The Roman scene is being reborn from its ashes
«We’re coming back», he wrote Franco126 below the post on Instagram with which Fulminacci announced the release of “Calcinacci”, his new album, last month. What it looks like Alone a simple comment, in reality it is something more: a mission statementalmost a manifesto. In that sentence, short but dense, there is the meaning of a moment: the Roman scene, the one that many had considered lost, fragmented, finished, seems to find a form, a shared identity. “Calcinacci” is more than a record: it is a collective photograph. Inside there are, in addition to Franco126 himself, the voices and signatures of Thomas Paradise, Calcutta (as author), All Phenomena. To production Golden Yearsreal name Pietro Paroletti, among the most launched producers of new Italian pop. Different names, autonomous trajectories, but a common root: Rome. That “we” evoked by Franco126 corresponds to a nucleus of artists who, between indie and post-indie, have redefined Italian pop songwriting in the last ten years. And now he resumes the scenes.
Even if contracts are signed in Milan, creativity remains in Rome
For years the Roman scene has been spoken of almost in the past tense, as if the era had closed and the cycle concluded. Today, however, the signs tell a different story. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together one has the feeling of being faced with a reconsolidation. Not programmatic, but spontaneous. Cross collaborations, recurring presences in the same records. More than a real scene, a network of relationships that becomes visible again. This is also confirmed by the institutional stages. At the end Sanremo Festivalto say, Rome was the most represented city of all. Artists such as Ditonellapiaga (third with “Che bother!”), Nayt, Fulminacci himself (Critics Award for “Stupida unfortunate”), Tommaso Paradiso, Leo Gassmann, Mara Sattei, Eddie Brock took to the stage at the Ariston. Among the “New proposals” there was Angelica Bovesecond place with “Mattone”, co-signed together with the Romans Matteo Alieno and Federico Nardelli, former right-hand man of Gazzelle. Alieno himself came close to Ariston: he was among the favorites of Area Sanremo with “No one knows how to stay in the world”, written with Fulminacci and now included in his new album “Stare al mondo”. Rome is a transversal presence, which crosses generations and styles, but which has a minimum common denominator: a certain way of writing, of telling stories, of playing, deeply Roman. Even if contracts are signed in Milan, creativity remains in the capital.
The paradox: there is a lack of “representative” events
Yet this vitality coexists with a paradox. Fulminacci himself underlined this: the scene exists, but it has no places. «The problem with our circuit is that we are not representative: there are no events that make it clear that the Roman scene is alive. When we see each other, we do it at home, in the living rooms. Unfortunately, there are no clubs that existed in the times of Niccolò Fabi, Daniele Silvestri, Max Gazzè, Alex Britti, the Locale di vicolo del Fico or the Big Mama. Yet the city is full of talent”, reflected the singer-songwriter. Despite being less visible and less structured, the scene is no less fertile than in the past: far from it. If we wanted to see the glass half full, we could say that this informal dimension fuels the creative freedom that characterizes it. It’s there too a cyclical dimension in this returnwhich takes place on the tenth anniversary of what is considered a watershed year: 2016 was the year in which Calcutta exploded as a phenomenon with the “Mainstream tour”, Tommaso Paradiso’s Thegiornalisti entered the Serie A of Italian pop with “Complemente sold out”, while at the same time records destined to mark an era were born such as “Polaroid” by Carl Brave and Franco126 and “Superbattito” by Gazzelle. Ten years later, there seems to be a new alignment of the stars. Except that today those protagonists are no longer emerging: they are central figures of the Italian music industry.
A center of mass attraction
The definitive transition is measured in the numbers and dimensions of the live shows. Achille Lauro fills the sports halls and looks to the stadiums (on June 10th he will be at the Olimpico in Rome, on the 15th at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, previews of the 2027 tour), thanks to the success of “Comuni mortals”. And then there is the case of Lastwhich claims its independence from any scene but which, paradoxically, represents one of the peaks of this same Roman energy. His concert on July 4th in Tor Vergata promises to go down in history: 250 thousand spectators expecteda record that will surpass that of Vasco Rossi in Modena Park. A monolith event, which certifies how Rome is not only a creative laboratory, but also a center of mass attraction.
