Multiculturalism and The Westside Sound in San Antonio, 1970s-1980s

The Westside Sound was a musical movement in San Antonio, Texas, dating back to the mid-1960's. In Ruben Molina's study of the national growth of the Chicano Soul genre, San Antonio was only one of many cities exploding with Chicano musical talent during the decades of the 1960s-1980s. Spearheaded by Sunny Ozuna & his two groups, the Sunglows and the Sunliners, and The Royal Jesters, the Westside Sound genre went through several transformations. From "English oldies" and doo-wop in the 1960's, to jazz-speckled soul music in the 1970s, which was directly inspired by Black musicians touring through San Antonio on the Chitlin Circuit, to the Chicano movement's immense impact on the genre at the end of the decade. This segment of the exhibit will focus specifically on the transition from the 1970s into the 1980s.