent, mongrel songs shuddered with barely repressed energy. Other groups, like Los Auténticos Decadentes, Bersuit Vergarabat and La Mosca Tsé-Tsé, followed suit, mingling rock, ska and cumbia with a hefty dose of cheek. The wave rolled into the ‘90s, when bands like Babasónicos explored a seductive New Wave, while the country’s greatest musicians, including Charly Garcia, Andrés Calamaro and Fito Páez, did some of their best work.