Chilean rock's centre of gravity is Los Prisioneros, the three-piece from working-class San Miguel in southern Santiago that took direct aim at the Pinochet military dictatorship (1973–1990). Jorge González (vocals/bass), Miguel Tapia (drums), and Claudio Narea (guitar) built simple new-wave / post-punk tracks around explicit class critique. Their 1986 song 'El Baile de los que Sobran' — 'The Dance of the Leftovers' — became the effective anthem of the 1988 'No' plebiscite that ended the dictatorship. Alongside them run Los Jaivas (Andean-progressive rock from 1963), Los Tres (Concepción's 1987 Latin-rock fusion), and Los Bunkers (Beatlesque 1999 successors).

Los Jaivas (formed Viña del Mar 1963) fused nueva canción and progressive rock; their 1972 'Todos Juntos' celebrated Allende-era optimism, and their 1981 Alturas de Macchu Picchu set Pablo Neruda's poem cycle to concept-album form. Los Prisioneros emerged in 1979 into the middle of the dictatorship and were formally banned from state radio for years. In the democratic 1990s, Los Tres (from Concepción, 1987) mixed bolero, cueca, and rock into a Latin-rock hybrid, and in the 2000s Los Bunkers took the Beatlesque British-pop position. Mon Laferte, Chilean but based in Mexico, is the current international breakout.

Focus on the lyrics of 'El Baile de los que Sobran' (1986): 'We were made to believe we were running the same race, starting at the same line / but we were only made to dance, the dance of the leftovers.' Jorge González's flat, cold vocal against a simple synth-and-drum-machine track is what made it land as a generational anthem. In Los Jaivas's 'Todos Juntos' the quena flute floats over a rock 4/4, defining the Andean-prog fusion. Mon Laferte's contemporary tracks show how Chilean rock now travels through Mexico.

Start with Los Prisioneros's 'El Baile de los que Sobran' (1986). Then Los Jaivas's 'Todos Juntos' (1972) and 'Sube a Nacer Conmigo Hermano' (1981) for the Andean-prog centre. Los Tres's 'Amor Violento' (1991) for the 1990s hybrid; Mon Laferte's 'Amárrame' (2016) for the international bridge to the 2020s.

Los Prisioneros were banned from Chile's state radio Radio Nacional throughout the dictatorship, yet became the anthem-writers of the 'No' campaign that ended it. Jorge González became a solo techno-adjacent artist after the band's split. Los Jaivas's drummer Gabriel Parra died in a car accident near Cochabamba, Bolivia in August 1988; his brother Claudio Parra held the band together in the years that followed. Their vocalist Gato Alquinta (Eduardo Alquinta) drowned at La Serena beach, Chile on 21 March 2003. The 'La alegría ya viene' campaign anthem of 1988's 'No' was actually a collective effort by many Chilean musicians, but Los Prisioneros's spiritual contribution was decisive.