Mariel's journey: Sui Generis and intergenerational tensions around sexual morality in the early seventies

The emergence of the band Sui Generis and the release of their album Vida (1972) was a social turning point for many women who were, as of that point, able to join the Argentine rock scene as part of the audience. In this first album, topics such as love, sexuality and masculinity were explored in an innovative and disruptive way. Using an approach based on the importance of the generic performative effects of music, the following paper will try to understand this phenomenon based on an analysis of the song “Mariel y el capitán”. The song humorously addresses intergenerational tensions concerning sexual morality that existed during that time, and proposes an “us” and a “them” that enable the articulation of an identity among female listeners. Additionally, we will see how, in the second decade of the 21st century, and in the context of the recent sanctioning of the Equal Marriage Law (2010), the meaning of the song has been updated due to rumors about how it was written.